Mexico Puts Its Children on a Diet

Mexico's children are among the world's fattest, with one in three children overweight or obese.  Last year the country's education and health officials attempted to limit what schools could sell at recess, but snack food companies fought back through the Ministry of the Economy.  Nevertheless, the new rules have removed 90 percent of fried foods and all soft drinks from elementary schools.  Mexican schools do not serve lunch.

Bayless Serves Mole to Mexican Prez at White House

IACP member and celebrity Chef Rick Bayless served as guest chef at the Obama White House’s second state dinner on May 19 honoring Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa and his wife, Margarita Zavala, as well as 200 other guests. Bayless created a menu of jicama with fruit, a green ceviche, wagyu beef with black mole, and a chocolate tart with goat cheese ice cream.


It was “the first time that real Mexican food will be served in the White House like this," said Bayless, author of several acclaimed cookbooks, host of the PBS TV show called “Mexico—One Plate at a Time,” and owner of Chicago’s fine dining Mexican restaurants, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, that are favorites of the Obama family.

Mexico is guest country at Madrid Fusion 2009

Notimex Photos/Juan Carlos Rojas

Mexico is the country of honor in the seventh edition of Madrid Fusión, a top culinary event that will run through Thursday in Spain.

Patricia Quintana, Mónica Patiño, Ricardo Muñoz, Enrique Olvera and Bricio Domínguez will have the task of representing the nation's cuisine - old and new - with 70 other top chefs from around the world who are doing the same for their countries.

"More than being at the vanguard, I'd like to say that we'll give a personal interpretation of Mexican food," Olvera told state-owned news agency Notimex.

Mexican Ambassador to Spain Jorge Zermeño said the chefs "would promote Mexican products, our gastronomy, our dishes - we know it's going to be a success."

What all five seem to share is an almost religious reverence for traditional Mexican food, but a willingness to incorporate new methods into its preparation to foster a sort of natural evolution.

Click here to read the complete article.

Mexico City contends as top food city

Stan Sesser from the Wall Street Journal writes up a fantastic story about Mexico's city food scene.

Design by Joe LeMonnier

"It was my first bite of food in Mexico City, a snack called esquites, consisting of kernels of corn boiled in water with strips of jalapeno peppers and an herb called epazote, then garnished with lime juice, chili salt, mayonnaise and grated cheese. "One of the best things I've ever eaten," I wrote in my notebook. The cost: 70 cents at a street market.

A couple days later, at the restaurant Pujol, I was dining on a soup of squash blossoms topped with coconut foam, and venison coated with a pungent seasoning of Yucatán oregano and dried burnt chilies and served on a purple-banana purée. Washed down with high-quality wines from, of all places, Mexico's Baja Peninsula, the meal was $50 for the fixed-price dinner plus wine, and worth every penny."

Click here for the complete article.

Mexico Guide Wins in London! The Best in the World, 2007

Add Mexico City to the list of great culinary capitals! Good Food in Mexico City: A Guide to Food Stalls, Fondas and Fine Dining, by IACP member Nicholas Gilman won in the guide category on April 13 in London at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. It took third place, competing with finalists from 10 other countries. 107 countries entered books in this awards contest. The guide is also available in French as La Bonne Bouffe â Mexico.

Back to the Future with Enrique Olvera

Leading Mexico City chef and restaurateur Enrique Olvera of Restaurante Pujol, has a rare talent for re-imagining traditional Mexican food, including delights mostly seen alongside streets and roadsides. His guides: the elements of flavor, texture, temperature, aroma, and color.

Together with Mexico's country coordinator Ruth Alegria, Olvera, 31, will show how to marry classic technique with an understanding of characteristic Mexican ingredientes to yield new and sublime results. His stunning re-interpretations -- drawing on his intimate knowledge of regional diversity -- are infusing new life to Mexico's cuisines.

Olvera graduated with honors from the Culinary Institue of America, Hyde Park in 1999, where he was awarded the Gold medal of the Societe Philantropique of New York; the M.K. Fisher Award for the best thesis of his generation and the Jacob Rosenthal Leadership Award.

Enrique Olvera and Ruth Alegria will present a cooking class entitled: "Mexican Cooking: Back to the Future", on Saturday April 15 at Kendall College in Chicago, IL, during our 29th IACP Annual Conference. The workshop has been sold out for a few weeks now.

The Global News blog was lucky to get a peek into the menu that will be presented. Those who signed up, are in for what looks like an exquisite selection of Mexican dishes, the 21st century style. Some of them are:
-Squash Blossom Capuccino- Coconut Milk foam and Nutmeg
-Esquites with Mayonnaise gelatine
-Striped Bass Ceviche, roasted Tomatoes
-Rack of Lamb with Chocolate crust, Black Beans and Mole sauce

In December of 2005 Enrique founded TEO (Taller Enrique Olvera), a creative workshop to promote gastronomical culture.

Help!! Research on Semitas

For the last year or so, I have been trying to track down the story of the Mexican bread known as semitas (or cemitas). My interest was sparked because it is widely asserted that on US-Mexico border semitas means semitic bread. There, it is said, its origin can be traced to the crypto-Jews who settled in the area in the seventeenth century fleeing the Spanish authorities.

The trail has led me to dictionaries, books, friends who are expert in the foods of North Africa, investigations in Mexican markets and on the web. I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that romantic as it is, the derivation of semitas from Semites (Jews) is false. Instead it seems more probable that it derives ultimately from the Greek word for seed (which also gave rise to the Spanish semilla or seed) and from there it passed to North Africa, Spain, and eventually the Americas.

Semitas, it seems, are the contemporary reminders of the fact that breads once sharply mapped on to social class. The rich ate fine white bread, the lower down the social scale you went the more of the seed was included until you reached semitas which were a coarse whole wheat roll.

Today, semitas are found all over Mexico and in many parts of Latin America. They are small, usually only slightly raised, may contain sugar, anise and nuts, or may have gone up the social scale to form the delicious white rolls (cemitas) of Puebla in Mexico.

If fellow IACP members have any information about semitas, I would really appreciate receiving it.

Rachel Laudan
visit Rachel´s website at www.rachellaudan.com or email her.


Guanajuato and Mexico City, Mexico

October events in Mexico

The 21st edition of Abastur, the largest restaurant/hotel show in the country, will take place from October 4 - 6 in Mexico City. At the same time the Gran Concurso Culinario Latinoamericano Azteca "Copa Azteca" will be held. The winner will go on to represent Mexico at the next competition to determine the Latin American entry at the Bocuse d’ Or 2007. This program is coordinated by the Vatel Club of Mexico. Go to www.abastur.com for more information.

The most exciting of all the gastronomic Ferias of Mexico City begins this week in the Milpa Alta delegación. The Feria Nacional del Mole starts Oct 1 and ends on Oct. 22. and centers on the town of San Pedro Actopan. This rural area winds its way south from Xochimilco and attracts about 400 thousand visitors in this month only. At the fair you can sample from an infinite variety of regional style moles (green,red,black,etc) but the specialty of San Pedro Actopan is the Almendrado or almond seasoned mole which boasts 26 ingredients. Among these are the chiles: Ancho, Pasilla, Mulato, and Moro which must be toasted and then ground separately. With as many varieties as nuts and spices the Actopan mole is characterized by a sweet and picante flavor, “que sabroso”. But a fair with just mole? Of course not -- you can buy mole to prepare yourself or sample at any of the 30 odd restaurant stands that line one area of the grounds as well as sample cheese, tamales, and an infinite number of beverages. Add to this the cultural activities, displays and entertainment and you could well spend the month!

From Oct. 3 - 12, historian Edmundo Escamilla and chef Yuri de Gotari will offer a cooking demonstration showing the culture, history and legends of the states of Tlaxcala, Campeche, Sonora, and Oaxaca. The venue will be in historic Coyoacan at the house of moviemaker and actor Emilio (El Indio) Fernandez known as the Casa Fuerte. The partners Escamilla and Gotari are renowned for combining diverse elements in order to better understand Mexican Cuisine. For further information on this and future courses go to La Bombilla. Tel. (52-55) 5211-3818.

Reported by:
Ruth Alegría
Mexico City

Xonocostle: IACP and Slow Food Mexican members meet

Xoconostle Mi Amor -Tuna Agria
With a slightly sour tang, xoconostle from the nahuatl language, is the oval fruit of a cactus . Found in the central region of Mexico its use varies from its addition in the famous Mole de Olla, stuffed with escamoles (black ant larvae), prepared in jams and jellies, refreshing “aguas”, flavoring pluque and as sweet dessert wine. In a land where everything has a use, this beautiful but spiny fruit has been used for mil-lennia. As part of Slow Foods commitment to preserving and supporting small arte-sanal growers our convivia was transported back in time to the Ex-Hacienda San Jose el Marquez located near the village of Santa Maria Amealco in the state Hi-dalgo.
Construction began in the 1600’s by Marques del Villar del Aguila on a land grant from the Spanish King Philip III on an estate of almost 114,000acres (46,000 hectares). In its long life it has served as monastery, home and military fortress but with the land reform and revolution ,the hacienda has been reduced to a scant 50 acres (about 20 hectares), half of which is planted with xoconostle.. With the Spanish conquest also began deforesta-tion, introduction of foreign plants and animals, scant rainfalls causing desertifica-tion, causing a crippling effect on the traditional farm economy of the region. The 3 acres of buildings are in various states of disrepair, note the roofless chapel, but still a plucky young couple, Yunuén Carrillo Quiroz and her husband Gabriel Cortés García, whose family has owned the land since the 1940’s, have dedicated themselves to preserving and reclaiming the land.

Yunuen and Carlos have placed their “Xoxoc” brand of products into the marketplace and now give employment to 20 workers as well as going out to other communities where they teach what they have learned. They graciously invited us to their home and prepared a traditional Hacienda fiesta for our group that included the famous Barbacoa de Hoyo of the state of Hidalgo. The recipe calls for a yearling lamb to be wrapped in “pencas de maguey” ,leaves of the maguey plant,with a large kettle to collect the resultant broth, buried in a pit over a fire that is then covered and left for several hours to slowly cook. This method of cooking more commonly known as Pib cooking harkens back to Mayan times. The meat and the resultant broth are fragant ,from the maguey leaves, and the meat incredibly ten-der and juicy. Below the menu for the day:

For information on Xoconostle and the products that are prepared go to www.xoxoco.com.
Or by e-mail gabrielcortes@xoxoco.com & yunuencarillio@xoxoco.com.

For further information on IACP activities in Mexico contact Vice coordina-tor for Mexico Ruth T. Alegria at princetoncooking@aol.com. Come join us!

Dia de las Ciruelas - Slow Food Laboratorio del Gusto

The invitation had come for the 51st Laboratorio del Gusto in Mexico City and I had quickly accepted. As an expatriate “foodie” the invitation program was irresistible. Picking plums and preparing recipes with Chef Olivier Lachevre, sipping organic Veracruzan coffee, followed by a Carne Asada luncheon prepared by our host Sergio Ynurrigarro in the gardens of the House of the Sun and Moon. All that was needed were directions and Sergio’s encouraging words “just keep driving until you see the Slow Food posters and then turn right”.

As we left the valley floor of the city and slowly drove up the mountainside on the Camino al Desierto de los Leones my friends and I anxiously scanned every corner for the non-existent street signs and realized it was the road markers we would need. Km. 30 was our destination and we were only at Km. 18 when the grainy hail and rain started to fall. It was Sergio with umbrella and hand signs that finally welcomed us. The cafe de olla was warm, sweet and dark a perfect antidote to the chill breezes of the overcast morning.

As our fellow foodie compatriots arrived, we were delighted by the tour of the orchards and specially the palapa where a 6 foot parilla ladened with scallions, tomatoes, chiles, and avocados were ready and waiting for Sergio to begin, but not until we gathered at the 2nd terrace meeting room/palapa did we begin with the fresh plums and their transformation into jam, jelly and the flavoring for plum wine infused with Mezcal.

Aromas of sweetened plums, sharp onions, coriander, grilling steak had our primal emotions stirring. As a group, we took the cobbled path to the grill and watched as the gnarled hands of an expert tortilla maker took the blue corn masa, formed, pressed and then quickly threw the tortilla on the grill to cook. Sharp pungent flavors, green and red chile salsas, the cooling unctuous flavor of guacamole, carne asada and the scent of mountain chill, culinary bliss !



Our Laboratorio del Gusto was ending but not the memories of taste of El Dia de las Ciruelas.

Ruth Alegría
Mexico

Traditional Mexican Cuisine in Alimentaria 2006

Mexico City, Mexico : During the second annual Gastronomic Congress (Congreso Mexicano De Gastronomia-Tendencias) held during Alimentaria 2006 Cristina Hernandez de Palacio (Cultura Culinaria, A.C.), a distinguished member of the culinary community gave a class on Traditional Mexican Cuisine. Her focus, a discussion on the diverse manners of produce and herbs used in the prehispanic kitchen. From the vegetables (corn, tomato, chiles, pumpkin, beans, amaranth,cacao, chayote, avocado, quelites, epazote, nopales, ), wild fruits, worms, insects, wild game (venison, iguana,rabbit, turkey, armadillo, duck,snakes), seafood (turtles, frogs, shrimp,salamander, tadpoles, fish from Atlantic and Pacific coasts) to the cooking techniques and utensils she also gave a social and religious overview of the importance of cuisine.

As a tasting she prepared a sauce called Paskal/ Pascale/Paxcal,mentioned by Fray Bernardino de Shagun in his History of New Spain, prepared with pumpkin seeds, turkey broth, chile guajillo, chile ancho and salt. A seemingly simple preparation where the toasted pumpkin seeds are simmered for 20 to 30 minutes in the broth and then ground with the chiles , it is returned to a low heat, stirred constantly until a thick rich consistency is reached. The complex flavors of the ingredients and slow simmers were an incredible taste for the audience.

An accomplished chef and an even more exciting lecturer she left her audience with an intense sense of having had a small glimpse into the complex and unusual world of Mexican cuisine.

We look forward to next year's Gastronomic Congress and invite you, our fellow culinarians, to join us in Mexico City for further cultural "tastes". For more information on Tendencias Alimentarias click here.

by Ruth Alegria
Mexico City, Mexico

From Mexico: Margarita Carrillo praised for her promotion of Mexican Cuisine

Chef, cooking teacher and entrepreneur Margarita Salinas de Carrillo was profiled by Mexico City's Buena Mesa section of the newspaper Reforma on Friday June 9. She was recognized for her work in promoting Mexican cuisine throughout the world especially in Japan and China and for the Unesco proposal to designate Mexican Cuisine as an Oral and Intangible Patrimony of the World. As a member of Slow Food Mexico, with Alicia D'Angeli, she has investigated and written about the regional cuisines of Oaxaca, Michoacan ,and Chihuahua amongst others. Along with giving cooking classes here in Mexico City she has also created Helados Finos where she manufactures artisinal style ice creams flavored with native fruits such as mamey, guanabana and the classic green lemon of Mexico. When she is not traveling she can be found directing her restaurant Don Emiliano in San Jose de los Cabos in Baja California and soon we hope her book Tamales and Atoles will be ready for publication. To end we also recognize her many efforts on the behalf of IACP as country coordinator for Mexico.

by Ruth Alegría
Mexico