buried mirror: latest reflections

Today’s photo, of chiles in a market in Campeche, comes from malias’ photostream.
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Dale Pendell, author of Pharmako/Poeia, has argued that the “war on drugs” is like a religious war, intended to keep officially sanctioned drugs like alcohol and chocolate dominant. A new study, reported by Scott Norris in an article in National Geographic News, suggests that sunflowers may have been similarly suppressed by the Spanish in Mesoamerica.
It [...]

Rompope is a drink made with eggs, milk, and vanilla.It is often called “Mexican eggnog.” It can be eaten with a spoon like ice cream, although men mix it with rum or brandy. It is said to have originated at the Convent of Santa Clara in Puebla in Mexico.
Gourmet Sleuth offers this recipe (but [...]

Baja’s Guadalupe Valley is an up-and-coming wine region. This January, in California’s Napa wine region, there will be a tasting of wines from the region. Vinography: A Wine Blog reports:
Most readers know that I have a strong interest in up-and-coming wine regions around the world. In particular I love exploring those that are in surprising [...]

Fiambre is only served on the Day of the Dead (Día de los Difuntos)  and All Saints Day (Día de los Santos) — on November 1st or 2nd. It’s mainly made up of cold cuts, fish, and vegetables, but the key feature is the sheer number of ingredients — which can number to 50 or [...]

A site called It’s Crazy Delicious has posted a recipe for what they call “Mayan Hot Chocolate.” Well, why not? I’m not exactly what’s Maya about it — the chile pepper, I guess — but hot chocolate could be good with cool weather approaching.
By the way, I’m still waiting to see a copy of the [...]

You can hardly go wrong with Antigua, but Rudy Girón goes the extra mile. Every day he posts a new photo from the city, along with some pretty interesting commentary. Some of his favorite topics are food, architecture, and signage, but really nothing is out of bounds. Well worth checking out (click iamge below).

Huitlacoche, or cuitlacoche, is a unique ingredient of Mexican cuisine. Its English name is “corn smut,” which helps to explain why it has never quite caught on north of the Rio Bravo. (James Beard tried, to little avail, to overcome this by calling it “the Mexican truffle.”) It’s basically a corn disease caused by a [...]

A dish for any time of the day. Serves eight.
Ingredients

3 ripe plantains
0.5 lb. high-quality chocolate
2 ounces “pepitoria” (pumpkin seeds?)
2 ounces sesame
0.5 ounce cinnamon
2 chiles pasa (a kind of red chile pod similar to chile pasilla)

Preparation

Slice the plantains horizontally in slightly diagonal high-centimeter strips and fry until golden
Roast the pumpkins seeds, sesame, cinnamon and chile [...]

One of the great festivals in Guatemala is Semana Santa in Antigua. On Easter celebrants bear heavy floats depicting images from the passion of Christ; the floats, some requiring dozens of carriers, may weigh thousands of pounds.

Elaborate carpets — alfombras – of pine needles, corn kernels, flowers, and sawdust are created on the cobbled streets. [...]

For some time archaeologists have disputed whether manioc was a significant foodstuff of ancient Mesoamerica. While it seemed a logical possibility, there was scant hard evidence to support the thesis. Now a University of Colorado – Boulder team has uncovered an ancient field of manioc at a Maya site in present El Salvador, providing [...]

Both flavors have their origins in Mesoamerica.
This article on The Journey of the Vanilla Bean was published in the Evanston Review. It was pointed out by La Casa Azteca.
SEMI-RELATED: There’s a great series on Guatemalan food and drink at Antigua Daily Photo.