The New York Times just published 36 Hours in Puebla, Mexico by travel writer Freda Moon, who did a similar feature about Oaxaca a few months ago. Freda listed many of my favorite things to do, see, visit, shop for and eat. Puebla is unique. The city is a blend of Spanish colonial with Moorish-Moslem influences brought from Spain during the conquest. This is evident in both architecture and food. In the early 1900′s, the city became a favorite of German immigrants, one reason Volkswagen selected Puebla as a manufacturing and assembly site in the 1960′s.
Here are a few extra tidbits of WHAT TO DO AND SEE IN PUEBLA to supplement Freda’s list:
1. Pan de Zacatlan: Relleno de Queso. I stumbled upon this authentic European-style bakery walking from Talavera Uriarte to Talavera Celia and after a meditative moment at The Rosary Chapel in Santo Domingo Church.
The pastries here are amazing. Most are stuffed with sweetened queso fresco and taste like eating a cheesecake empañada. The shop sells fresh cheesecakes, cheese, the flan ranks a 9+ in my book, and it’s OMG for the Pan de Elote. I sampled just about everything and my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I had the empañada con queso for dinner during a rain-thunder-lightening storm so strong that I didn’t want to leave my comfortable hotel room. The rest of the goody bag came back to the U.S. with me. My son and I ate what was left for breakfast in Long Beach, California, the next day.
Pan de Zacatlan, 4 Oriente No. 402, Puebla, Pue., Mexico, tel (222) 246 5676, pandezacatlan@hotmail.com. Open every day, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday, Sundays and festivals, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
La Dueña, Pan de Zacatlan
Hungry for meat? Turn left out the door and a couple of doors down is a traditional restaurant serving lamb grilled on a spit with homemade pan Arabe (pita bread). These are all over town, a testimony to the influences of pre-Catholic Spain imported to Mexico.
2. Talavera Uriarte, 4 Poniente, No. 911. So much has been written about this venerable ceramics house that there’s not much left to say. Their customer service is impeccable, quality superb, and packing and shipping always reliable. Nothing ever arrives broken. Ask for Ana!
Maceta for my sister. Uriarte drilled a perfect drainage hole while I waited.
3. Talavera de las Americas, 7 Poniente 510 . Col. San Pedro Cholula, Cholula, Puebla. Tel. (222)261-0367. Their operation is a very small, family-owned business and they “bend over backwards” for the customer. It’s worth the visit to Cholula since the painting on the clay is very fine and detailed, the clay body is very light, and the work rivals it’s better known competitors at half the price! We have purchased here directly and enjoyed the experience.
4. Hotel Real Santander, 7 Oriente, No. 13, Puebla, two-blocks from the Zocalo. These are not rooms, they are spacious luxury suites with thick comforters and towels, and excellent beds, starting at 800 pesos a night in the off-season. Hotel Real Santander is a perfect, quiet hideaway between the Museo Amparo, the photography museum, and …
5. Across the street is La Quinta de San Antonio, my favorite antiques shop in Puebla. Contact owner Antonio Ramirex Priesca by email.
6. Churches on every corner, too numerous to list them all. When you get there, follow the city guide and map to explore. But, be certain to FIRST VISIT the Rosary Chapel at Santo Domingo Church. The gold and glitz dazzles.
Some of the sculpted heads here remind me of the interior carved wood and painted figures in the extraordinary indigenous church at Tonanzintla.
7. Talavera Celia. You can find this good quality DO4 Talavera ceramics at Celia’s Café. 5 Oriente 608, Centro Histórico Puebla, Puebla. C.P. 72000. Tel: 01 (222) 242 36 63, near the antiques district and weekend flea market.
A note on Talavera Ceramics: there are only 10 authorized DO4 makers of traditional talavera ceramics in Puebla, Mexico. More talavera is produced here than is Spain where the antique methods have almost died out. I list only the best quality talavera ceramics makers on this blog and you can be assured that they all produce DO4 highest quality. I would steer you away from buying from Talavera Armando — their customer service and shipping is poor and their products arrive broken.
On a personal note: I will usually book a flight in and out of Mexico City, take the ADO bus from Oaxaca to Puebla, spend a night or two, and capture the colonial charm that makes Puebla so special. Then, I will go to the Estrella Roja bus station on 4 Poniente to buy and board a luxury Saab Scania bus complete with WiFi heading to the Benito Juarez International Airport for my flight to the U.S.
Indigo Dye Workshop: It’s Called Shibori, Not Tie Dye
Actually, using resist dye technique using indigo to create patterns and designs on cotton is called shibori, tritik, amarra or plangi(depending upon country of origin). It’s not the hippie dippie 60′s tie dye that’s been reincarnated on beach blanket bingo T-shirts. It’s high fashion wearable art. Not long ago, I saw an Eileen Fisher designer label Made in Japan shibori design on a finely woven cotton scarf dyed with indigo at a Nordstrom selling for over $100USD. The technique is universal.
Norma's Indigo Dyed Shibori Napkins -- A Gift for Jacob and Michelle
As frequently as once per month, Eric Chavez Santiago teaches a hands-on indigo dye workshop for people of all ages at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. At a recent workshop, a mother, father and baby sister accompanied a six-year-old who made a fish design on a white cotton T-shirt. Dad was right by his side and the learning was a fun family adventure. Other participants included local artists, university design program students, and visiting tourists.
Indigo can be used to dye cotton, wool, alpaca, silk, linen and the fiber of the agave plant. Some women in Oaxaca villages even use indigo to dye their hair. Dyeing with indigo is all about chemistry. Cellulose fibers such linen, cotton and agave absorb less indigo to get an intense color than do protein fibers of silk and wool. Said another way, it takes less indigo to dye cotton than wool. That’s why, we are using 100% cotton for the workshop. Polyester blends just won’t work because indigo saturates only the surface of the fiber, not it’s core.
Look for Felted Fashion Oaxaca Style, coming in February 2013. It includes dyeing wool roving, silk, and cotton with natural materials and making your fabric into luxurious scarves, blouses, wraps. Contact me to get on the mailing list for complete course description. Instructors are clothing designer Jessica de Haas, Vancouver, B.C., and Eric Chavez Santiago, Oaxaca, Mexico. Limited to 8 participants.
The process is fairly simple. First, we rinse the white fabric (I dyed white, handwoven cotton napkins from the Amuzgo tribe) in clear water to soften it. Then, we squeeze out all the moisture and make our design.
1. To make the shibori design, you can make accordian folds and then tie this together with rubber bands or with string. You can drape cloth over marbles or beans, securing them with string or a rubber band. You can whirl the fabric and then tie it with string or rubber bands.
2. To make the tritik design, you use a needle and thread to create a very specific pattern, folding the cloth and then sewing through it.
3. It probably takes about an hour to make the design. Tie a lead string onto your fabric so you can easily fish it out of the water.
4. Dip the folded and/or sewn fabric into the dye pot for 20 minutes. Be careful to immerse it gently into the solution. Do not stir or disturb in any way. Pull the piece out of the dye pot with the lead string.
5. Hang on a line from the string until the fabric changes from green-yellow to blue, for 15-20 minutes.
6. Repeat two more times.
7. Remove the rubber bands or thread.
8. Rinse well in water. Then, dip in vinegar water for 5 minutes to set the dye, soften the fabric and remove any of the alkaline residual and garlicky odor
9. Let hang to dry.
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Posted in Clothing Design, Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Workshops and Retreats
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