Today has been a day of getting to know the city. Taking photos. Looking at book shops. One name that is prevalent on the cuisine shelf is an English lady that lives here called Diane Kennedy...
One restaurant I wandered past made a good photo, but the waiter insisted I come inside as it was very pretty in there too. Well I didn´t walk out of there again till 4 hours later! It turns out that La Fonda de St. Domingo specialises in traditional regional food. Just what I am looking for! The owner Jaime spoke to me for hours. He´s pretty passionate about food. Turns out he´s a close personal friend of Diane Kennedy and happily gave me all her contact details.. mental! She´s in the USA just now at the launch of her latest book on food of the Oaxaca region. Jamie showed me the Spanish version. Man what a fantastic book!
Jaime talked passionately about the concern he has about the erosion of traditional food culture. He is the chairman of an group trying to protect this. Think I might have found one good reason for this mission...
Mole negro - a traditional dark chilli chocolate sauce is made with 31 ingredients, can´t wait to try it. 2 ingredients are the chillies Chichuncle and Chilcoxtle. Apparently these are becoming increasing hard to aquire. Less farmers are growing them and around the festival The Day of the Dead their price can rise as high as 700 pesos a kilo. Thats over $60! Wow. He´s worried that one day these chilli varieties may disappear and with it a whole tradition of Mole Negro....
I ate pretty well over the 4 hours I was there. First Sopa de Chicharon - Grasshopper soup. Very nutritious! Then a salad followed by Chilli relleno - Stuffed chilli. That one puts the brakes on!!!!! What an amazing balance of flavours. I had one of those chocolat moments..... a food orgasm? yeah, something like that.
If you´re in Oaxaca check out this great restaurant!
If it was nae fer yer Oaxaca where woood yer be....?
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