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July Market Report
The Flavors of Mexico
For many of us, Mexican food means tacos from a fast food
joint, or nachos and salsa watching a football game. Fun enough. But not a
fair assessment of real Mexican food, akin to Europeans thinking all America
has to offer in the way of cuisine is the hamburger. Logic tells us that a
large country with centuries of history would have developed a cuisine with
plenty of variance, flavor, and interest. And so it is with Mexico. With native
foods mixed with European influences, Mexico offers a rainbow of incredibly
interesting regional cuisines of both bold and subtle flavors. Your viewpoint
of Mexican food will likely expand once you experience how fresh, healthy,
and flavorful real Mexican dishes can be.
At Dorothy Lane Market you will find the ingredients you
need to duplicate several tasty dishes from Mexico’s culinary heritage.
Just take note of some of these ingredients and dishes highlighted here in
this issue of the Market Report. We will also prepare from scratch some very
flavorful Mexican foods for you to try in the store. Indeed, the whole month
of July will be a fiesta mexicana at DLM. Join us for the fun!
Memories of Real Mexican
Food by José Manzano
José Manzano, DLM’s Produce
Director, was born in the south of Mexico in a state called Yucatán.
Around 1960, he was a young man seeking adventure and set out to explore the
United States. He eventually ended up in Dayton and has been part of the DLM
family for the past few decades. Over the years, José has taught us
much about Mexico and its cuisine. In the following article, José reminisces
about his food heritage.
Growing up in the city of Mérida, Yucatán,
in the south of Mexico, the only food I knew was real Mexican cuisine. We
called it comida yucateca (meal of Yucatán). Mexico, just like many
other countries, has different kinds of foods depending on the region. The
Northern Mexican town of Tampico is famous for its filete tampiqueño
(a steak dish), just like the central part of Mexico has its carnitas (a pork
dish), and so on. As I would return to the Yucatán for visits over
the years, sometimes my family and I would often take the long drive, passing
through the length of Mexico, enjoying some of the regional specialties. In
the state of Veracruz, the seafood is the star with specialties such as ceviches,
fresh red snapper, and much more. Another regional specialty we love is from
the state of Puebla. This is the famous mole poblano, a wonderful dish made
with chicken or turkey; the mole sauce is what makes this so very tasty. A
good mole is made with a variety of fresh chiles like ancho, mulatto, pasilla,
but mainly chipotle. These are roasted and made into a paste that also includes
spices, cacao beans (chocolate), almonds, and cinnamon. This sauce is poured
over the previously cooked chicken or turkey then served with fresh tortillas.
Just writing about it makes my mouth water. To make the sauce on your own
is a lot of work, but now of course, you can buy that sauce already made in
a jar. (I prefer Doña Maria brand, available in our Grocery Department.)
The area of the Yucatán Peninsula offers
some distinct cuisine influenced by its Mayan heritage, a culture still very
much alive today. Some important ingredients of the foods of this area include
achiote (annatto seed) which gives not only a distinctive taste but also a
red color to food. Habanero chiles are another very important ingredient to
table sauces, as well as almost always being on the dining table, much like
we serve pickles or olives as a complement to the meal here in the States.
I remember when growing up, my mother would roast a habanero chile for my
father and serve it to him with a little touch of olive oil. My dad would
eat the entire pepper with his meal! You know what a feat this is if you’ve
ever experienced the heat of habanero. Dad’s forehead would perspire
profusely as he enjoyed his daily habanero ritual, and he would always say,
“Ah, that is a good one!” I’m not sure if the habanero was
responsible, but Dad rarely caught a cold or bug.
Another memorable Yucatán dish is panuchos,
which are stuffed tortillas with refried black beans. These can be served
with you choice of toppings after frying them. Mother would top them with
marinated onions, sliced avocados, sliced tomatoes, and
shredded turkey or chicken. And this dish, like most, is served with some
kind of salsa. There are many, many types of salsas, but the main ingredients
are tomatoes, chiles, and cilantro, and you build from there. One of the things
that enhances the flavor of sauces is roasting the fresh chiles as well as
roasting your tomatoes. My mother would pre-roast her tomatoes or chiles before
she used them in her sauces on an old fashioned comal, kind of like an iron
skillet used for the purpose of making fresh tortillas.
So, out of all this good food, what is my
favorite authentic dish from my homeland? It is a dish that could be served
as a breakfast or brunch and is called huevos motuleños . This dish
is named for the small town in Yucatán by the name of Motul. It consists
of two fried-crisp tortillas, two eggs, refried black beans, and a freshly
made tomato sauce, topped with cheese.
In this article, I’ve just mentioned
a tiny fraction of all the good eating you can enjoy in Mexican cuisine. As
Produce Director, you can see my bias for good ingredients of Mexican cuisine
in our selection of flavorful fresh chiles and peppers along with succulent
tomatoes-on-the-vine in our Produce Departments. You can also find a lot of
other excellent raw ingredients here at DLM to make a tasty—and very
close to authentic, Mexican meal. Besides the fresh produce, you can build
a great Mexican comida with natural meats like Coleman Beef and Wellington
Farms or Hill Family Farm chicken, organic eggs from Morning Sun Farms, white
cheese from Mexico, and lots more. Enjoy the flavors of Mexico with me and
my friends at DLM during the month of July. Nos vemos pronto! (See you soon!)
José
- 10% off all fresh chiles from our Produce Department all month
long!
- Doña María Mole Sauce (Grocery) 8.2-oz jar $2.89
- Abuelito Cruz Tortillas (Dairy) 12-ct pkg 99¢
- Supremo Queso Fresco Cheese (Dairy) 15 oz $7.69
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