Tepoztlán

Tepoztlán, a small mountain village between Cuernavaca and Mexico City, is a popular weekend retreat for hiking in the surrounding hills or just hanging out in a very pleasant ambiente. Legend says that the god of the wind chose this place as the home of his son Tepozteco. A favorite hike is up to the Pyramid of Tepozteco; another is to the Kissing Rocks; but simply walking around town is very pleasant. A poetic entrepreneur has opened several ice cream shops around town called Tepoznieves, where he sells nieves de dioses (snows, ice creams of the gods). Move over Baskin Robbins, Ben & Jerry's. Here are just some of the flavors:

Arrullo de Luna, Moon's Lullaby
Beso de Angel, Angel's Kiss
Canto de Sirenas, Mermaid's Song
Gardenias
Mil Flores, 1000 Flowers
Primavera, Spring
Oración de Amor, Love's Prayer
Oración de Viento, Wind's Prayer
Reina de la Noche, Queen of the Night
Serenata de Amor, Love's Serenade
Sinfonía de Mar, Symphony of the Sea
Pétalo de Rosas, Rose Petals

Other exotic flavors are also available: sorbets of avocado, celery, beet, lettuce, cactus, carrot, ice creams with rum, tequila, mezcal, various flavors with chile, as well as any fruit imaginable. One flavor is called Poblana; it's coffee, sweet potato and Bailey's Irish Cream. Now that's really fusion food!

You may think we did nothing but eat ice cream. Wrong! Belén, one of our friends and colleagues at ESCA, had invited us to her family home to experience a cooking lesson by Edith, our English department head.


The home first, then the food.

Belen's house, overflowing with artesanía and charm, was built by her grandfather and enlarged by her father. The family uses it as a weekend retreat. It has two bedrooms, a sitting room, a wide portico that opens onto a lovely garden, and - best of all- a típica cocina mexicana, a typical Mexican kitchen. This is Belen with her mother Marlu, who collected all the wonderful artesanía and decorated the home. She also taught me how to season the cazuelas de barro (pottery casseroles) to use them on the stovetop: rub garlic on the outside bottom, place coarse-grain salt in the cazuela, heat it until the salt begins to brincar (jump) and turn golden.





Edith taught us how to make chicken enchiladas in mole sauce: fiesta food! Mole is a sauce made of lots of ingredients - chiles, spices, chocolate, cinnamon, nuts, seeds (pumpkin, chile, sesame) tortillas, raisins, garlic, and more - ground by a stone rolling pin on a metate, a slanted stone surface. On a TV cooking show, La Ruta del Sabor, I saw it lovingly - and laboriously - prepared from scratch, but fortunately it's sold already prepared in the markets. So you take this powdered mole, fry it in some olive oil, add broth, and set it aside. When you're ready to assemble the enchiladas, heat a tortilla in a pan with a bit of mole and coat both sides before stuffing it with shredded chicken and cheese and top it with sour cream and some crumbled queso fresco. Serve with arroz (rice), frijoles (beans) and ensalada (salad). We had two types of mole: poblano (from Puebla) and negro (from Oaxaca). There are many others.

Does this one weekend give you any idea of the depth and breadth of the flavors of Mexico? Someone told me Mexico shares honors with France and China for developing the three best cuisines of the world.

Bill and I stayed at Jorge and Alejandra Ortiz' Casitas Tepoztlán, four lovely adjoining houses that open onto various gardens surrounded by volcanic stone walls topped with bougambilia and other extravagantly beautiful flowers. The Ortiz family also runs the Casa Gonzalez in Mexico City, our first "home" in the D.F. We are very grateful to them for their hospitality and friendship.