What is Cinco de Mayo really?

 So today is May fifth... So what?  To a lot of people it is an excuse to have a good time, throw a "fiesta" and imbibe some margaritas.  However I am willing to bet that most people don't know, don't care, or are misinformed about significance of this day.  It is NOT Mexico's independence day.  That falls on September 16th.  Cinco de Mayo (known as El Día de la Batalla de Puebla in Mexico)  is the celebration of the Mexican army unlikely victory over the army of France in the Battle of Puebla.  The funny thing about this holiday is that it is not really a major holiday in Mexico.  It is really just a regional holiday celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla.  You are probably asking yourself why is this history lesson in a food blog.  Well, I figured that since Cinco de Mayo is really about Puebla, why don't we get to know some of the wonderful cuisine from this great state in Mexico.


The most famous dish coming out of the state of Puebla is mole Poblano.  As I have discussed in a previous entry, there is a wide variety of mole sauces in Mexico.  However, mole Poblano is the one that is most distinguished and well known.  It is the prototypical mole sauce everyone imagines when thinking of mole.  This mole typically has a rust red to dark brown color with well over twenty ingredients including several types of peppers, peanuts and most notably chocolate.

Another typical dish of Puebla is the Chiles en Nogada.  This dish consists of a poplano pepper stuffed with meat (picadillo) much like a typical chile relleno.  However, instead of being topped with tomato sauce after being battered and fried, the stuffed poblano is topped with a white walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds.  The green chile, white sauce, and red seeds give reference to the colors of the Mexican flag.  Even though Chiles en Nogada was born in Puebla this dish has been adopted as a source of national pride.

Mexico is filled with small dishes called antojitos.  Puebla is most well know for its chalupas and molotes.  A chalupa is made by pressing a thin layer of masa dough around the outside of a small mold, in the process creating a concave container resembling the boat of the same name. They are  then deep fried to produce crisp, shallow cup which is then filled with a variety of ingredients.

Molotes are small masa based stuffed antojitos slightly resembling a small empanada.  Molotes are filled with basic ingredients such as meat or potatoes to more exotic ingredients such as corn fungus or squash flowers. 

Puebla is also well known for its sweets.  The most well know candy coming from Puebla is the Camote Poblano or sweet potato candy. These candies are made with pureed sweet potatoes mixed with sugar and a variety of flavorings. They are hand-rolled and wrapped in wax paper. Dulces de camote also date back to the colonial period in Puebla.

Another great candy is know as jamoncillo.  This candy comes in different varieties depending on what part of the country you are in.  However in Puebla the jamoncillo is referred to a candy made with pumpkin seed paste and usually comes in a bar form with a red stripe.

And what would a good Cinco de Mayo celebration be without libations?  Puebla has some great offerings in that department at well.  First off is the classic nevado which is most like a margarita.  A nevado is frozen cocktail comprised of fruit juice and a little liquor.

Another drink native to Puebla would be the acachul.  This drink is derived by fermenting local wild chapulin cherries.

So now that you know a little more about the history of Cinco de Mayo, do yourself a favor.  Instead of just eating the typical fare of guacamole, enchiladas and margaritas, go and find some excellent cuisine from the state of Puebla!

Perfect for a cold winter's day: Mexican Hot Chocolate

With the weather still being cold especially in Houston, I was reminiscing about some of my favorite cold weather foods. One of my favorites when I was growing up was hot chocolate.  However, since I grew up in a Mexican household, we would often drink Mexican hot chocolate.  It is very similar to your everyday variety, except that traditional Mexican hot chocolate includes semi-sweet chocolate, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla. In Mexico, hot chocolate remains a popular national drink. Besides the instant powder form, hot chocolate of this type is commonly sold in circular or hexagonal tablets which can be dissolved into hot milk, water, or cream, and then blended until the mixture develops a creamy froth. The two most common types of Mexican chocolate sold in tablets are Abuelita and Ibarra.

If you can't find these two brands at your local grocer, you can scour the internet and find a litany of recipes that you can make on your own.  The one common factor amongst all Mexican hot chocolate is that it is chocolate that has been spiced with other things not typically found in most common hot chocolate recipes.

Making hot chocolate from the tablets is really quite simple. All you need is a sauce pan, some milk, the chocolate itself and a whisk.  In Mexico a wooden whisk called a molinillo is used to whip up the froth on the finished chocolate. 

The first step is to heat up your milk. Back in the day hot chocolate used to be made with hot water instead (thus the title of the popular novel Like Water For Chocolate) Usually you need about 2 cups for every half tablet of chocolate.  You want the milk nice and hot, about a simmer.  You definitely don't want to scald the milk or have it boil over as this will give your hot chocolate a less than idle flavor.  When I talked to my mom about how to make the hot chocolate, she said that my grandmother would add a little cold water(just enough to coat the bottom) to the pan as primer to help protect the milk from scalding.

As the milk comes up to temp, you can cut your chocolate into pieces as it will be quicker and easier to dissolve the chocolate in pieces instead of one big chunk.  Once the milk is hot enough, you introduce the chocolate into the milk whisking rapidly to dissolve and incorporate the chocolate.  Always be mindful of the heat of your milk.  You still don't want it to overheat and scald or burn the chocolate.  Once all the chocolate has been introduced, you can cut the heat and just continue to whisk until it completely dissolves and the chocolate begins to froth up.  As soon as that happens, serve and enjoy!

Pico's Traditional and Contemporary Mexican Cuisine

If there is one thing I missed as I have lived in the USA for most of my life it is that there is a lack of good, authentic Mexican food. Or at least that is what I thought. Growing up in a Mexican household and actually visiting my family in Mexico practically every summer, I had access and grew up eating the most delicious and authentic Mexican food directly from the source. However, when I moved to Houston, I thought my connection to the real deal was gone. Then I went to Pico's. This charming little restaurant located at 5941 Bellaire Blvd is my connection to meals of my childhood long past.

The decor of the restaurant is an interesting amalgam of Mexico. The outer facade reminded me of trips to Acapulco. There is a thatched roof covering an outer patio with a blue fountain in the middle. When the weather is agreeable it is nice to sit outside, enjoy pleasant drinks and even more pleasant company. As you walk inside you are funneled into a mini corridor with a half wall on the left and a counter with cash registers on your right. The half wall contains multiple large containers with varying ingredients common to Mexican cuisine. Directly in front of you as you walk in is the bar. There is some seating close to the bar, but the main dinning room is to the very left. Separated from the bar area, the dining room resembles something of a courtyard to me with melon colored walls decorated with Mexican artwork and vibrantly colored plates. There is at least a Trio group playing and singing music there. The decor and the music really set the atmosphere for a quite pleasant evening.

This trip to Pico's was not my first. However, this was the first time I was trying to look at the delectable meal laid out before me with an objective eye. Lucky for me, I was also surrounded by friends, so I could take a glimpse into their Mexican culinary adventure. As I had dined there before, I had already had and fallen in love with Pico's version of Cochinta Pibil. This is shredded pork seasoned in achiote(annatto) and orange juice, making it a perfectly balanced sweet and tangy mix. It is served with pickled red onions. But like I said, I had already had that before and wanted to check out some of their other fare.

At the onset I was torn between ordering the Chiles en Nogada, which are roasted and stuffed poblano chiles which are then cooked in peanut sauce with olives, almonds and raisins, covered with a cold creamy walnut sauce and sprinkled with pomegranates. This dish is usually called the national dish of Mexico because the green chiles, the white sauce and the red pomegranates give it the color of the national flag.

The other dish I was considering was the Filete al Chipotle. This is an 8 oz. charbroiled piece of tenderloin smoothered in Chihuahua cheese and topped with a chipotle and parsley sauce. Can you see why I was torn? In reality it was an easy choice to make. My tongue was screaming for the tender beef doused in cheese and sauce. However, my Mexican pride was pulling at my heart strings to try the chiles, since this would be the first time and what kind of a Mexican would I be if I had never even eaten the national dish?

Well, in the end, it was neither of these dishes that won out. No, it was a daily special. When the waiter came by to take our order, he dutifully informed us of the specials. The one that caught my ear was the Pescado Tampico. It was described as a sauteed fillet of red snapper topped with a delightful mixture of pico de gallo and lump crab meat. I was hooked. Seeing as how red snapper is one of my favorite fish and then it was being topped with crab meat and pico de gallo, how could I lose? Well, I was not disappointed.

When my plate arrived I gazed upon the fillet topped not only with the aforementioned combo of crab and pico de gallo, but also with fresh avocado slices and accompanied with freshly grilled vegetables. The fish was perfectly cooked so it was nice and flaky. The avocado, crab and salsa mingled together as if they had always meant to be playing ever so gaily on my palate. The mixture of juices made the perfect sauce as it pooled gently around my vegetables which were ever so masterfully grilled. They were nice and tender, the sweetness of the veggies balanced with the slight bitterness of the char marks.

One unexpectedly pleasant thing I discovered was that with the usual suspects of yellow squash and zucchini, I found some grilled carrots. Now, normally I am not a fan of cooked carrots because I don't like the mushy, over sweet flavor, but in these I found a new way to appreciate carrots. They had retained some of the crunch that makes carrots appealing to me, but were still tender enough to cut easily. The sweetness was accentuated by the grilling, but not over powering.

Like I said, I was happy with my selection. I was now curious of the choices of the people around me. I asked my fiancee how her chicken mole enchiladas were. She let me have a bite. From that one bite I could discern that while the mole was indeed tasty and edible, it was a bit too tangy for my taste. Like I said, it was good and I took another couple of bites, but it just did not live up to expectations. Maybe it was the slight sourness of the cheese, and yes the cheese is supposed to be that way, maybe it was because of what I was eating and not having cleansed my palate, but the mole is something that just did not excite me tonight.

Another friend of mine tried the Cochinita Pibil on my recommendation. He was happily satisfied with it. My next task is to ask my mom how to make said dish and share this with my friends. The humorous part about the cochinita was when I instructed my friend how to eat it. I "informed" him that the best way to eat the dish is with the pork placed in warm corn tortillas and topped with the pickled onions. The onions add sourness to the pork and wrapped up in the corn tortillas just make the best tacos one has ever eaten.

As I have said before, this was not my first trip out to Pico's and I am sure it will not be the last. I think next time I will try the Chiles en Nogada.