 |
| From Mexico City (J) to Oaxaca (K) |
Oaxaca was a relief. It was
warm! Nice people, beautiful city, stunning mountain scenery, but also a notably poorer population, which many times speaks still in
Nahuatl.
The state is famous for its diversity of unique food, so I felt like in heaven, being able to try so many new dishes. Oaxaca's signature dish are its seven different kinds of
mole - thick sauces made from different ingredients. Huevos Oaxaqueños (omelette filled with local string cheese), Chocolate con Agua (Hot chocolate with cinnamon and spices), Pan de Yema (bread made with egg yolk), Empanada con Mole Amarillo (Fried pastry filled with yellow
mole sauce), Champurrado (chocolate-based corn beverage), local coffee, mole negro (black sauce, similar to the chocolate mole sauce from Puebla, but with other herbs), Memelas (small fried tortillas with topping), Tamales (steamed corn flour dumplings, but in banana leaves instead of maize leaves and with another texture), Tejate (beverage with toasted maize flour, fermented cacao beans), Malteada (malted milk), Mole Rojo (red mole sauce)... Well, this is just what I tried - of course, there's a lot more... Everywhere you smell the freshly ground cacao beans and hot coffee, very nice.
That Oaxaca is the second poorest state of Mexico can also be noted when you go to a local market and people suddenly start trying to marry their daughter with you - just as in Asia... Unfortunately, also the gay population decided to have its outing... Perhaps I should buy a shirt with "Dear gay, I'm not one of you, please leave me in peace" or something like that...
 |
| Oaxaco tought me that mole is not necessarily liquid - loved the Empanadas de mole amarillo (yellow mole sauce empanada) |
 |
| Oaxaca landscape as seen from Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca |
 |
| Templo de Santo Domingo |
 |
| Alebrijes (Oaxacas typical folk art sculptures). |
 |
| The "meat street" |
 |
| Loved all the lights and Oaxaca's Zócalo |
 |
| Charcoal
grilled Tlayudas ("Oaxaca pizza") in "Tlayudas Libres" are so highly
coveted, I had to wait for 1 hour... ad it didn't go better for the
locals... but it was worth waiting! |
 |
| Monte Albán |
 |
| Monte Albán, ancient Mixtec city |
 |
| I
will never ever understand why EVERY water tap in Mexico has this
mechanism to turn it on (you have to press the knob) - this is soooo
unhygienic... |
 |
| Tejate, a maize and cacao beverage from Oaxaca |
 |
| And the famous Oaxaca cheeese |
 |
| And the black mole sauce in its vegetarian version |
 |
| And
Oaxaca tamales (steamed corn flour with mole sauce filling, wrapped in a
banana leave)... Ah and no, I did not ONLY do culinary tourism |
 |
| Nice...
note the rail track between the traffic, now used for doing some nice
U-turns, hopefully without hitting the pedestrians... |
 |
| Chocolate smell everywhere in Oaxaca |
No comments:
Post a Comment