Oaxaca: The Food Issue

I swore I was not going to snap dozens of food photos and pretend anyone wants to hear about my meals for the next 6 months, but along came Oaxaca.

Oaxaca, Mexico is a state along the southern pacific coast of Mexico with a city also named Oaxaca, 3 to 4 hours inland, in the mountains, and the original home of the indigenous Zapotec peoples. I refer to the city of Oaxaca as the food capital of Mexico and you probably should too.

You come to Oaxaca to eat, and maybe drink mezcal, but definitely to eat. Oaxaca is home to mole, a sauce that is both complicated and sublime. There is no one way to create mole, for some, the sauce reaches perfection after 100s of days. In simplest terms, it is a mixture of dried chilis, nuts, and seeds, which are combined with up to dozens of other elements from sweet to spicy, all elements are roasted individually and combined into a paste that becomes a sauce.

Most people recognise mole enhanced with chocolate, but we also had with our prawns a mole that was created with guava. The only limit is the chef´s imagination.

(Pictorial shout-out to Kim A. Smith)

When I was told our tour would be stopping by a small textile factory, before lunch, in the desert heat, I was not impressed. But the family nailed it. Just explaining what they do, the history behind their use of colour and wool, and their explanation of the indigenous signs and symbols woven into the fabric left us all in a state of wonder.

You won’t leave Oaxaca without trying its mezcal. I was not interested; I left my agave days behind with plenty of stories to tell over the years. But mezcal carries a soft, sophisticated, smokiness, that would be unwise to pass up.

Go to Oaxaca. Punto.

. . . bye, bye, Oaxaca.