Oaxaca Natural Dye Workshop, Day One: Prep to Make 32 Colors

For three days I am immersed in natural dyes with Elsa Sanchez Diaz who teaches our Oaxaca Natural Dye Workshops through Oaxaca Cultural Navigator. We make 32 different colors starting with a base of gray and white natural wool. The natural plant and vegetable materials we dye with include palo de brazil (Brazilwood), nogal (walnut), cochineal (the […]

Oaxaca Hand-crafted Condiments: Suculenta Food Gallery

You might walk by the unmarked building painted sky blue and not even notice what’s inside.  Down the street from Boulanc bakery on Av. Porfirio Diaz, closer to Morelos than Murguia, is Suculenta. The food gallery is an off-shoot of the bakery where hand-crafted jellies, jams, edible oils, cheeses, herbs and fresh wild mushrooms from […]

Higadito, Oaxaca Scrambled Egg Soup — Vegetarian Recipe

A traditional fiesta breakfast dish here in Oaxaca, Mexico is called Higadito — scrambled egg soup. It is always served at banquet breakfasts for weddings, baptisms, birthday parties and any other big family celebration. On Sundays, when I go to the Tlacolula Market and have lunch at Comedor Mary, it is a staple on the […]

Private Cooking Class Oaxaca: mmmmGood, Molotes and Memelas

How many different ways can corn be prepared? Here in Oaxaca, Mexico, the options are so numerous, I could perhaps count to a thousand. On Sunday, in honor of Carol’s XX birthday, David organized a private cooking class for five of us. The kitchen is miniscule. The results were huge. The most important ingredient was […]

Rosa and Abraham’s Wedding in Teotitlan del Valle: Let’s Party

It’s been a week since Abraham and Rosa got married. With this last and final post about the wedding, I get to relive the day. I hope you enjoy it. Chapter III: The Wedding Party   Weddings in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca can be grand affairs that include a sumptuous multi-course fiesta dinner complete with […]

Stopover Puebla: Taking a Break Between Mexico City and Oaxaca

Puebla, Mexico, has so much to offer that a two to four-day stopover going to or from Oaxaca to Mexico City is usually in my travel plans. I like to fly out of Mexico City back and forth to the USA (it’s cheaper) and usually plan a visit to this most original Spanish city in […]

Book Preview–Milpa: From Seed to Salsa, Oaxaca Food, Recipes, Sustainability

When I visited photographer Judith Cooper Haden in her Santa Fe home recently, she showed me the final proofs for Milpa: From Seed to Salsa, Ancient Ingredients for a Sustainable Future. The book explores the Mesoamerican way of growing, cooking and eating food. The photography is stunning! Four years in the making, the book is […]

Santa Fe, New Mexico Gala Supports Oaxaca Ceramic Arts

It was two days after the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market closed but the celebration continued.  Los Amigos de Arte Popular de Mexico hosted a gala fundraising dinner at a private home filled with folk art treasures within walking distance of the city’s historic center.   About forty people attended to support Innovando la Tradicion ceramics […]

Dinner with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at Casa Azul

Guadalupe Rivera Marin remembers the elaborate meals served at Casa Azul, home of her father Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.  Lupe lived with them for a few years and claims to have taught Frida how to cook. Evidently, Frida loved to entertain but didn’t take much to the preparation. I wouldn’t either if it required […]

Christmas Collage: Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca

Martha, Marianne, and Judy arrive from the city for dinner on December 23 and then we gather at the house of the eighth posada.  Earlier, I go to the local morning market and find a fish vendor from the coast.  We eat organic and fresh talapia, squash, potatoes, carrots, onions seasoned with kumquats, candied ginger, […]

Mexican Flag Nopal Cactus Salad or Nopal Ceviche Recipe

Here in southern Mexico nopal cactus is part of the landscape.  It is good to eat, too.  Very nutritious, high in vitamin C, experts say it has other health benefits like reducing cholesterol, controlling diabetes, and preventing hangovers. Plus, it’s that stunning visual treat of Green, White and Red, symbolic of Mexico and her flag. […]

Recipe: Venison Meatballs and Deer Hunting

What does this have to do with Oaxaca? Read on.  You’ll find out!  Those of us who live at Blue Heron Farm in Pittsboro, NC, have been plagued by an overpopulation of deer.  This fall, our community association invited our local Backyard Bow Pros to come in and thin the herd using the old-fashioned way of […]

Oaxaca Recipe: Norma’s Black Bean Soup

I’ve been trying to replicate this traditional black bean soup since I returned to North Carolina from Oaxaca last week.  I’ve made three batches and eaten them all.  Perfect for vegetarians.  If you are not a vegetarian, you can enrich the soup with leftover chicken or pork, sliced or cubed. Some people say Oaxaca’s best […]

Oaxaca Portrait Photography Workshop: Added Blessings

This is Day Six of our program! Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday was Saturday, a day of rest and reflection for the pueblo of Teotitlan del Valle.  There was only one five o’clock mass and no processions.  That meant we could leisurely edit the hundreds of photographs we had taken in the days before […]

Recipe: Making Authentic Mole Rojo in Teotitlan del Valle

  My Australian friend Tracey Ponting came back through Oaxaca this week on her way from San Cristobal de las Casas to Distrito Federal and on to England to visit her parents.  Tracey and I met on the bus to San Cris in January when we stayed at the same posada.  From there we traveled […]

King of Mezcals: El Cortijo’s Pechuga de Pollo

You be the judge!  Is Pechuga de Pollo (breast of the chicken) distilled by El Cortijo in Santiago Matatlan, Oaxaca, the best of the best?  At 1,500 pesos (that’s $118 USD at today’s 12.65 exchange rate) for a 750 ml bottle in fine Mexican restaurants and far more in the U.S.A. (so I’m told by my in-the-know brother-in-law), […]

Frida Kahlo Food Fest This Weekend at Tortilla Flats, Soquel, California

Mexican food at its finest! Tomorrow I’m flying to Santa Cruz, California to visit family.  My sister just sent me notice of a grand fiesta in her neighborhood and I intend to check it out and see if I can conjure up the recipes to post.  Maybe between swallows, I’ll be able to take a […]

Dinner at Restaurant Tierra Antigua, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca

Like a painting, I call it arte de comer.  Carina Santiago Bautista cooks from her heart.  For years, Cari prepared food and sold it daily at the village market for carry out.  Now, she has a brand-spanking-new kitchen in her new casita on Av. Juarez and operates the restaurant La Tierra Antigua.  I organize special […]

Oaxaca Cooking: Flavors of the Grandmothers

Written recipes for traditional Oaxaca cuisine are a recent phenomena.  As with most cultures that create art through food, the way of cooking is passed through the hearts, hands, and soul of women, generation to generation, a folk-tale. Everything is by hand and by memory, intuited.  Measurements are imprecise, to taste and to touch.  Add […]

Touring the Mercado de la Merced with Pilar Cabrera Arroyo

My first day in Oaxaca was thrilling and something I was looking forward to for quite some time! I walked from Las Bugambilias B&B to Pilar’s cooking class at Casa de los Milagros, operated by Pilar’s brother Rene. (Three beautiful rooms each with private bath @ $120USD each.)  Our group of seven included a couple […]

Huaxmole–Ancient Mexican Goat Stew

We are in Puebla where Mole Poblano rules and great cuisine is around most corners from the zocalo. For two nights running we gave eaten at El Mural de Los Poblanos. Hail to executive chef Lisett Galicia Solis who knows how to transform ingredients into sublime flavors.  I would go to Puebla for no other […]

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