How one home cook's experience with mole helped her connect to her culture.
Being Mexican-American and living in a border state, I have high standards for Mexican food. I like the taste that I’ve developed from eating the best at both hole-in-the-wall restaurants and at home for 31 years. However, I don’t consider myself a food snob. I still enjoy Taco Bell late at night even though everyone knows that it’s not real Mexican food. When I’m craving what tastes authentic to me, I like to cook the recipes that have been in my family for generations.
Even now, flipping tortillas over a gas stove flame with my bare hands or making sure the masa in my tamales floats makes me feel that connection to my ancestry. When I cook my family’s Mexican recipes, I am transported back to being a little kid with my stomach growling, waiting to eat. The sauce contains several ingredients that don’t seem to go together. They include chili peppers, dry spices, broth, seeds and chocolate. And yet, it remains popular and is known as one of the most complex recipes in Mexican cooking. There is absolutely no way it could be sold at Taco Bell. This is a food that cannot be Americanized.