The latest on the Voynich Manuscript is that it appears to be middle eastern...

A more useful book may be Diana Kennedy's "Oaxaca al Gusto" -- a huge, lavishly illustrated tome with recipes organized by Oaxacan micro-regions. It's a bit frustrating as there's no master index (finding, say, an empanada recipe requires flipping through many pages), and the photos often don't match the recipes on the adjacent pages... but the research going into it and the throroughness of it all is amazing.

Thanks for the wonderful post. It will be very helpful as we are going for 3 nights in December. You mentioned a guide. Did you hire a private guide? If you were happy, I would love their contact information.

Just so everyone knows, I replied to RevrendAndy directly by PM. We really liked our guide and I would be more than happy to share his info with anyone else as well.

Also, I agree with JoelF re Diana Kennedy's book. I'm now the proud owner of about four or five different Oaxacan cookbooks. Each has its strengths but Kennedy's is in a class by itself. For anyone who wants is, btw, I actually sat down and created an index for the book. I'd be happy to send a copy to anyone who's interested. The lack of an index in a very fancy, very pricey book is absolutely inexcusable.

Oaxaca is amazing. The town is beautiful, the people very friendly, although not much English spoken, and food-oh my!

Our 1st dinner was La Teca, which may be a tiny hole in the wall, but they serve amazing food. They offered us a prix fixe tasting which was pretty inexpensive and included their greatest hits- garnachas, chili relleno taco, malote de platano with plantain, tamales elote with chicken, beef coloradita, pork with some kind of great sauce, pollo mole negro, and papas. This was all $21. Our 1st taste of authentic Oaxacan cooking was extraordinary. The mama owner came by after dinner and chatted with my wife, who speaks Spanish and it turns out she was invited to cook at the Vatican a few years ago. I highly recommend this to everyone.

We hired a guide for the next day, Sebastian Chino, who gave us a nice tour to Monte Alban, a pretty church in Tlacochuhuaya , and Santa Maria el Tule, home of this unreal Tule tree. Our guide was knowledgable and spoke very good English. GypsyBoy I tried to contact your guide but he had been out of town for weeks and didn't return my email till the start of my trip which was too late. Sebastian stopped for lunch in Santa Maria near the tree at a mercato that had a slew of family food stalls. We had chapulines, the small ones, a tlayuda, and quesadilla pollo with Amarillo mole, which was great. I washed it down with horchata with a scoop of tuna(no not the fish, but a fruit). Many places were booked that night, Xmas, and we ended up at Catedral, for some more authentic local cuisine, although in a nicer setting. We enjoyed sopa Catedral, suckling pig Tehuantepec, and Chichilo mole with short ribs.

The next day we did some grazing at the Benito Juarez market. We had chicken with mole Amarillo(not nearly as good at Santa Maria) in the market itself which was good, however in another annex we sampled carne asada and puerco that was sliced thin and grilled, accompanied with lots of sides. This was very tasty.

Our last dinner was Origen, everyone’s favorite on the board and it didn’t disappoint. It was nice to try some exciting creative contemporary Oaxacan cooking. They started us with a small gratis gazpacho. I could’ve eaten a bowl. We continued with chicken liver mousse, marvelous roast quail in escabeche, grilled octopus salad, huitlacoche risotto, and dorado sarandeado.

We would love to go back sometime and check out some other areas outside the city and dine on more of the best food in Mexico.

Sorry my guide was not around, you would have enjoyed him. But I'm glad yours worked out well. The Juarez market is pretty impressive (as is the 20 de Noviembre) but I'm really looking forward to spending an entire day, next time, in the Abastos market. And ditto: an amazing city and area; we can't wait to return.

Oaxaca is indeed amazing but food hasn't been the focus of my current visit, and frankly, I find most of it kind of disappointing. But after having been here for about a week, I do have a few things that are worth recommending. The first, 'discovered' by our friend Pigmon, is a little breakfast place in the Centro, right on the Parque Cozzatti, called La Nonna . . .


La Nonna
Valentín Gómez Farias 212, Oaxaca City

There's no real menu. You just walk in, see what they have to offer and order up. There are 2 counters; one in front and one in back, to the right . . .


Front Counter Breakfast Offerings


My Plate
Clockwise from 11: chili relleno, huevos in salsa verde, chicharrones in salsa roja, chorizo & eggs, green beans & eggs

Also served were warm corn tortillas (made to order) and frijoles negros. We also had some croquetas. This was a delicious and hearty way to start the day. And breakfast for 4 was 420 pesos (about $23 USD).

A few more to come as time allows . . .

=R=

La Nonna
Ejido del Centro
Valentín Gómez Farias 212
RUTA INDEPENDENCIA
68000 Centro, Oax.
01 951 513 5929

Caldo de Piedra recently popped up at Quiote in Logan Square. By coincidence, I was able to eat there just days before the pop-up happened . . .


Caldo de Piedra

As you can see in the video below, a red-hot river stone is carefully placed into the jicara and it subsequently cooks the soup. After about 5 minutes, I removed my stone, which left the fish and shrimp just about perfectly cooked. Some people just leave the stone in there or remove the proteins.


"Stone Soup" Combination with Robala and Camarones

When the jicaras are delivered to the table, they are still roiling . . .


Jicara bubbling at the table

It probably goes without saying that in addition to the soup, tortillas were made to order and served along with it . . .


Making the tortillas

I thought it was really cool and I liked it, but I can't say I loved it. Still, if you're in Oaxaca, it's a great place to check out.

=R=

Caldo De Piedra
km 11.9 Carretera Oaxaca al Tule
Tlalixtac de Cabrera, Mexico
+52 951 517 8318

The colors of the food are so intoxicating... i love it!