Food in Oaxaca

A few of you have asked about Oaxacan cuisine and what we are eating. We enjoy many special foods here, but some of them are different from what we Californians think of as Mexican food. We have yet to taste them all, but right now, we buy a lot of and eat as much fresh fruits and vegetables as we can find. The mangos are heavenly, silken in texture and incredibly flavorful. (all of us, but Jason eat about a mango a day). We've also found good papayas in every market and grocery store since arriving. I used to not like papaya, but someone from Mexico taught us to put lime on it and it’s so good that way. Cucumbers are great. Folks here also eat them in lime, sprinkled with salt and chili powder.

Chocolate in Oaxaca is a big export. It’s dark and a bit bitter, but we like it. Moles come from this part of the world and there are many kinds. We have tasted red mole, yellow mole, black mole and green mole. Black mole (the chocolaty version) is what most Americans know as mole. Mole means “sauce” in the Zapotec language. We haven’t tried to make moles, but you can buy them in jars or bags at the local mercado (market). We’ve sucked on sugar cane, had plenty of delicious lemonade (it’s always fresh squeezed).

Hot off the press, corn tortillas are amazing.

Two kinds of cheese are famous in Oaxaca…the main one I’ve tasted is a string cheese, called quesillo…more pungent than our bland variety. (cheese shop pictured above. Our friend Pilar took us to a downtown market on our first day here). Our local Sunday market, a stone’s throw away, sells all the local delicacies, but our favorite treat so far is the homemade potato chips...so good and salty. The locals dribble hot sauce on them.

We’re cooking in our kitchen every day, sometimes American food (like last night I cooked spaghetti…of course it had chorizo in it instead of Italian sausage), sometimes I’m cooking more Mexican style food. Since Abby is a vegetarian, I have learned to make a tasty pot of beans. Beans have become one of our staples in the US. It's natural for us to eat them here.

We'll keep you posted on our food adventures. We're still going slow on buying and preparing meat. This will be a more tricky undertaking, but I know we'll get to the place where we can buy the big hunk of flesh hanging on a hook and turn it into something appetizing.