There might be no more romanticized state in Mexico than Oaxaca. As home to 16 distinct Indigenous groups that both anchor and drive the culture, the state of Oaxaca is as varied, complex, and beautiful as the rich moles for which it is famed. The word itself seems to emit a perfume of chiles, wild …
The spots to bookmark for crisp memelas, magnificent moles, and smoky grilled meats in the Oaxacan capital
What is it about Oaxaca? How is it that in this sprawling southwestern Mexican state, something as simple as a memela — a thick, oval tortilla made from ground masa and crisped up on a comal — can taste so otherworldly? The same holds true for a basic bowl of black beans. Or a blistered empanada — …
“In the village, people used to say that breathing the smoke from the chiles was good for you,” says Elvia León Hernández, coughing a bit from the plume as she tosses a combination of dried, thick-skinned chilhuacle chiles and ancho chiles on her comal. She moves the chiles continuously with an …
In the small Oaxacan village of Santa María Ixcatlán, Amando Alvarado Álvarez makes mezcal by channeling the secrets of seven generations of family members that came before him. Situated on a hilly natural reserve in the northern part of the Cañada region, just three and a half hours northwest of …
As a child growing up in Oaxaca’s Valles Centrales, Carina Santiago had to finish stripping the day’s corn from its cob before she could go out and play. Red, blue, yellow, and white varieties of native corn formed the basis of her family’s cuisine, and prepping it was an everyday chore: shucking …
My love for tamales, and connection to their innumerable forms, is very personal. As a Chicano growing up in the Central Valley of California, my holiday table always included my grandmother’s perfectly moist, spicy tamales, and they’ve remained a benchmark for me as a food writer covering Latin …
Careful steps are required to navigate the slippery, sandy ramp that drops you into Bahía Maguey, a popular tourist beach in the municipality of Santa Maria Huatulco, 166 miles southeast of Oaxaca City. At first glance, the tight palapa-lined cove seems not unlike so many other great Pacific …
Oaxacan cuisine — like Oaxaca City itself — can’t be encompassed in a single day of eating, but it’s sure as hell worth a try. World-class delights exist on every corner, from sunrise to sunset, at the city’s many street-food carts, family-run fondas, coffee shops, mezcalerías, and fine-dining …
During the five years I lived in Oaxaca, in the last building on a dead-end cobblestone street, I marked time by the paleta man. I would wake up early in the morning and work until I heard that tripartite, baritone call from the calle below: “Pa-le-tas Pop-ey-e! Pa-le-tas Pop-ey-e!” “Güera,” the …
