Foodie Heaven: Oaxaca, Mexico

Falling in love with Oaxaca centers on food consumption, food ingredients, the visual, sensory excitement of food in its raw or cooked state, the preparation that goes into it, and of course the taste once a fork-full hits your salivary glands and begins its magic. From the street to the finest restaurants, food culture reigns in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Here are a few of my favorite food images from the past week.

     From Casa Oaxaca, we have Squash Blossom Soup with the local herb chipil, quesillo stuffed squash blossoms, and a blue corn tortilla drizzled with garlic oil, topped with queso fresco accompanied with fresh made salsa with red tomatoes and tomatillos.

Street vendors can be mobile carts on bicycles.  They sell everything from fresh fruit cups to aguas (fruit drinks like horchata and agua de sandia — watermelon juice), empañadas and quesadillas.

 An agua de sandia!

The food a La Zandunga continues to be delicious.  They moved from their corner location that used to be cater corner to La Biznaga and are right next door on Calle Garcia Virgil one block from Santo Domingo Church.  The mashed potatoes with either the stewed pork (left) or the roasted chicken is amazing. You can’t go wrong with either.  The space is up-tempo, Mexican-contempo with many more tables to accommodate the crowds since the New York Times travel section featured them in 36 Hours: Oaxaca, Mexico written by Freda Moon.

The daily special at Terra Nova on the Zocalo was a big plate of mixed fresh fruit (pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, papaya, mango), cottage cheese, and pineapple jello (they call this gelatina, which has 90% less sugar than our U.S. version, making it absolutely tasty.)

Below, this street vendor on a bicycle sells steamed tamales.  Occasionally, his wheel will come loose, and he’ll need to stop to fix it, which is how I was able to take this photo.  See Taste Oaxaca: Shop, Cook, Eat coming up in winter 2013.