Last week over lunch at El Cardenal, one of the restaurant’s owners, Marcela Briz, stopped by our table. Dining with me were some fancy guests — Penny, two chefs from the States and Ruth Alegria. So Señora Briz graciously gave us each a little present: a lotería game she researched and designed based on traditional Mexican foods.
I’ve seen riffs on the traditional lotería game before, but never anything that focused specifically on food. This game is actually quite educational. Each card contains a detailed description in Spanish of a variety of Mexican foods and cooking utensils. There’s a metate, comal, molcajete, cazuela, plus prehispanic foods like chinicuiles (maguey worms), amaranto and flores de maguey. And dozens more.
If you’re not familiar with how to play lotería (I actually don’t have much experience), Wikipedia says it’s like bingo except with pictures. Sounds easy enough. I wonder if you can play with mezcal?
As of now, the game is only available in Mexico City. You can find it the El Cardenal location inside the Hilton Hotel on Avenida Juárez, and at the Museo de Arte Popular. It costs 35 pesos, which seems like a steal for the amount of work that went into this.
If you’re a fan of Mexican cuisine and you’re passing through the city sometime soon, you should pick one up.
Interesting game and I want one….
I want one too. I already have an unusual one that uses black and white drawings done in the Posada style and all of the pictures represent common (and uncommon) nick-names for “death”.
I wish they sold this in the U.S. I would love to use this for my Spanish class. I love that there is pre-Columbian food, makes it even more educational and creative.
It looks lovely! What a great find and thanks for sharing!
OMG. I was just thinking of this kind of game/learning system when I was at the book store the other day! I was thinking to myself how useful it would be to have pictures on flashcards to learn Spanish. 😉 Thanks for sharing Lesley!
Awesome! I wish we had that here.
Hi Lesley,
Just saw your post and thanks. I’m going to stock up on these. I’ll be in Mexico City June 30-July 4. Thanks again for your always great and useful tips and information. You are one of Mexico’s great bloggers.