This post was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
“If we’re going to talk moles, what much better location to do so?” asks chef Carina Santiago, as she invites me to the al fresco kitchen area of her dining establishment, Tierra Antigua. Campfire fragrances joined the fragrance of dark chocolate fill the air, accompanied by an unique rustling sound. It’s the noise of the escobetilla– a largely bristled broom, which a member of kitchen area personnel is utilizing to move cacao seeds around, snapping her wrist backward and forward as she does so.
The cacao is toasting on a comal– a big, flat ceramic frying pan very first produced by the Indigenous Zapotecs– which is common in Oaxacan food. Held up by 2 adobe bricks, the comal rises simply enough so the wood fire below can lick its underbelly, sending heat equally throughout the frying pan. Outside cocinas de humo (‘smoke kitchen areas’) like this have actually been utilized by generations of Oaxacans to make their moles.
A sauce, a meal, a food, a custom, a strategy, an event: mole isn’t one single thing. With a name stemming from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word’m ōlli’, implying ‘sauce’, this is a foods that includes affects from Indigenous Mexico, Europe and even the Middle East. Dishes are studded with active ingredients belonging to these areas, consisting of chilli, chocolate, olives, cinnamon and raisins.
Unlimited variations exist, however each mole tends to include a typical strategy and discussion: active ingredients are toasted independently, ground into a paste, fried, then loosened up with chicken stock (typically) before being served along with some type of protein (typically), rice (often) and tortillas (constantly). There’s no lack of excellent food here in Oaxaca– Mexico’s cooking heartland– however it’s the moles that are treasured above all else.
Oaxaca is famous as the ‘land of 7 moles’– a gastronomic motto spun years ago to market the mole celebration in the southern Mexican state, back when it had 7 areas (today it has 8). I discover this from Olga Cabrera, chef and owner of regional organization Tierra del Sol. Olga comes from the mountainous area of La Mixteca however concerned Oaxaca city over 20 years ago to raise her household and open her very first dining establishment. “When I started to prepare here in the Central Valleys, I questioned why there were 7 moles. I myself had 8 and not one of them belonged to ‘the 7’,” she informs me.
Olga’s dining establishment is understood for its 30-plus mole dishes. My walk there takes me previous Santo Domingo, the baroque church that functions as the main center of downtown Oaxaca, and previous street suppliers hawking huipiles (conventional clothes) and Styrofoam cups of street corn, before refusing the cobblestone pathway towards Tierra del Sol. I rest on the roof balcony ignoring the entryway to the botanic gardens, while the sun sets behind the Sierra Norte Mountains, pulling the heat from the day down with it.
