One of the girls in my Nutrition group has a host-brother, Hector, who is the owner of a new gourmet restaurant in Oaxaca called La Popular. His birthday gift to her was a dinner on the house. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very cooperative and as we were all leaving our respective houses, it started to pour and kept pouring for a solid hour, so were quite wet by the time we all convened.
One word in Spanish says it all: Mojabamos. We were soaked.
It was a very fun evening and the servers just kept bringing out platters to share. The above were zucchini rolls filled with cheese and topped with a jammy sauce.
Nothing beats warm, freshly toasted tortillas and fresh salsa. Since these were made from blue corn, they were called tortillas negras.
Olive oil is not common in Mexican cuisine, so it was fun getting to try some on the tortillas.
Tlayuda de Mariscos was my favorite item of the night. A tlayuda is made with a very large tortilla called a tlayuda (blue corn in this case) and is usually topped with black bean sauce, tomatoes, avocado, queso fresco or quesillo and usually some kind of meat, often tesajo or cured beef. This one had the normal base ingredients, but instead of being covered in carne, it was liberally sprinkled with camarones y pulpo con ajo (shrimp and octopus cooked with garlic), onions, and spring greens for freshness.
The next day when I was talking about our meal, Aurea was shocked when I told her I had tlayuda with mariscos (seafood). She exclaimed, "No estuvo una tlayuda Oaxacena!"
These quesadilla had pulpo (octopus) and lots of quesillo, the special Oaxacan cheese. We also had a round of delicious quesadillas guisadas that were made with very tender, marinated pork. Guisada is the participle that stems from the verb guisar, which means "to braise."
Impromptu serenade.
This was a dessert that falls under the pastel impossible category and was made with alternating layers of sponge cake and mint mousse.
My favorite pastel impossible: Moist chocolate cake topped with flan.
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