The oblong, nubby cactus pear is probably the most abundant fruit in the city right now. Markets have got them at four pounds for less than a dollar. They’re skinned and sheathed in plastic for people who want to eat them right there, with chili powder and lime.
I prefer them plain. [...]
Continue Reading →Juanita is a Mexican woman in her 90′s who lives in the Colonia Cuauhtémoc. She still cooks every day, and her food is superb.
Last year I was lucky enough to make chiles rellenos with her in her kitchen. With my friend Lizzie, who was living with Juanita, we charred and seeded [...]
Continue Reading →Pan de elote literally means “corn bread,” and it’s one of those iconic Mexican desserts I can’t get enough of.
This is not like American cornbread at all. When it’s done right, it’s like the freshest homemade creamed corn crossed with a flan or bread pudding. It’s not so much a bread [...]
Continue Reading →Día de los Muertos is my favorite holiday in Mexico City. I love the orange cempasúchitl flowers that suddenly pop up in the street medians and parks, and the altars sprinkled with flower petals and candles. I love watching the seasonal fall foods finally arrive in the markets: pan de muerto, [...]
Continue Reading →After lunch on Saturday, Crayton and I went on a stroll through Plaza Rio de Janeiro in the Roma neighborhood. An ice cream vendor there caught my eye: she sat under a little tarp, with her metal ice cream cylinders wedged inside ice-packed buckets. Her flavors had been written in a whimsical font. One [...]
Continue Reading →Nicuatole stole my heart when I first tried it at a Mexico City restaurant a few months ago.
The waiter had described it as a corn-based dessert, and it arrived as two off-white, triangular wedges sitting in a puddle of vanilla sauce. As soon as I tasted, my mind turned to ooze. The [...]
Continue Reading →A few weeks ago, I was strolling around Mercado San Juan when I spied some white, donut-shaped peaches at a back stall.
“Can I have a taste of these?” I asked the woman.
She grabbed one and cut off a thick slice. One bite — one juicy, sweet, summery bite — [...]
Continue Reading →I’ve been dreaming about Mexican chocolate tofu pudding since Crayton forwarded me the New York Times recipe a few weeks ago. It was my turn on our recipe exchange, so I ditched my Mexican chocolate ice cream idea and told everyone I was making dairy-free pudding. A few people were like, [...]
Continue Reading →A lot of my culinary adventures lately have started with a rotting mamey. This one I’d been suckered into buying on Sunday at the tianguis. (Where, it must be remembered, I was hungry.)
I accepted a particularly juicy chunk from a vendor and thought, Well… maybe I can slice this up [...]
Continue Reading →So, um, those cinnamon rolls…
They didn’t turn out very well. The flavor was fine. (Well, okay, I could have added more butter.) But they didn’t rise. And they were hard. Even with the cream cheese frosting…. it was like biting into a cinna-frisbee. Bleh. Maybe I boasted too much about kicking the [...]
Continue Reading →Who is Mija?
Mija is Lesley Téllez, a food writer and culinary guide based in Mexico City. In 2010 I co-founded the tourism company Eat Mexico.On FB!
