1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (163 page)

As their name suggests, huevos rancheros (“ranch eggs”) were originally a hearty breakfast served to farmhands in rural Mexico, a simple, filling affair of eggs and spicy tomato salsa spooned over warm corn tortillas. The dish found its way north (probably along the Camino Real, the Spanish royal road linking Mexico City and western Louisiana that’s now called the Old San Antonio Road). Eventually it made its way to San Antonio, just 150 miles from the Mexican border and the birthplace of Tex-Mex cuisine. From there, huevos rancheros became a diner staple across North America, served in innumerable variations, often including refried pinto or, better yet, black beans, slices of avocado, melted cheese, and garlic chile sauce. The eggs might be scrambled, poached, or omelet-style, but the best by far are fried, with their bursting yolks smothering the whole saucy, spicy mix. It’s an exquisite mess, understandably considered by many to be ideal hangover fare, and inarguably a breakfast classic.

Where:
In San Antonio, TX
, El Mirador, tel 210-225-9444,
elmiradorrestaurant.com
; Mi Tierra Café, tel 210-225-1262,
mitierracafe.com
;
in Santa Barbara, CA
, D’Angelo’s Bakery, tel 805-962-5466;
in Montecito, CA
, San Ysidro Ranch, tel 805-565-1700,
sanysidroranch.com
;
in Chicago
, Frontera Grill, tel 312-661-1434,
rickbayless.com
; Xoco, tel 312-334-3688,
rickbayless.com
;
in New York
, ABC Cocina, tel 212-677-2233,
abccocinanyc.com
; La Esquina, tel 646-613-7100,
esquinanyc.com
;
in Brooklyn
, La Esquina, tel 718-393-5500,
esquinabk.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen
by Rick Bayless (1996);
saveur.com
(search huevos rancheros);
epicurious.com
(search huevos rancheros).
See also:
Eggs Sardou
;
Migas
.

Among the Mercado de La Merced’s offerings are authentic mole pastes and powders.

With a history that dates back to the Spanish colonization of Mexico, La Merced has endured through the centuries as one of the world’s largest and most spectacularly colorful and festive markets. Named for the La Merced monastery, which was built in 1594 and on whose grounds the market is now located, it is just east of Mexico City’s famed Zócalo plaza and is a must-visit for anyone wanting to experience the many delectable specialties of the Mexican kitchen.

Since the mid-1980s, La Merced has been housed in several enormous, lofty buildings, each focusing on specific types of food or wares. To stand in any one of these vast halls is to be dazzled by the variety and abundance, but is also an opportunity to be educated and enticed by the fruits, vegetables, spices, meats, fish, and more that make up this country’s diverse and tantalizing cuisine. To be sure, you’ll need more than a single visit to take it all in.

In the largest hall, you will find an immense array of fruits and vegetables—nopales (cactus pads), nimbly plucked of their spiny needles; a rainbow of chiles, dried and fresh; corn in hues from yellow to purple; jade-green tomatillos; banana leaves to be wrapped around rice and beans and steamed; and brilliant tropical fruits galore. Among the breathtaking sights of the meat hall are the enormous whole pigs’ hides, flattened out and fried in one piece to be broken up into
chicharrones
, hanging aloft like great golden sails. Another hall is dedicated to fish and shellfish, both familiar and exotic, and still another is brimming with vivid and aromatic mounds of Mexican spices.

There is action, too, as
antojitos
, or street snacks, are prepared and sold on-site: Fresh tortillas are patted out and grilled; tacos and quesadillas stuffed to order with beef
picadillo
, roasted pork, beans, or cheeses; tamales wrapped and steamed; and corn kernels ground into fine yellow masa (meal). And of course, there are seriously sweet sweets, such as the eggy
natilla
custard, honeyed almond pastries, and cinnamon-spiced Mexican chocolate to be eaten or drunk hot—a reminder that we owe thanks to the Mayans and the Aztecs for this particular treat.

Traditional Mexican cookware and kitchen accessories fill another hall, with the bright textile mats, towels, and aprons and gleaming cut tin-ware and earthy pottery making for attractive, and useful, souvenirs. A crowded whirl of color, flavors, and aromas, La Merced is a sight to behold, and a highlight of any visit to Mexico City.

Where:
East of the Zócalo, Mexico City.
When:
Daily, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Tip:
To be sure your nosh does not have an unhappy ending, avoid all raw fruits and vegetables that cannot be peeled and drink only bottled beverages opened before your eyes.

Mexico’s answer to coffee and doughnuts.

Even when the rich and satiny wonders of France and Belgium are taken into account, Mexico just might have the edge when it comes to hot chocolate—mainly due to the addition of the richly flavored, almost brandylike Mexican vanilla and (most importantly) of cinnamon, added either by stirring the potion with a cinnamon stick or by flavoring it with a cinnamon-sugar mix. That exotic dash of cinnamon, and the way it combines with the sweet, boozy hint of vanilla extract seems to lend sophistication and depth to a drink that becomes decidedly grown-up.

Chocolate, of course, is a treat the world owes to the Aztecs and the Mayans. It is made from cacao, the fruit of a small tree native to the tropical forests of Central and South America that well deserves its botanical name,
Theobroma cacao
, “food of the gods.” The Olmecs were the first to discover the delicious wonders of the cacao bean some three thousand years ago, but it was the Mayans and later the Aztecs who advanced its use and especially revered the bean. By the year 1400, the Aztecs were trading it as a form of currency and enjoying a variety of chocolate drinks, sometimes as a part of rituals, and sometimes just for pleasure. They combined their treasured cacao with honey, nuts, seeds, and various spices, and developed chocolate-based drinks that are enjoyed in Mexico to this day.

Champurrado
, which combines chocolate with
atole
, a creamy, warm, Mexican and Central American drink made with masa (cornmeal) or cornstarch, is especially popular at Christmas and New Year’s and is generally served alongside churros (crisp, cinnamondusted strips of fried dough, see
listing
) or
pan dulce
(sweet bread).
Tejate
is a Oaxacan specialty, a restorative cold drink made of chocolate, masa, and the aromatic tropical flowers known as
flor de cacao.
But the most delicious of all is the sweet, foamy Mexican hot chocolate, made from solid circular or hexagonal tablets of spiced chocolate (preferably Ibarra brand, from the Chocolatera de Jalisco in Guadalajara) that are dissolved into hot milk or cream, and then blended, using a utensil called a
molinillo
, a turned wooden whisk that is twirled between the palms. It whips the ingredients together, folding in just enough air to produce a silky texture and a heady froth. Regional variations might include anise or cayenne, but it is the essential trio of sweet chocolate, fragrant vanilla, and aromatic cinnamon that makes this such an enduring favorite.

Where:
In Oaxaca City, Mexico
, Chocolate Mayordomo, tel 52/951-512-0066,
chocolatemayordomo.com.mx
;
in Chicago
, Xoco at two locations,
rickbayless.com/restaurants/xoco
; Xocoatl at multiple locations,
churrofactory.com
.
Mail order:
For Ibarra chocolate, hot chocolate kits, and
molinillo
utensils,
mexgrocer.com
.
Tip:
If you don’t have a
molinillo
, a whisk or blender will produce appropriately frothy results.
See also:
Callebaut Chocolate
.

A big, lusciously messy scrambled egg dish with just the right amount of crunch and heat,
migas
is a much-loved breakfast throughout Mexico and the American southwest, especially in Texas. The Tex-Mex diner staple takes its name from the Spanish word for crumbs, as it is a New World take on a Spanish dish of day-old bread fried in olive oil with garlic and chorizo sausage.

Migas traveled to Texas with Mexican immigrants, and (because “everything is bigger in Texas”) grew into a showstopping combination of crisp tortilla chips mixed into beaten eggs, along with diced onions, fresh chiles, tomato, and chewy, spicy flecks of chorizo. Crowned with a mellowing heap of shredded jack cheese and properly prepared, migas is an addictive mélange of salty and savory flavors and complementing textures—the crunch of the tortilla chips, the softness of the egg, the sting of chiles, and the neutralizing creaminess of the cheese. It should be crusty and golden brown, like a good omelet, and garnished with fiery hot sauce, refried beans (preferably black), warm tortillas,
café con leche
, and plenty of napkins.

Where:
In San Antonio, TX
, Ácenar, tel 210-222-2362,
acenar.com
;
in Austin, TX
, Güero’s Taco Bar, tel 512-447-7688,
guerostacobar.com
;
in Kansas City, MO
, Classic Cup Café, tel 816-753-1840,
classiccup.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Simple Fresh Southern
by Matt Lee and Ted Lee (2009);
food.com
(search tex-mex migas);
epicurious.com
(search migas).
Tip:
Migas is a wonderful use for tortilla chips gone stale.

The intensely dark, rich, and flavorful family of sauces known as mole is one of the most subtle and sophisticated culinary gifts handed down to us from the Aztecs, who called it
mōlli
in their Nahuatl language, meaning mixture or concoction.

At its base, the mixture contains any number of indigenous Mexican chile peppers, fresh or dried, traditionally combined in the stone mortar and pestle called a
molcajete.
Other ingredients include fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, and thickeners such as seeds, nuts, bread, and masa (cornmeal). The big surprise to novices is the inclusion in most moles of unsweetened chocolate, a finisher that adds a deep burnish and earthy undertones to the spicier seasonings.

The city of Puebla is usually acknowledged as the birthplace of mole as we know it today. Popular legend has it that in the sixteenth century the superior of the Santa Rosa convent there created a version of the traditional Aztec sauce to honor a visiting archbishop. Another story has the visit of a European viceroy to Puebla causing a stir among the royal chefs; and the head chef, Fray Pascual, becoming annoyed and ordering that all the ingredients lying around be gathered onto a single tray. Just then a mighty wind swept the ingredients into a pot where turkeys were stewing and thus was the first mole born.

Whatever its origins, the best-known version remains Puebla’s mole poblano. It calls for at least twenty ingredients, including aromatics such as cinnamon, cloves, anise seed, and black pepper, along with poblano chiles and chocolate. Oaxaca is famously “the land of the seven moles,” which include bright-green, cilantro-infused
moles verdes
; orangey-red moles made with plantain;
mole negro
, or black mole, made with nuts, chiles, dried fruits, and chocolate;
mole rojo
(also called
mole colorado
), a dense, red concoction rich with tomatoes, sesame seeds, and sweet spices; and
manchamantel
(“tablecloth stainer”), a mixture of tomatoes, banana, pineapple, cinnamon, and ancho chiles. Other regional interpretations include peanut-buttery
cacahuate
moles and
mole almendrado
, a rich, dark-brown, almond-based version.