Tarde 9 en Cholula: La Parrillada



We visited the Great Pyramid of Cholula, a city within the state of Puebla, about 45 minutes from where we were staying. This Great Pyramid has the largest base of all pyramids in the Americas and we got to tour a tunnel system to see some of the underground ruins and excavated segments of staircases.

Before lunch, we hiked up an enormous flight of stairs to the Santuario de la Virgen de los Remedios, located on top of the pyramidal ruins.  The view of the city was simply breathtaking.


The green salsa tasted very fresh and herbal due to an abundance of cilantro.

Puebla is known primarily for cemita, a bread with ajonjolí  (sesame seeds) on top, but pan de agua is also very common.  Pan de agua, similar to French bread, was perfect dunking material for my soup.


This was originally Caldo de Camarón, but they were out of camarones, so I asked if fish could be used instead, making it Caldo de Pescado.  The fish was perfectly tender and much easier than shrimp to eat in a soup format.  The soup was muy picante due to an abundance of guajillo chiles.  Flavorful with a medium thick base of puréed tomato, garlic, onion, and epazote, every spoonful of soup was a treat for the taste buds.  My beautiful bowl was a cazuela de barro.



Several of us split this botana (appetizer) of champiñones al ajillo., which was packed with much flavor from a generous amount of chile ajillo and LOTS of garlic. It was delicious,  though the chef was a bit heavy handed with the olive oil.  The other girls thought the mushrooms to be very spicy, but in comparison to my soup, it was only picasito (medium spicy)!

Comments