Oaxaca's regional cuisine is considered exceptional even in food-famous Mexico. Developed over thousands of years, subtle and balanced, this food is good whether eaten on a street corner, a fonda in the market place or in a fancy restaurant on a balcony overlooking the Zocalo. A stroll through the parks, to the museums and shops is much enhanced by a snack along the way. Perusing food stands in the markets with all their exotic piles of fruits and spices, and even buying a few, is a special Oaxaca adventure. Edibles that can be taken to the U.S. are chocolate, candies, coffee, mole, cheese, and dried chiles (no vegetable or animal products).
Oaxaca is especially known for its cakes and breads, grasshoppers in two sizes (boiled, then fried with garlic, salt and lemon juice), over-sized tortillas called "tlayudas," "tamales", the paste to make mole (it comes plastic containers) in three flavors: black, red and "coloradito"; Oaxaca's special cheese called "quesillo" in long strips wound into a ball. Buy these products in the markets, rather than the supermarkets; chocolate and mole preferably from the stores near the city markets where you can watch the chocolate being ground and mixed to order. Other regional foods are hawked by ladies who crowd the center entrance to the Benito Juarez market on Aldama Street.
Tropical fruits are abundant and very fresh. Try something unusual: mameys, chico zapotes, tejocotes, nanches, fabulous papayas that will counteract whatever you've done to yourself the night before; and of course mangos, peeled and carved into easy-to-eat sculptures on sticks. The local "ciruelas" not like our prunes; nanches and tejocotes are best stewed rather than fresh, and a lady sells them in small portions ready to eat, on the corner of Alcala and Morelos next to the grocery store. Small plastic bags of sliced papaya, mango, cantaloupe and watermelon are on stands everywhere and very refreshing when hiking around in the sun. Oaxaca has other exceptional regional foods and beverages, but they are not as suited for take-out or carrying abroad and are not listed here. For people really interested in the cuisine, a number of good cookbooks are for sale in the bookstores.
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SWEETS
No one has ever accused Oaxaqueñcos of not liking sweets, and they are easy to sample, since there are little stands everywhere on the streets (if you must know where immediately, a lady with a tray of sweets is usually beside the bank, on the south side of the Alameda). A very special candy originating in Ejutla, is now mad in Oaxaca by a family moved to the city. Little mold-made figures of hearts, flowers, ducks, parasols, shoes, doves, hats, bells, stars, butterflies, lambs, and Santa Claus! are filled with a syrup flavored with anis, coconut, milk or squash, then decorated with icing. For these candies contact Corinda Cruz, Casa Borges, H. Escuela Naval Militar 200, Colonia Reforma. Her mother, Juana Perez Garcia, is 85 and still making and selling these candies in the Alameda Park.
Other favorite sweets sold in the outdoor stalls are "barquillos" (pastries filled with puddings), sugar cane and walnut candies similar to pralines, coconut and pineapple turnovers ("empanadas"), cones full of merengue ("gasnates"), hard, flat donut-shaped cookies ("polvorones"), "cocadas" of sugar and coconut, and "besos" (kisses) which resemble miniature cream puffs.
The prettiest are the "turrones" of stiff-beaten egg whites with red sprinkles, inside two wafers open like a shell (the same Holy Wafers you've seen in church).
DULCERIA REGIONAL "LA VERDE ANTEQUERA" is a family business that regularly sells pastries at fairs and parks. Their factory is at 5 de Febrero and Camino Nacional, Colonia Morelos. Another sweet vendor offers candies: fruit squares of sugar and cactus juice in deep red, yellow and green; red tamarind balls sprinkled with chili called "tarrugos de tamarindo," sweet potato and squash candies; and the pear, peach, membrillo, guava, and tejocote paste jellies that are so tasty with fresh salty cheese. The popular condensed-milk "mascaroles" and "mostacholes" (with the nut on top) are imports to Oaxaca, as are the lollipops and other goodies wrapped in cellophane. For the typical Oaxaca candies contact Dolores Vasconcelos, Tehuantepec 400, Colonia Siete Regiones
CHOCOLATE
[Photo above] Grinding cacao beans in Teotitlan del Valle to make a cup of traditional Oaxacan hot chocolate
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The favorite sweet of is probably chocolate, preferably the drink elaborated by the Aztecs called "xocolatl" and recently given front-center by the motion picture "Like Water for Chocolate." In colonial times, ladies were so addicted to chocolate that they couldn't last through mass unless their maids brought them some to church. For good reason; chocolate has a caffeine-like ingredient that's stimulant. Recent scientific testing indicates it may also contain a chemical resembling a hormone people produce when in love. It's not a promise, but watching chocolate being milled with the rich brown oils running down over the sugar and almonds borders on a sensual experience! The best places to watch this and buy some are at the mills of LA SOLEDAD, GUELAGUETZA AND MAYORDOMO on the streets bordering the Benito Juarez and 20 de Noviembre markets.
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COFFEE
A very good local coffee is organically grown in perfect climatic conditions, on the mountain slopes of the Pacific coast around Nopala and Pluma Hidalgo (marketed abroad under the brand names "Aztec Harvest" and "Tlatjxtla"). Several stores in the center of Oaxaca sell the native coffees to take home; at COFFEE BEANS on 5 de Mayo between Abasolo and Constitucion you can hove a cup and buy the beans.
MEZCAL
The production of mezcal is a big industry in Oaxaca; out of 5 million liters manufactured a year, 1.5 million are exported, and the present Governor hopes to see that doubled in 1996. There is even a mezcal museum a short way out of the city being developed by Alberto Sanchez Lopez, Director of the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT). It has with 100 kinds of maguey plant growing in the yard and a version of the original style "palenque" or production plant. Unlike some other parts of Mexico where the tequila and mezcal industries have been modernized, in Oaxaca production follows the traditional methods in thousands of small, family-operated "palenques" sprinkled around the Central Valleys near Tlacolula, Mitla, Ejutla, Miahuatlan, Ocotlan, and in the Mixteca region of Sola de Vega. The largest industrial operation is at Santiago Matatlan, where the smaller producers sell to the factory.
The best-known brands of mezcal are Minero, Beneva, Monte Alban, Mayordomo, Joyas Oaxaqueñas Tehuana. They come in various kinds and flavors including pechuga, gusano (the one with the maguey plant worm), blanco, acejo, especial, cantaro (in a black clay jar), nut and fruit-flavored. In Tlacolula is an amusing mezcal store called LA FAVORITA with a diapered monkey and an owner who had took lessons from P.T. Barnum. Located at Juarez 9, the main street between the bus station and the Sunday market, they offer free samples and tours of the factory outside the town; their mezcal comes in flavors including rasberry.
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Mezcal stores called "expendios exist in a number of locations; some in the city of Oaxaca are listed below. A Beneva outlet is located opposite the entrance to Mitla on the Panamerican Highway; the main street of Mitla near the archaeological site has a few. ARTESANIAS ANTEQUERA, which also sells textiles and other handicrafts, in Mitla does a lot of mezcal mixing.
To the original product is added nanche fruit, herbs (ruda, romero and sedfron), sugar cane juice, or orange juice and honey. Some macho men object to these adulterations; it is usually ladies who prefer the sweet flavors.
Other outlets are the Chagoya plant on the main highway Oaxaca- Mitla going west, about 4 km. before the turn to Tlacolula, and at Santa Maria el Tule opposite the 2,000 year old ahuehuete tree. Mezcal is sold in every grocery and liquor store in Oaxaca, but if you want a big selection or special brand, buy it from a mezcal store near the markets (listed under FOOD in the directory). Many Oaxaca natives have their favorite producers like Felipe Osorio from San Vicente Coatlan near Ejutla, whose wife and daughters embroider the beautiful "Chenteco" blouses. He makes his mezcal from the Tovala maguey in his own house and sells it wherever (ask Ramon Fosada at VICTOR'S handicraft shop how to find Felipe).
COOKING LESSONS
A good introduction to Oaxaca markets and cuisine are the market shopping tours and classes offered by Iliana de La Vega of El Naranjo restaurant.
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