Mexico's culinary heartland, Oaxaca is famed for its array of complex, spiced sauces, known as moles. So much more than side dishes, they're very often the main event.
“If we’re going to talk moles, what better place to do so?” asks chef Carina Santiago, as she welcomes me to the al fresco kitchen of her restaurant, Tierra Antigua. Campfire aromas mingled with the scent of dark chocolate fill the air, accompanied by a distinct rustling noise. It’s the sound of the escobetilla — a densely bristled broom, which a member of kitchen staff is using to move cacao seeds around, flicking her wrist back and forth as she does so.
Oaxaca is famed as the ‘land of seven moles’ — a gastronomic slogan spun decades ago to advertise the mole festival in the southern Mexican state, back when it had seven regions . I learn this from Olga Cabrera, chef and owner of local institution Tierra del Sol. Olga hails from the mountainous region of La Mixteca but came to Oaxaca city over 20 years ago to raise her family and open her first restaurant. “When I began to cook here in the Central Valleys, I wondered why there were seven moles.
Chillies are just one component; the same procedure must be gone through with the other tens of ingredients, which vary depending on the mole in question and can include almonds, chocolate, peanuts, banana, cloves, raisins, pineapple and fresh or dried herbs, alongside staples such as onions and tomatoes.
She recommends I begin with the chichilo, amarillo and verde, before moving on to the manchamantel, almendrado, coloradito and negro. The almendrado is my favourite, its Moorish influence apparent in the sweetness of raisins, the delicate fruitiness of almonds, and the hunks of briny Manzanilla olives.
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