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I know - I know - most just buy it in bottles --- but I wanted to make my own. I recently tried Florence Tyler's recipe and, although even my local Mexican market didn't have the called-for Anaheim and Chipotle dried chlies and I had to use what they had, it turned out pretty tasty. BUT, I think I can do better! Anyone want to share their favorite? Many thanks, Sidecar Ron

I just returned from a fantastic week in Oaxaca (Go there now! There are no tourists and the city is tranquil and beaufitul). One of our favorite tastes of the city was the aromatic and spicy black bean puree used with tlayudas, quesadillas, huevos, and just about anything else. Does anyone know how to make this bean paste? I'm guessing it includes onion, garlic, herbs (maybe hoja de aguacate?), and perhaps dried chiles -- maybe the smoky pasilla de Oaxaca (I brought a ton of these back with me)? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

For those of you interested in Yucatecan Cuisine, Rick Bayless' TV series has been featuring the cuisine of the Yucatan for the past few episodes. Check it out on your local PBS station.

Welcome to the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off! Click here for the Cook-Off index. This cook-off: posole or pozole, the Mexican stew with hominy corn (the posole for which the dish is named). At the base of most posole is, of course, the corn itself, broth, and meat, usually pork. From there, well, the possibilities expand greatly. The pickin's on eG Forums are pretty slight: one discussion on dried vs fresh posole can be found here, there's a short topic here in the Mexico forum, and another asking questions here in Cooking. There are, however, two posole recipes in Recipe Gullet: fifi's barbeque posole and, well, my mother-in-law's fantastic recipe, which I'm calling Castañeda posole. Finally, our own rancho_gordo sells the remarkable stuff in the image above at his Rancho Gordo website. Posole is in my family's regular dinner rotation. Perhaps it is in yours -- or ought to be?

Looking for markets that specialize in authentic Mexican groceries? Thanks.

11701 Lake Victoria Gardens Ave. #5101 Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They opened a Rosa Mexicano here in Palm Beach in a new outdoor mall called Downtown at the Gardens. I went there last night and wasn't that thrilled and thought it was quite expensive for what it was. I did order a pitcher of Sangria for $22. The bartender took the plastic (kind you find everywhere) and filled it over the brim with ice cubes. He then added the liquor and I sipped my drink and it was all watered down. I complained and he considerably added more liquor and it was much better. He said the ice was to keep it nice and cold. Obviously they are trained to do that to make more profit. I had a dish of what they called Taco's and it was with chicken and cheese on a hot skillet. It's served with flour tortillas that are soft. It also comes with a sweet type cole slaw with pineapple and raisins which was the best part of the meal. I believe this dish was around $17-18. The skillet was square and about 3x3 inches. There was an ample amount of chicken but thats mainly what the dish was about. It maybe would total up to one breast if that. I am not really in a rush to head back there. They also serve chips which were coated in salt. The sauce for the chips which one is green and the other brown were pretty good though. We didn't order the freshly made at your table guacamole. -Scott

I took the family to Mama Mexico on Friday. I was hoping for something along the lines of a Rosa Mexicano experience. While we certainly paid a Rosa Mexicano price, the meal was a lot more like Taco Hell. Our bill came out to nearly $100 before drinks for three dishes, guacamole, and nachos. Sheesh! They do the guacamole at the table thing and it was fine. The ingredients were fresh. The chips were also fresh and crisp. Nachos are one of my two kid's favorite foods and they wouldn't touch them. For some reason, they drizzled a red sauce all over them. A warning would have been nice since the menu just said bean and cheese. The nachos arrived only slightly warm, but did have a nice scoop of guacamole on them. I somewhat enjoyed them until I did the math and realized I was paying about $1 per chip. I had the enchiladas mole poblano. Oof. It was like they made it with Hershey's syrup. Too sweet! It was like a chicken sundae. $24! My wife had some tacos. I was too disturbed by my meal to notice any more than her saying this was the worst. My kids had the chicken and beef fajitas. They were in tears when a big steaming pile of onions and peppers arrived with three flour tortillas. $22! Finally we dug out about 5 pieces of meat that were bathed in the same red sauce used on the nachos. After threatening "no dessert for a week", the kids finally choked it down. I haven't had fajitas since leaving Texas 10 years ago, so I'm not really sure what to expect. Aside from the very unsatisfying meal, the upsides were the decor and service. Our waitress was really nice and attentive. We had some virgin strawberry margs for the kids and pomegranite margs for the adults. They were good. My biggest regret is that I could have fed the family four times at La Batalla for that amount of money and we would have eaten far better food. Screw the fancy decor and the valet parking (oh man, I hate that).

I need a proper fish taco....does anyone have any suggestions????

I coudn't find a thread for Rosa Mexicana, except for Lincoln Center. If any of the moderators find one, feel free to merge. Truth be told, my wife and I went last evening because someone had given us a gift certificate last Christmas and it was about to expire. We hadn't been there is some 20 years (when it first opened). Well, I was very pleasantly surprised how good it was. First, we arrived at 7:15 without reservations and it was packed - both bar and restaurant. We were told it would be a 45-minute wait. After a few minutes we found a space at the bar and ordered some drinks and guacamole. The guac was served with both hard and soft chips - we ordered it spicy and it was. It was very good. We finally sat down (at about the 45-minute mark) and ordered a bottle of Snoqualmie Petite Sirah - at $24 one of the best restaurant wine values around. Appetizers were a smoked duck covered with chipotle sauce and a mushroom/cheese soft taco - served with two sauces (tomatillo & ancho). Both were very good - especially the moist, flavorful duck. Entrees were two stuffed Ancho Chiles with beef tenderloin and spices - excellent meat quality and firey spices. My wife ordered the rare Ahi Tuna - terrific quality and presented in a sushi manner. The sides were house rice and black beans - both quite tasty. The bill with tax came to $97 and my certificate was $125 - so I told the waiter to keep it. But as in Union Square a few months ago (for those of you who read the post), the real highlight was the show. Next to us sat four botox women all having a good time and to their right sat two gay men. One of the botox set was coughing and at one point one of the men said something to her about spreading germs. The lead woman, who was sitting next to the cougher, said something back. The discussion got somewaht heated. She said to the men that they shouldn't be sharing dessert because that's more dangerous than coughing. One of the men called her a c--t and asked if she knew what her husband was doing right now since she certain didn't look like the type that could satisfy him. She then got up and went over to the manager to complain about their language, but not without a parting shot. As she got up from the table she asked the man if he knew what being on the "down low" meant. If not, he should look it up. When the manager came over to the table, the two men left before he could say anything. That's what's great about NYC, you never know when you'll be treated to dinner and a show. The food was very good - I would return with or without the botox set.

I am going to be in Seattle for a stagette party on December 2nd. We will be staying in a hotel downtown (location TBD) and are looking for a caterer or restaurant that will deliver to the hotel. We are considering a hotel in the vicinity of the Pike Market so we may be able to pick up the goodies if the restaurant was in that vicinity. There will be 10 of us and we are looking at having mexican appies while we are getting ready to go out on the town for an evening of debauchery and fun. The bride is getting married in Mexico thus the mexican theme....... I was wondering what mexican restaurants provide delivery/catering/take out service that I could contact that are located in the downtown area and specifically around the Pike Place Market. Also, I had read about El Puerco Lloron and the Mexican Grocery in the Pike Place Market and was wondering if either of these places would fit the bill in getting an assortment of mexican appy type food to go.

Hiya! I'm supposed to be hosting a mini-tamalada this weekend and I just realized that my big bag of dried corn husks is AWOL. Corn husks are not something you can buy in Amsterdam AFAIK, but banana leaves are all over the place and I know that tamales are frequently done this way as you near the coasts in Mexico... My question is: has anyone done this? I've seen some recipes (and our eG blogs covering cornhusk tamales), but I'm looking to hear about any experience/tips/nonos when working with banana leaves instead...It looks like they're usually wrapped square (unfortch the miraculous world of the internets turned up about 7 photos...they might as well have been taken from across the street there's so little detail). Any suggestions welcomed. And....I just found out that there are vegetarians involved, so naturally I turn to cheese. I'd love to do a black bean/cotija tamale but I have no access to mexican cheeses, so I'm wondering if anyone has any experiences with more internationally available similar cheeses and can recommend something with a similar melt/taste profile. If pressed I'll probably use a harder Dutch goat cheese...or a very mild feta if I can find one....anyway... OK thanks, mark

hey friends, i am in Lisbon and, being from California, i would like to cook a Mexican style dinner (i was thinking fajitas, refried beans, and rice) for some Portuguese friends here who have no idea what this cuisine is about. luckily there is a Corte Ingles (Spanish supermarket chain) here where i can find almost everything (even tortillas and canned jalapeños!) however, i need to figure out some substitutions for the ingredients that i cannot find here....for example, Mexican chili powder for the marinade. i only saw Indian chili powder....will that do? and dried pinto beans? i saw Cranberry beans, are those the same? and what can I substitute for Serrano chilis (for the pico de gallo salsa)??? does anyone have any suggestions? oh yeah, one more question....this isn't Mexican food related but I have a recipe for a very decadent chocolate cake i would like to prepare for dessert...but it calls for mini-marshmallows and as far as i know those don't exist here....what can i do? thanks in advance!

We've been having a discussion on another forum (glass beadmakers) about Mexican cooking and one of our members, who lives in Sydney, lamented the scarcity of Mexican ingredients in Oz. In an effort to help, I searched all of the foodie websites I know, as well as Google, and didn't come up with much. Some dried chiles, some salsas, lots of tortillas. The one thing I had no luck with was maiz para posole, also known as maiz cacahuacincle, or - in the US - hominy. This corn product is an essential ingredient in posole. The dried form is preferred, as it makes a much nicer posole, but canned will certainly suffice. You know what they say about beggars and choosers. Anyone have any notion of where it can be had in Oz ... if at all? Many thanks, Barb

We were at farmer's market this morning, and we were looking at the decorative corn stalks. My bride found the cobs contained a black fungus. Each stalk had 2-3 infected cobs. I grabbed a number of them and am willing to experiment. Can anyone verify that this is actually Huitlacoche?

I'm researching for an article on foods prepared for Day of the Dead. Does anyone out there have a candoed pumpkin seed recipe? Any comments or thoughts on rituals surrounding thar day would be utmost helpful as well. Thanks.

Hello to all. My Mexican boyfriend and I have recently gotten into several heated discussions about the industrialization of Mexican food. When he lived in Mexico, he did not shop very often at large supermarkets, such as Gigante, Wal Mart, etc. He preferred to shop at mercados and tianguis (is street vendor an accurate translation for this?). At these venues in Guadalajara, he asserts that it is possible to find good quality produce, meats, and dairy products from organic and local sources. He lived in Mexico for almost thirty years and claims that what we know as "organic" and "natural" here in the US, is the norm in Mexico. I believe that at one time it was the norm, indeed. But now? I really do not know. Does anyone have any insight into this? My theory is that Mexico is on its way to heavy industrialization of food. Akin to what is described in Fast Food Nation. The kind of stuff that many people here in the US have rejected in the past years, such as factory farming, the use of pesticides and hormones, etc. I have a hunch that in Mexican supermarkets, the majority of the chickens and the meat do come from factories, just as here, but it's only a hunch. But do most people in Mexico shop at these places or are they really only affordable for and accessible to the small middle class? ****** On a side note, he also would like to know why he cannot find "crema" here in the US as he knew it in Mexico (which is much thicker and is really a solid in my opinion).

Chileheadmike and I have been talking about doing some kind of “taco crawl” up and down Central Avenue in KCK for at least the past year, and Saturday we headed out with his daughter for an impromptu dry run. With the lofts and loft-dweller friendly businesses hitting critical mass in the Crossroads, we have been hoping to crown Central (and Kansas) Avenue as “The New Southwest Boulevard”. This is by no means a comprehensive list of what the area has to offer, we probably passed by five times as many taquerias, carnicerias, paleterias and bodegas as we visited (all between 7th and 18th Street on Central and Kansas Avenues). I’m originally from the area…… born at Bethany Medical Center, grew up going to church at 15th and Central, got my first tattoo right across the street from it at East Coast Al’s, and it was amazing to see how the strip has changed over the years. When I last went to church down there in 1992 or so things had gotten pretty scary. Lots of drugs, violence, prostitution around the clock....your run of the mill HBO “America Undercover” documentary. At some point things have taken a huge turn for the better, at least at first glance. It’s much more lively and inviting, with lots of thriving new businesses and most importantly.......FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD! El Taconazo- 624 Kansas Avenue This was where we decided to meet up. We were both familiar with Roberto’s and planned to meet there, but alas it is no more. We couldn’t tell if El Taconazo occupied the space or if Roberto’s used to be further down the street. Besides having the coolest name, it also turned out to be our favorite all-around catch of the day. They provide table service and have what may be the largest menu I’ve ever seen in a Mexican restaurant. Everything from tacos to tortas to whole fried Tilapia. Since we were planning to hit several places, we kept things simple. At least that was the plan. We got a selection of tacos; pastor, carne asada and the simply titled “cabeza” ($1.50 each if I recall correctly, all served on two small corn tortillas with cilantro and onion). I also opted for the lengua burrito. Five stars all around. I’ll let chile boy speak about the chips and salsa, but they were pretty damn great. The tacos were all top notch, but the lengua burrito was stupendous. Packed with slow cooked and seasoned, chopped beef tongue along with a small amount of lettuce, tomato and white cheese. For $3.95 I wasn’t expecting something that huge, so needless to say it put me off my game a bit for the next three stops. I will absolutely be back to investigate more of the menu choices. In my humble opinion, it is a contender for "Best of KC". Paleteria Chihuahua- 1103 Kansas Avenue Just a few blocks down from El Taconazo is this little ice cream and taco shop, in what looks to be a former Dairy Queen or Velvet Freeze. Counter service only, with a small selection of tacos and tortas, churros and ice cream. We got a few tacos with carnitas and one with deshebrada (which I was slightly disappointed to find out only meant “shredded beef”), as well as a chocolate filled churro. The tacos were very good, almost identical to what we got at El Taconazo, but with the addition of lime wedges, fewer onions, and very finely shredded cabbage. The churro really came out of left field. I’ve only ever had them plain, and we were all surprised to get the choice of chocolate or caramel filling. I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth in the world, but I’d go back for another dose of that cinnamon and sugary goodness. Casa de Hernandez- 1817 Park Dr. Okay, the one clunker of the day. Not terrible food, don’t get me wrong, just your standard American-Mexican fare. Lots of cheese on everything, nachos and quesadillas galore, no heat to the salsa, etc. I kind of suspected that’s what we’d be getting, I grew up eating there way back when it was Casa de Tacos. We sampled tamales, flautas, fideo and a Mexican style chili with lots of beans and pork. Everything was decent enough, but the menu just didn’t have much beyond the norm. Considering the great food choices available just east of the restaurant, I probably won’t be back unless it’s because I’m talking someone down from an On The Border binge. I’ll take the hit on this one, boyhood nostalgia won out over common sense. Laura’s Restaurant- 1304 Central Avenue Damn that wonderful and filling lengua burrito at El Taconazo....little did I know this would be the last stop I could muster. Laura’s is pretty popular, by that I mean I’ve heard friends mention it in passing. They have table service, are open 24X7 on the weekends, have a taco stand outside AND a bakery right next door. I believe the building was a Hardee’s at one point. They have a pretty large menu selection, but we took the taco route once again just to try and get a good baseline between our three main contenders. Beginning with some wonderful horchata to settle the belly we ordered deshebrada and lengua tacos. I also ordered a lengua gordita (corn) and FINALLY I got to go all Tony Bourdain with a “buche” taco (deep fried pig stomach). I don’t even know enough Spanish anymore to make myself look stupid, so somewhere along the line I ended up with an extra lengua burrito that I ate at home late last night. These were some good tacos. Mike’s daughter chose this as her clear winner, but I’m sticking with El Taconazo. My gordita was very good, with the thick corn tortilla sliced through the middle, deep fried and stuffed with a TON of chopped and fried (totally different than Taconazo) tongue and some refried beans. This was my first experience with buche, and I have to say that I had about half a second of hesitation (before I tore into it with vigor). I’m guessing they deep fry the whole stomach and then chop it up. It just looks very different; perfectly symmetrical layers of fat and meat, and I could see the texture freaking a lot of people (and by a lot of people I mean my girlfriend) out. But man, it is delicious. And not in that “I ate something strange and have to pretend it was good” kind of delicious, but truly wonderful. Very much like the fatty/crisp pieces of a smoked pork butt. A winner. We stopped by the bakery next door, and I picked up a selection of pastries to take home. I love Mexican pastry, it’s rarely overly sweet or gooey. The perfect companion to freshly roasted coffee. Although I love it, I’m totally ignorant when it comes to Mexican pastry. I don’t know what all the different treats were called, but they were beautiful as well as delicious……and all for under a dollar apiece. Anyway, that’s it for the dry run. I know Mike has some good commentary on the way. We’ll get some recruits and hit it again here pretty soon I’m sure. I’ll have some time between now and then to ask some friends in the area about their favorite spots and specialties, because my one regret was that you can only eat SO MUCH great Mexican food in one afternoon without expiring. We had some great food and have a new favorite Mexican restaurant to add to our list, but we haven’t even skimmed the surface of what the “New Southwest Boulevard” has to offer.

Hopefully i can glean a bit of Mexican specialists' knowledge when it comes to gardening/growing a couple key Mexican culinary items in my garden, epazote and tomatillo, both from seed. I only have a quick minute right now to post these facts, but if there's any other info you'd need in order to provide advice, fire away and I'll answer the moment I have a chance: 1) Live in Melbourne Australia, just coming into spring right now; 2) Have a reasonably sunny spot in a small garden ready for the two plants, but I can't say it's full on sunshine from dawn to dusk; 3) Melbourne's spring and summers are typically pretty warm to hot, say 26 Celsius in spring, avg. 30-32 in summer. In the middle of a long draught, so not much rainfall should be expected this season, either. 4) Have ordered some seeds from both from a retailer in Western Australia who is sending them in the next couple days. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find/purchase seedlings or already sprouted plants of either variety, they simply don't exist. And finally the reason I'm growing, rather than buying, both is that I am pretty certain it's not possible to find fresh, fully grown of either plant here, although dried epazote and canned tomatillo are available. That's it... any tips, tricks, hints, or advice for getting some successful plants grown for harvest would be much appreciated, as would insight to the nature of either plant, finicky or not, hearty and easily grown or not, etc. Basically just wondering how easy or difficult they are to maintain and grow, again any advice would be great. Thanks everyone/Kanga

Ok so the other night I tired making Bistec Ranchero for the first time and while it turned out pretty well I have a number of questions on my mind. The recipe I had called for the following (in the order given) to be layered in a heavy, cold skillet and slow cooked over medium heat (lid on). 2 T corn oil Thinly sliced white onions minced garlic thinly sliced potatoes thinly sliced tomatoes and finely chopped cilantro breakfast steaks (coated in a mixture of salt and pepper) Additionally I subsituted a more tender cut of beef for the breakfast steaks (described as round steaks thinly sliced) as I have been having trouble finding round steaks from a decent butcher in montreal. After the heat had built up some everything started releasing a whole lot of liquid and at the heat I have it reached a pretty vigorous simmer. The meat seemed to cook on top via steam but quickly became overcooked before the potatoes were tender and before the dish seemed ready (there was still quite a bit of liquid in the pan and it still tasted somewhat bland). I proceeded to take the meat off and cook the rest of it till the potatoes were tender and until quite a bit of the liquid had cooked off, aside from the meat it was quite tasty... Should I have perhaps had the heat lower and cooked it longer? I suspect the heat was too high and the more tender meat cooked too quickly. I was curious about the use of breakfast steaks because I do not know how they are normally cut, but the author suggested serving with corn tortillas and it seems a bit akward to be eating whole steaks with corn tortillas... Does this sound like a good/normal way to cook Bistec Ranchero?

Every now and then since December 2004, a good number of us have been getting together at the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off. Click here for the Cook-Off index. For our silver anniversary Cook-Off, we're making tamales. It's true that All Saint's Day and Christmas are months away, but the weather has turned cold suddenly here in New England, and my thoughts have turned to the green corn tamales that I enjoyed a year ago on a trip to Tucson and Bisbee, Arizona. Early fall may also be the right time to start not only because high corn season approaches in the north (for those using fresh corn in their dough), but also because this may end up being a long process for some of us. You see, I've resisted this cook-off because of my futile attempts to get fresh masa (chronicled here). In the meanwhile, I've been gathering good pork fat for freshly rendered lard using Fifi's RecipeGullet method, have several good filling recipes ready to test, and even have stockpiled a few packages of excellent corn husks for the cause. What to do about this masa problem, however, is an open question. Should I give Maseca masa harina, the only brand I've seen recommended, a try? Or perhaps I should see what Rick Bayless's combination of quick-cooking grits and masa harina produces. I've even grabbed a bag of lime in case I'm forced to soak and grind my own masa from field corn. (Of course, if someone out there can find a source for mail-order fresh masa, I'm going to give that a try!) There are quite a few lively topics around here on the subject of tamales, including a general one on making tamales, one on tamales with duck fat, another on tamales without lard, even one on the proper corn husks for tamales. This ain't the composed salad cook-off; most of us can't make a quick trip to the store, grab a few things, and prep, cook, and serve the dish within an hour. So let's start talking about prep, materials, fillings -- and what to do about that masa problem!

I see these things at a lot of different markets I go to all the time and recently decided to buy some. I find they have a pleasant neutral taste and a wonderful texture. All the info I have read on them seems to indicate they are native to mexico, but I am having a lot of trouble finding any mexican recipes. Does anyone actually eat these things in mexico? And if they do, might they have any recipes or preparations they'd be willing to share?

I looked both here and at Mouthfulls and notice there hasn't been an update to either thread for a LONG time. This weekend I am planning on finding a Taco Truck and wondered who the reigning champ is.

Hi everyone, I am currently staying near San Jose/Santa Clara (Milpitas to be exact), and was wondering if anyone knows where I could get the following? 1.) Mexican tortilla press 2.) Masa Harina ? If any one has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

article from NYTimes Travel section Just a few of the multiple taco places on this journey: EL PARIáN Los Angeles, TACOS BAJA ENSENADA Los Angeles, LILLY’S TAQUERIA Santa Barbara, CHAPALA RESTAURANT Morro Bay, LA TAQUERIA San Francisco, TAQUERIA SAN JOSé San Francisco .... Has anyone got personal choices for "don't miss" tacos on Highway One in the state?

Hey everyone, I'm back in town for a month visiting my parents and I have decided to make some mexican/latin food. My current problem being a source for those hard to find ingredients. I did a couple of searches and browsed through 20 odd pages but nothing turned up, so apologies if a thread of this nature already exists. Specifically I'm looking for tomatillos, a good selection of fresh and dried chilies, fresh mexican cheeses, a tortilla press, and mexican oregano. Anyone know anything or have any suggestions? I know of one place in Woodburn but am curious to find more. p.s. anything close to beaverton/tigard is a plus, although distance won't really stop me