EatNopales

Gracias! How have you dealt with the food planning issues in the past? How long do various prepped foods keep refrigerated in a commercial kitchen... do you make big batches, freeze in small packages & thaw regularly etc.,

Thanks Lisa & Edward... could you please give me a sense of how dramatic the swings are... say you are doing an average 60 covers per day.... is a particularly good day 120 covers & a bad day 30 covers... more severe, less severe?

I don't disagree with your premise, but I'm guessing that the health regulations aren't as strict (or as strictly enforced) in Guadalajara as they are up here. We're not even allowed to sell raw milk cheeses less than 60 days old! (grumble) There's no way a place around here would be allowed to sell unrefrigerated fresh mozzarella that's just sitting out in a counter all day. Places like Casa della Mozzarella literally make the mozzarella while you wait, put it in a tray and give it directly to you -- which is the only way I think they're able to get away with not refrigerating it. So CDM is using refrigerated, pasteurized milk.. to make Milk Curds that are presumably kept at a "safe" temp zone... then you order & they make it... or do they go from cold milk to mozz ball when you order?

Hello... I would be very grateful if those who have run limited service places with real food (i.e., not interested in franchises, sandwich shops, mall joints etc.,) could give me a sense of the peaks & slow days of the weak, as well as how steep these are... What are the busiest & slowest days of the week? How much higher than average is the busiest day of the week? How much lower than average is the slowest day of the week? What are the busy times of the year? What are the slowest times of the year? How much higher are the busy seasons, how much lower the slow seasons? Thank you very much!

I've never had the great Mozzarellas of Italy... but I've had some hand made stuff in some of California's best restaurants (like Chris Consentino's place) that I thought was pretty fabulous. However, with my personal, limited frame of reference it seems a solid Mozz should not be that impossible to sell in a fast paced retail environment. Bufalita, a fresh mozzarrella made in Guadalajara with local milk from Mexico's dairy capital sells never refrigerated Fresh Mozzarrella in f-ing 7 Eleven's all around Guadalajara and is what is used when you pick up a packaged Caprese salad from the cash register merchandisers... and I must say the Bufalita stuff was as good as Chris Consentino's... of course the quality of milk in Jalisco is second to none.

As far as I know the dried chile (which is what in most of Mexico is called Pasilla but in Michoacan called Negro... because there they call Ancho by the name Pasilla instead which should never be confused with the Oaxacan Pasilla!)... is cut in rings & pan fried then used to garnish on top of the soup but I am sure there is no one way that is more "Traditional" since it is a restaurant dish... and the various restaurant protagonists in Morelia claim that the different approaches are the "right" way to do it.

Hi Katie... the addition of Cheese, Crema & Fried Tortillas are what gives it the 20th Century Restaurant food element. Pre-Hispanic Cooking is generally much lower in fat than Hispanic cooking... Avocados & Pumpkin Seeds were the primary source of daily fats in the Mesoamerican cuisines (and its hard to eat European quantities of dietary fat because of the huge quantities of fiber that come with them).... Pre-Hispanic cooks did render oil from Pumpkin Sees & Duck Fat... but these were luxuries not part of the everyday foods. With regards to the timing of Tomato addition... in Mexico there are always multiple ways to do some thing with their own camps insisting theirs is the right way.... it is common to make the beans simply at first... then separately blacken the tomatos, garlic & onion... puree those... fry the sauce then added the pureed beans to the sauce to simmer until the flavors integrate.... that is my preferred method it results in a deep, hard to pin savoryness... even in my Vegan version there is so much depth of flavor that most people would not even miss animal broth, cheese or crema. Of course there is nothing wrong with broths etc., from an authenticity perspective... but in the grand scheme of constructing a pre-hispanic rooted complete meal... there is a certain balance in total fat to be achieved that sometimes makes it compelling to make some dishes in their most rustic & light incarnation.

A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to get to spend about 6 weeks in Michoacan - Morelia, to be exact. I went to one of those immersion language schools where you stay with a local family. I had told them that I would like to stay with a family that was interested in cooking. They said that the woman that taught their cooking classes, Chila, actually worked in the home of a family that hosted students, and I could stay with them. So I did. Chila was a Purépecha Indian woman from a village not far from Patzcuaro. She and I hit it off immediately, and I spent many hours in the kitchen with her, watching her cook, and listening to her stories about her village. As is typical in Mexico, the family had their big meal (comida) around 2 in the afternoon. This meal always included a soup and Sopa Tarasca was the favorite of the patriarch, "El Señor," Don Pepe, so they had it at least once a week. I told her that I had had it at the restaurant in Patzcuaro where it was purportedly invented, and asked her if she knew whether or not her version was prepared anything like the original recipe. She responded that she had no idea, as she had never eaten at that restaurant and wasn't familiar with the "original recipe," but that hers was basically identical to the way everyone else in her village made it, for whatever that was worth. Here are the notes I made at the time (and posted on another cooking board): ETA: Since I originally posted this, back when I first got home, I've made the soup quite a number of times. I'm still kind of "guessing" as to the amounts of the ingredients used, but it's turned out great every time. On the Sopa Tarasca controversies.... Sopa Tarasca evolved as a restaurant version of a more traditional Bean & Tomato Atapakua (Atapakuas are the Purepecha name for Light Moles that are primarily thickened with Vegetables and/or Legumes as opposed Nuts, Seeds, Masa and/or Chiles).... I am possibly going into the restaurant business in the next 3 months & have been working on recipe development etc.... my version of "Sopa Tarasca" is rooted in the pre-hispanic version (because I like, it fits my story & is Vegan friendly)... I am using RG's Bolita beans (cooked in Clay), Fresh Tomatoes, Onions & Garlic, Salt... no other dried chiles, cheese or cream... plus a garnish of quick fried cilantro leaves.... if you want a fulfilling, low calorie, deeply soulful, ancient dish it is hard to beat... you really don't miss anything else.

The Bolitas are great in Sopa Tarasca (Tomato - Bean Soup) & Dulce de Frijol (Sippable Bean Pudding)

Everybody has to die from something.. but for me in my current situation that would be such a cop out. Its not dying... its the prospect of a long protracted, debilitating, expensive disease that could bankrupt our family & leave my young girls orphaned that is unattractive to me. I have that immigrant mindset.. my dad left me in a better situation than he grew up in & I will leave my girls in a better situation than I grew up in... if drinking filtered coffee instead of french press makes that a tiny bit more likely... then that is what is important to me.

Lima beans are pretty fantastic.. in their dried form they have a very interesting muskiness to them that evoked truffle oil, but have suffered character assassination at the hands of commodity frozen vegetable mixes. Nopales in pureed Lima Bean soup is a classic of Mexico State.. and would convince any doubters with a single bite. BTW... fresh green Lima Beans are fantastic as well...

I definitely would not say that. For me, anyway, cooking up a big pot of beans is such a "by the seat of your pants" sort of endeavor that it's impossible to come up with any kind of definitive routine recipe/method. I do usually add a clove or two of garlic with the initial water, but often nothing else until the beans are tender, and sometimes not even then. I have a clay bean pot (olla) that I got in Mexico, and I'll put in the beans and water and put that pot on a low fire and add nothing else to it at all until it's done, when I sprinkle in a little salt, and then serve the beans in individual bowls with some fresh pico de gallo or salsa cruda made with onions, chiles, cilantro and tomatoes on the side to garnish. But sometimes I will saute onions, celery, jalapenos with a little pork fat or bacon or something and some cumin or cilantro or other herb in the bottom of my big stew pot and then add the liquid and the beans. I don't usually add salt until the beans are tender, but sometimes I cook them in chicken broth, which definitely has salt. I will say that no matter what, I don't ever add acid (like tomatoes) until the beans are tender. I heard once, long ago, that adding acid will cause the beans to never soften, although I've heard others dispute that, so who knows. I will say that what seems in my view to be the number-one most-popular bean dish in Texas is Mexican/Cowboy-style pot beans, and the main way to cook them is called Charro Beans, or Borracho Beans (you can google either term for recipes). They're usually made with pintos or Peruana or Flor de Mayo or Flor de Junio, but you can make them with basically anything. There are as many recipes as there are bean cooks, but for the most part, you cook the beans in chicken broth or water with a clove or two of garlic, until tender. "Borracho" means "drunk" in Spanish, so this denotes the addition of beer to the cooking liquid at some point. Then, after the beans are well-cooked and tender, you fry up the "seasonings," which usually include lard, some sort of chiles, onions, more garlic, cilantro, perhaps bacon or salt pork, and tomatoes. After the seasonings are fried, you add them to your pot of tender beans and simmer another half-hour or so. These soupy beans are always meant to be eaten with a spoon, in order to slurp up the juices. They are never served in a heap on your plate in the manner of sweet baked-baked beans. They are either served in bowls (at home and in many restaurants), or in paper cups or something similar (at picnics, etc.) and a spoon. The mistake many folks unfamiliar with this type of bean make is to drain them, and then try to eat them with a fork. So much of the flavor is in the juice, and it's lost if you don't slurp it up with the beans. Fascinating subject. Never-ending possibilities. Just wanted to point out that in Mexico there is distinction between Frijoles Borrachos & Frijoles Charros... Charros often (usually) have Chorizo wheras the Borrachos don't & the Charros don't typically have Beer while the Borrachos do... and also some regional recipes call for Tequila, Sotol, Pulque, Tepache or Tejuino (with secondary fermentation) instead of Beer. And then of course there is the closely related Frijoles Maneados... which can best be thought of as the "Risotto" of pot beans... where the beans are cooked low & slow with additional broth / seasoned water until the beans distingrate into a cloudy, velvety texture on their own / not mechanically... there is also the familiar garlic, chorizo & bacon that finds there way into the dish & then finished off with Asadero melting cheese that is allowed to disintegrate into the body. Never ending possibilities indeed.

Italian beans, French beans, schbeans! Anyone who has any interest in Mexican cuisine, & the place where all beans originated... where else are you going to get the heirloom varietals that are so key in truly traditional & authentic Mexican regional cooking? Yeah if you have a good Mexican market nearby you might be able to find fresh, non-GMO varietals like Flor de Mayo, Canarios, Yucatec Black Beans & Lima Beans... but beyond those it is nearly impossible to find the regional treasures that have long histories going back to ancient civilizations.

This is not helpful. Country asked a reasonable question about the statement "RG beans are fresher". Country even expressly said that the quality of the beans was not being questioned, simply the logistics of how they could be fresher, given the nature of beans, seasons, etc. For this, you offer a dismissive attack. I too am curious how the US ends up with huge stocks of years old beans, if new harvests come every year. While it makes sense for commercial bean-product producers to keep some stashed against poor harvests, it doesnt make sense to pay storage for years when new product will be available. Its that whole 'just in time' inventory concept. Storage is expensive and risky. So, I too am curious where is the info on the age of the beans my grocer sells me. (I dont doubt I have beans in my cupboard old enough to vote, because I put them in that cupboard that long ago, but why would a grocer deal with inventory that way?) Having been a Jr. Executive at one of the larger Agri-Businessess in California... all I can say is that practice defies common sense & has to do with the whole intertwining of the Military-Industrial complex & the establishment of the USDA. Let me give you an example... lets say we could get three grape growers together to establish a grape processing Cooperative (in the full legal sense)... pooling money together to establish a winer.... and then lets say we have friends who do the same & establish a 2nd grape processing Cooperative which leases time on our winery production lines & warehousing space.. and both of these Cooperatives get together to establish a grape marketing Cooperative. The marketing Coop hires a sales person to sell the wines.. may or may not be branded. The marketing Coop can pay advances to its Coop members (in effect buying the wine... but legally it has to be called something different) The Coop members of the Marketing Coop in effect are the two processing Coops which in turn buy the grapes from the grape growers (although legally its an Advance not a sale)... Under the Tax Accounting rules for Coops those Advances don't count as revenue... instead the Coop must distribute the Coop profits to its members within 18 months of the Crop Year End... however Crop Expenses can be deducted the same year the expenses were incurred... so in effect you are recognizing current year expenses against revenues (and cash received) 4 years ago (on average)... as long as you are in a growing business (which is kind of guaranteed for most food commodities in a world with growing populations and where the USDA works tireless to expand export markets) then your tax bill is going to be quite low giving your actual Cash Flows & if you had to comply with normal corporate tax laws... and lets say this processing Coop was on a beautiful piece of land with a gorgeous house, staff & other amenities... all perfectly tax free.... and hence why those Wine Country real estate brokers drive around the $150k Mercedes. This is but just one weeeeee example of how the byzantine world of quasi-hidden Agriculture subsidies (i.e., not the Direct Payments we are more familiar with) leads to some business practices that don't quite make sense.... And of course then there is the Monopolistic Competition benefits that exist in many of these large Ag Commodity industries.... the ability to increase sustain profitability for all farmers of a commodity if they all agree to sell their stuff to a few giant Coops that can then play all kinds of games of artificial scarcity, paper trading etc., to generate more money than the "honest" side of the business could yield.

Actually that is exactly what happens... as Andie points out there are very large agri-businesses that buy up commodities, store them in silos & release them at their convenience. Further there are commodities trading companies in the financial centers that do the same thing without ever intending to market the beans as a food... they take legal ownership at a 3rd party warehouse.. play some trading shenanigans then sell them to a buyer when it makes sense. The norm for beans in the U.S. is that they are old... those of us that come from bean cultures are painfully aware of how fresh or old they might be. Now just like everything that goes up must come down... you do see periodic gluts of very fresh beans at fire sale prices (my parents were expert buyers... loading up with fresh harvest of cheap beans when available.. and whining about the bean quality the other 95% of the time). As to the question about whether the old beans are sold in reputable stores or "dumped abroad"... actually the U.S. has the worst (oldest) beans of any major bean producer... in the pre-NAFTA world enterprising families in L.A. would make a good, cash income smuggling in things from Tijuana... no not Marijuana... cigarettes, tequila, medicine.... beans among others. The old beans are sold everywhere from the 1,000 unit super market chains to whole foods & other specialty stores... in general the U.S. consumer is not knowledgeable about beans nor cares to be... and the quality of the beans generally reflects that. RG's beans are fantastic.. and he is helping keep varietals on the "endangered list" viable.

Whole other issue... there are links between very high consumption of sodium & fermented vegetables & stomach cancer.

Yup... I think both countries were in the moderately high stomach cancer rating. Although I should not the coffee ground drinking countries stomach cancer rates were moderately low compared to the East Asian countries... but still higher than their neighboring countries.

Its not a question of enjoying life for me... its about picking my vices... which in my case is often a daily regiment of half bottle of wine & a tequila or cognac night cap I figure I have to make up for it with a moderate flesh, high fruit & vegetable, low coffee ground diet + organic comfortors & no MDF treated plywood in the house

Soot was used loosely to mean the grounds the seep through the mesh screen. Your Polish article kind of supports my point... in Warsaw they drink Espresso which has very little grounds and little to no correlation in increased cancer risk, in Sweden they boil the grounds & drink unfiltered and have high correlation. I did not cherry pick an article... I merely found one that pertained to an article I read a year ago.

Citation? "Dramatic increase" is very strong language. I've seen studies that correlate consumption coffee made without paper filters (e.g., french press, espresso) to increased cholesterol levels. I'd think you'd consume at least much "soot" if you ate chocolate or any well-browned food. Here's what a 2006 review has to say. If consumption of unfiltered coffee increased cancer risk, the would have included it in the summary alongside the cholesterol-raising effects: Sweden, which has comparatively high stomach cancer rates, is the 2nd highest per capita consumer of coffee. The following study of Swedish women found a 22% increase risk of stomach cancer among coffee drinkers. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16841331 Research of stomach cancer rates in other countries found little to no correlation between coffee & stomach cancers.... a brief I came across in the Google News aggregator in the last year or so mapped the coffee drinking countries & their stomach cancer rates & found that the countries' where the typical coffee preparation involves filtering out the grounds had the low / no correlation between coffee consumption, while those where the grounds are not filtered.. such as in Swedish kettle boiled coffee.. there is the increased cancer risk correlation. The countries with high cancer correlation were geographically, ethnically & culturally widespread. As to the comparison of "soot" from coffee, chocolate & food ash... coffee is known to be particularly "sticky" it lingers much longer in the gastrointestinal system, irritating the lining & in some extremes causing ulcers & bleeding... which is why its one of the first things restricted from patients with gastrointestinal disorders etc., Cancer seems to be a numbers game... the greater the exposure, in terms of quantity & time, the less likely our natural defenses can protect us... its not that the chemicals in coffee are necessarily so much more terrible than other things we consume.. its that the grounds stay so long in our body increasing exposure so much more. Its similar to the under cooked beef / colon cancer relationship... its not that beef is inherently more cancerous than other flesh.. its that under cooked beef (particularly when combined with a diet low in soluble fiber) stays so long in our gut (close to a week) that it dramatically increases the exposure relative to other types of flesh.

The funny thing is that my home standard is super market grade coffee brewed at home with paper filter, cheap grinder... and I can't drink coffee out because I have a hard time finding anything better. The real secret is finding the right fineness of ground & hitting the perfect temperature range for the water (about 188 F)... Too Coarse = Weak Coffee Too Fine = Too Much Bitterness & Soot in the Cup Too Cool = Weak Coffee Too Hot = Too Much Bitterness Control those elements, choose a decent coffee bean & everything else is pretty forgiving. I go with Cafe Pajaro from Trader Joe's... its organic, fair trade & cheap (about $6 / pound), its a moderately dark roast with good balance. I have one of those instant hot water spouts and with a the help of a thermometer I determined that nuking the water from the water spot for an additional 35 seconds in my particular microwave gets it up to 188F pretty consistently... I grind the beans in my entry level Bodum, run through in Melita or store brand paper filter... voila great coffee every time... once you develop a flow... the whole process through clean up is really quite effortless & quick. I like French Press coffee but the dramatic increase in cancer risk from the soot sitting in the digestive system doesn't justify the additional flavor boosting oils in the French Press coffee.

AWESOME new food show on Once TV... with the abysmal stupidity & inane ridiculousness of shows on Food Network and its fellow Infotainment degenerates.. trust me it would be worth learning Spanish for this one alone. It looks like they are going to make all the full episodes available on You Tube at the following page:

This link talks about the presence of Turmeric root in Chiapas and confirms it is labeled as Azafran. Also briefly discusses how the indigenous people there use Ginger & Basil for medicine but not for eating (hence why I think Galangal might not fight the flavoring scheme) http://www.mexconnect.com/forums/Areas_C2/Southern_Mexico_F13/Whores,_Turmeric,_Ginger_and_Basil_P145268/ Although I should note Ginger is used in making Birria in Michoacan & Jalisco, it is used in Mole Negro in Oaxaca. Also in Oaxaca they juice Basil with Cucumbers to make salad dressing that goes on Romaine, Cucumber Slices, Onions, Avocado & Pickled Jalapenos.... so these items to filter into the cooking traditions a little bit... but are more of an exception than the norm.

Good stuff! I am pretty sure that is the link.

Well this is getting interesting.. Galangal is grown in Mexico although its primary use has been as a medicinal tea. If I try to put myself in the mindset of an Otomi cook I am not sure Galangal would fit within the flavors they are trying to achieve & that would pair well with say some blue corn tortillas.