caroline

Hey Jaymes, where is it you haven't been? Tell us about that yacht club. I'd love to go to Panama, but dream on. And Esperanza I think you like Jaymes will enjoy Ana's postings (she will make many I am sure because she is an amazing correspondent). She really knows food, not just Panamanian food, Rachel

Oh, I forgot to say Elena that there is query about the chocolate of Bariloche in the Latin American forum. As I remember this chocolate it would not make Bariloche a destination spot for chocoholics. But perhaps I'm wrong. Have you run across it. Maybe you could post an answer. And of course there are many other wonderful reasons to go to Bariloche. Best, Rachel

Elena, Welcome. I'm so glad to see you posting (specially since I'd lost your contact information). And I'm sure all the regular posters agree that it would be great to get you chipping in with your chocolate knowledge on the Mexico forum. Alll the best, Rachel

What can I say? I love it. When I was there the concession to the local was a stir fry place at Manoa gardens (4000 calories a go according to some student survey) and chopsticks everywhere. This looks terrific for student dining. But then Hawaii students are pretty sophisticated diners, Rachel

In e-Gullet's continuing search to reach the global food community, here's a nifty source. La Prensa in Panama. The food page is run by Ana Alfaro who is really well informed (speaks fluent Spanish, English and Japanese) and writes great pieces. the story of La Prensa goes something like this. In early 1999, Deputy Director (Acting Editor) Gustavo Gorriti of La Prensa, Panama's most important newspaper, started searching for a food critic. Gorriti, a Peruvian journalist, had been forced into self-exile after having been abducted by order of Vladimiro Montesinos, President Fujimori's Svengali. Gorriti would then play a pivotal role in the ousting of Fujimori and in bringing Montesinos to justice. Ana Alfaro started writing her column, Buen Comer (Good Eating), on April 8th, 1999. She was the first hard hitting restaurant critic in the country to the outrage of restaurateurs and their lawyers. Her comment is "La Prensa had previously stood up to the Noriega dictatorship, and was not about to be intimidated by a group of chefs, no matter how good their knife skills." Her pieces can be read online every Wednesday at www.prensa.com Sección Revista. She writes the cover story under her own by-line, and the Buen Comer restaurant review under her pseudonym, Aristóloga. Earlier articles can be accessed through the Ediciones Anteriores tag. The last two pieces dealt with the Christmas leg of pork and the Culinary Association of Panama and its competitions for the brightest and best chefs, attended by Patrick Michel of Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. With any luck, she's going to join e-Gullet. So welcome to Ana and La Prensa, Rachel

Ah an appetizer for the menudo, right? Perhaps many of the same ingredients, too! Rachel

Rancho Gordo, I've been poking about a big with your questions. Bean terminology, as you know better than I, is not an exact science. The Diccionario Gastronomía Mexicana says that bayo is simply another name for the flor de mayo bean. The flor de mayo is probably the commonest bean in central Mexico and sounds like your description--like a pinto but a paler pinkish color. It's cooked in all the usual ways. And bayo in Spanish means bay as in the color of bay horse. I'd guess that is a more likely source than bayou. Then I asked around here which counts, after all, as central Mexico. And the whole question turned a bit murkier. In local terminology, there are three pink beans in this region, flor de mayo, flor de junio, and rosa de castillo. They are very similar except the last is a bit bigger than the first two. And there are three yellow beans, bayo which is slightly yellow (oh dear), peruano which is slightly more so, sort of pale greenish yellow, and garbancillo (which is not a garbanzo) and which is is almost yellow. I'd guess though that you've got what is normally called a flor de mayo. Not sure this helps, Rachel

Well, that's a relief Sun-Ki because if they allowed this kind of sloppy management their name would be badly damaged. I do seem to remember that in the early 90s when they were exploding in Hawaii they had some, shall we say, outlets that didn't match up to the Chinatown one, but they took care of that. I yearn for their sandwiches, their spring rolls, and my husband just doesn't think my coconut milk tapioca pudding is even worth eating. May they expand! Rachel

OK, I'm fired up by my evening scotch and waterso I'll be indiscrete. Anyone want to speculate when there are so many marvelous dishes in Mexico what gets the egullet readership going is hot dogs? Shaking the head, Rachel

Thanks so much. I for one have filed this away for the next chance I get to visit Guadalajara, Rachel

And interestingly, the NY Times story got picked up by the food page of the Mexico City newspaper, El Monitor. So Esperanza your good wok's gone full circle! Oh and good to have you posting Luismi! Look forward to more of your Mexican-US perspective, Rachel

This is great. I'd never heard of Sodexho. And how Ba-le has grown. My goodness. I went to what looked as if it was one of their franchises in Austin and it was a real disappointment. Not very clean, not the same range of products. But I loved the ones in Honolulu Rachel

The Brazilian journalist Josimar Melo and his team have a great site for Brazil. It's in Portuguese, obviously, but even if you don't know the language just scanning it gives you a great sense of what's going on in Brazilian food, particularly in Sao Paolo. http://basilico.uol.com.br/ Rachel

A tumbagone, Shelora, is about the size and shape of a brandy snap if you're familiar with brandy snaps. But it's much more fragile. I've never tried making them because they look like the kind of thing you need years of practice it. You beat 10 egg yolks, add 1/4 kilo flour, moisten with a touch of alcohol and water cooked with the husks of tomates and tequisquite until you have a "pasta dura y tersa." Let it rest, roll out, form into tubes, glue long sides together with egg white, fry in lard, and sprinkle with icing sugar. Ethereal. And Judith you'd be saddened to know there is no longer any street food in the center of SMA. All the stands were moved out to a street off Ancho San Antonio where of course it's hard for them to drum up much business. So you have to go to the regular market or the Tuesday market. And if you're going, although Nancy Zavlafksy's book is really useful and she spends each summer in SMA, the Tuesday market has also been moved since she wrote and it now just past Gigante on the road out of town to Querétaro. Rachel

My goodness. And I thought bacon-wrapped hot dogs were a US specialty. I occasionally treat my husband to them as they are one of his comfort foods. But not, definitely not, with a regular Mexican hot dog, an object I approach with extreme caution. You can get good bacon here but I only buy hot dogs from a deli owner who gets them from a German(I think) source in Mexico City, Rachel

Hello Glossyp, Delighted to try to help, specially for a fellow friend of Hawaii. I'm not sure what kind of restaurants you are looking for. SMA is bursting with restaurants. When you get there pick up the local gringo rag, Atencion. Front page, Berlin, the most exquisite German recipes, Harry's fine cajun and creole, Villa Jacaranda Mr Chips Fish and Chips, La Grotta Italian cuisine, etc. Should I guess that this is not what you are after? I don't live in SMA anymore and thus can't guide you to great places. Nickarte lives there but is overseas right now. Bugambilia is the oldest "Mexican" restaurant in town but gets mixed reviews. Otherwise it's not mainly Mexican though most places have Mexican touches and I believe that many of the newer restaurants are excellent. In the traditional Mexican line, the Tuesday market on the outskirts is well worth a visit. There's a little shop at the start of Ancho San Antonio that sells Mexican sweetmeats including SMA's trademark tumbagones which are delicate and delicious with coffee (and aren't going to survive much longer because they are so labor intensive). On Saturdays (and Sundays if the meat lasts), there were great carnitas at La Cruz del Perdon about eight miles north of town on the road to Dolores. My friend, María Solórzano, gives what I believe to be some of the best cooking classes in Mexico though her establishent is a humble one. www.traditionalmexicancooking.com.mx It's a great place to spend a week--good weather, great artesania, lots of interesting buildings, etc. pm me if you want more ideas. I'm just an hour away in Guanajuato capital. Rachel

OK, I don't think any of us who read this are about to start stuffing moras. Sounds like a great menu. the very thought of that mole makes my mouth water, Rachel

Hi Rancho Gordo, Great about the aguamiel. Do you know the website www.bioplaneta.org? It has several groups of Mexican women selling such things. In fact if you can't get enough, I know various villages around here where it's regularly made for home consumption and where I bet, if the price was right, they'd be delighted to make it for the market. These women's groups are springing up all over. One group works about ten miles from here (they're not on the web site). They make terrific nopal pickles, jams from local fruits, jaleas (natural jels), cordials etc., all simply but nicely packaged. it's very nice to see this grass roots operation making a go of it. People come from quite a distance to buy. And otherwise there is no employment in this village. Rachel

Esperanza, No better forum than the New York Times. What fun it must have been. And for goodness sake, don't let this story languish here in the Mexico section. Put it in the Food Media (or whatever it's called) section tomorrow. If you don't, I will. Cheering you on, Rachel

Thanks Sun-Ki. I specially like the ideal types, Rachel

Ah Mercado San Juan, one of my favorite in the city. There must also be a cheese place somewhere in the Polanco/Chapultepec area of Mexico City. I'll ask next time I'm down there. And Chefesteban, you're right of course. If you are in a city with a Sanborns, you can get Mexico city papers, Rachel

Nickarte, I assume you know the book La Cultura del Antojito by José Iturriaga. It came out a number of years ago. But I'm sure some of the but I'm sure some of the taco, torta and tamales y atole stands he mentions are still in business, Rachel

I'm sure the folks here would love to sell in Guadalajara. I'll be going to the big agricultural fair in Irapuato in a couple of weeks and will pass the message along. as you know/will have gathered distribution of anything here is a big, big problem. Artisanal cheeses, I think, are still mainly sold door to door or in the market or by street vendors outside the market. You have your man who comes around. This can be tricky because you need someone with really good health standards. Imported cheeses are limited. Europa which surely has a branch in Guadalajara has a very limited selection at least in Leon. I am sure there is some deli in Guadalajara somewhere. My choice was/is (1) Petit Cluny in San Angel, Mexico City--wonderful, wonderful cheese, local and imported. And when I went a couple of months ago they'd closed. Llora y llora (cry and cry). Must be something in Polanco. (2) Remo's in San Miguel. Locally produced Italian. Closed. Llora y llora. (3) La Cava, San Miguel. Artisanal and imported. Still going. Not such a great place as the other two. I'm working on making my own hard cheeses, such is my desperation for them, Best, Rachel

This is fascinating because I think it goes to the heart of the difference between Mexican and Western (including American) cooking. Growing up I learnt that flour was the thickener for soups, sauces etc. I learnt to reach for flour whenever anything looked too watery. I don't think that's the reaction of a Mexican cook. Absolutely they use masa for atole as Esperanza says. And they probably use it elsewhere as Theabroma says. But most Mexican sauces are thickened (1) by the flesh of tomatillos and chiles as in salsa verde, roja and adobos or (2) in more complicated pipians and moles by some or all of the same and seeds, nuts and spices as well. I asked one of my friends about this today. Since Mexican cooking is so divided by class and region, here's her background. She's lived in Guanajuato all her life, her husband was an upper level bank manager, she ran a very successful comida corrida (quick lunch which means soup, rice/noodles, main dish, dessert) place for about fifteen years, and is well traveled and educated (just back from a wedding in Helsinki, Finland). Oh yes, she said, we use harina (flour) to thicken cremas and salsa gravy. What kind of harina? Well harina de trigo (wheat flour) or masa harina (maseca). Masa harina is more "finura" --fine or refined or better in general--than harina de trigo. Now salsa gravy is something I've had my eye on for some time so I asked her to define it. That's the salsa you use with a roast pork loin, roast chicken, pork chops, or crepes. She'd just yesterday been to a wonderful comida where crepes with salsa gravy ( a white salsa gravy) were the second course between the wild rice and the shrimp. Cremas are pureed vegetable soups. So what she was saying essentially was that flour thickeners, whether of wheat flour or masa harina, were used to thicken cream soups, gravy and bechamel. That is, basically Western sauces. I asked her whether she used harina to thicken salsas de chile and she said never. Rachel

Esperanza and Rancho Gordo, you are quite right I mispelled cotija. And lucky you having it in huge wheels. It's not nearly as common here in Guanajuato except in said miserable plastic packets but i'm going to search it out. Maybe we should swap it for goat cheese producers! We have a slew in the Bajio (the central agricultural region of Mexico, mainly in the state of Guanajuato). Jaymes, I think you're right that cheese names are all over the place. Which leads me to what I think is really going on with these researchers and in this article. After a period seeking agricultural self-sufficiency, Mexico is now hell bent on entering the world agricultural market. The lessons of Europe aren't lost on them. We are here where most European countries were about 100 years ago. One or two widely made/distributed generic cheeses and a whole lot or regional variants. The obvious thing to do is to codify and upgrade the regional variants. I think that's why the article didn't mention queso fresco or ranchero. It's too widespread to be a candidate for denominación. Glancing through the list of cheeses and their descriptions, I'd say many of the them are in fact regional variants of queso fresco and/or doblecrema. By the way Esperanza, there are thirty on the list though it looks less when written out. Anyway, I expect this is just the beginning of the discovery/invention of regional cheeses for the international market. Probably a tourist market since soft cheeses don't ship well, Rachel