April 5, 2018

MOLE TO GUACAMOLE

“The Hass Avocado Board estimates that 104.9 million pounds of avocados will be devoured on Sunday”

        -ABC News February 3, 2018

AS HE WAS MAKING HIS WAY BACK TO SPAIN, LITTLE DID Columbus know that his arrival in the Americas a few weeks earlier was going to have such an impact on Super Bowl Day a few centuries later. People who do calculations have figured out that this is the day of the year with the largest consumption of avocado in the United States. Why, you may ask, is this important? Because the avocado - a fruit native to Mexico - was made available to the Europeans for the first time during the Conquest of Mexico. Along with many others fruits, vegetables and assorted foods. This is a source of special pride to Mexicans. And a marvelous gift to the world’s gastronomy.

MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF the so-called New World (New to the Europeans) to the Old World, much of it limited to gold and silver bullion sent back to replenish the coffers of a continent in deep financial crises. But there are many other contributions in varied areas of learning and the economy. The Maya calendar was, at the time of the Conquest, more precise than its European counterparts. The Mayas had a duodecimal counting system, centuries before a decimal system was established in Europe. The Lost Wax casting method for gold was developed in Mexico at the same time as the Romans used it. Tobacco (picietl in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs) was rapidly adopted by the Europeans, who disseminated it throughout the world. But the realm of food has been the most significant popular impact. Some of the more common staples of Mexican origin are used in contemporary American and European cuisine as a matter of course and certainly have a wide world recognition. These products did not exist in Europe until the Spaniards exported them from Mexico. There is a bigger and quite fascinating history of foods native to the Americas and, in this case, to Mexico that not only had a profound effect on the European civilizations but that, today, remain a vibrant part of Mexican culture and continue to be further explored.

“ENCUENTRO DE DOS MUNDOS” IS THE EUPHEMISM invented by politically correct scholars and politicians to describe the ”discovery” of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. Much as we try to ignore Erik the Red, a Viking sailor and his crew, who first came to North America in the 9th century, he was the first European to come to the Americas. Erik decided it was not worth staying, so he and his Vikings returned to Europe. Columbus, in the 15th century, set out to find a shorter and safer route to the Indies, to bring much-needed spices, vital to European subsistence because they were the basis for the flavor and for the conservation of food stuffs; and to serve as odor-masking agents for food that was going bad but had to be eaten anyway. When he sailed, looking for the Indies, Columbus had no idea that there were other lands between Europe and Asia and unexpectedly found himself blocked by a huge continent. His arrival there surprised him, his navigators and his crews to no end. The honor of being the first individual to circumnavigate the globe has gone to Ferdinand Magellan, but this is not a “true fact” – as truths are being called today. Magellan died in the middle of his voyage. It was Juan Sebastian Elcano, a Basque mariner, who took over the expedition and finally completed the route to Indies in search of spices, several decades after Columbus arrived in Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic.)

COLUMBUS FAILED IN HIS MISSION AND DID NOT BRING BACK spices. But he did bring back, among other goodies, parrots and a little gold, as well as 10 natives, six of whom were baptized in Barcelona. This loot was enough to whet the appetite of the Spanish King and Queen to finance further expeditions of Columbus that eventually set the stage for the arrival of Cortés, in what is now called Mexico, in 1519 to begin his conquest. Most of the Conquistador force was made up of soldiers and sailors but soon members of the religious orders started trekking in as well. Among the most important accounts of the Aztec empire and the Maya territories (the Maya time of splendors was long gone, many centuries earlier) are those of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier who wrote his memoirs 30 years after his arrival; Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, who can be considered as the first ethnographer, and described life in the Mexica (the real name of the Aztecs) world; Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, a historian who wrote about the atrocities against the Amerindians; and Diego de Landa, a cruel and fanatical priest, who described in astounding detail the customs and religion of the Mayas and destroyed, by burning them, all the Códices (Books) of the Maya, forever exterminating invaluable historical ethnographic and cultural sources. To this assorted lot we owe a debt of gratitude for the descriptions of daily life in Prehispanic times and, of course, of food.

MAIZE IS, ABOVE ALL, THE KEY STAPLE OF PREHISPANIC MEXICO. It seems like almost every dish in Mexico is made with maize because it is the main ingredient of tortillas, tamales, pozole, atole and other dishes based on it like, among others, tacos, quesadillas, chilaquiles, tostadas, enchiladas, chochoyotes, tetelas, molotes, gorditas, huaraches, tlacoyos, memelas, pellizcadas, empanadas, corundas, and huchepos. Maize comes from mahiz, its name in Taino, a language of the Caribbean. In Nahuatl, its name is tlaolli. It is known in English as corn, but this applies to its many forms, like Dent Corn (the most usual variety in the US) so called because it has a dent in the kernel. It is used for cornmeal, flour, cornbread, corn chips and taco shells. High starch varieties of dent corn are turned into plastics, adhesives and high fructose sweeteners that go into soft drinks. Other varieties are flint corn, pod corn, popcorn and sweet corn called Jilote (xilotl) in Spanish, that we love to eat raw in the early season. Maize comes in many varieties of color as well. Purple maize provides chrysanthemin, the base for blue food coloring. And then there is huitlacoche, a maize fungus, prized by Mexican and other gourmets for its fabulous, earthy, truffle-like aroma and flavor.

The Spaniards did not like maize. They thought that its flour could not be used for Holy Communion wafers because only wheat could achieve transubstantiation (the transformation of the wafer into the body of Christ.) The Spanish also believed that the physical characteristics of the Amerindians and their personalities derived from the food they ate. Eventually, after trying Mexican food, they changed their minds. (Sic Transit Gloria Mundi!)

One of the great contributions of the prehispanic peoples was the Milpa (milpa), a method of cultivation that provided an ecological environment to the crops for year-round subsistence. The Milpa is still in use today in many parts of Mexico. It consists of a field, planted with maize, which provides support for plantings of beans; the beans provide nitrogen-derived from the nitrogen-fixing  bacteria which live on the roots of beans; tomatoes are also planted here, with similar properties, as well as other legumes; the plantings of squashes in the Milpa provide ground cover to stop weeds and inhibit evaporation by providing shade over the soil. A perfectly balanced ecological system where no herbicides or insecticides are needed, thousands of years old

The maize is eaten young as Elote (elotl), grilled or boiled, nowadays served as street food, slathered with mayonnaise and queso fresco and sprinkled with dried chile powder. Over time, maize migrated to other cultures: Americans turned corn into corn flakes, hominy grits and sour mash which, fermented and distilled, became whisky; Italians developed polenta; Peruvians got Cancha - kernels eaten with spices, like Mexican esquites, (izquiti) - and Chicha morada, a fermented drink. There are maize rottis in India and arepas in Venezuela. A greater weight of maize is produced every year in the world, more than any other grain. Introduced by the Portuguese, it became Africa’s most important staple food. And let’s not forget that 40% of the US corn crop is transformed into ethanol, a fuel that mixed with gasoline reduces pollution. Maize is used as a biogas generator in Germany; and many more non-edible applications too long to list.

The description by Bernal Diaz del Castillo of Moctezuma’s daily dinners is sumptuous, with details befitting an Emperor whose domains extended into Honduras and Nicaragua: More than thirty styles of dishes, placed on small clay braziers, to keep the food warm; over three hundred dishes. Moctezuma sat on a low, richly worked soft seat at a low table; a gold painted screen protected him so that he would not be seen eating; they served him on Cholula pottery, some red and some black. While he was eating, it was unthinkable that there be any disturbance or loud speech among his guard. When the great Moctezuma had eaten, his guard and many of his house servants ate, more than a thousand plates of dishes, as well as more than two thousand jars of chocolate with foam, and no end of fruit.

To be able to digest the maize, kernels are transformed through the preparation of Nixtamal (nixtamalli): maize kernels are boiled in a solution of water and limestone, then left to rest for a few hours, drained and washed thoroughly to get rid of the lime solution. The nixtamal is then used, as is, for pozole (pozolli) or menudo, or ground into a dough called Masa, either industrially or, traditionally in a Metate (metatl) a stone slab. It is used in multiple preparations, by heating a thin cake over a hot griddle Comal (comalli) to produce Tortillas (tlaxcalli); or boiling the Masa with a sweetened liquid to produce Atole (atolli); or steaming the Masa, by itself, or with some fruit, cheese or meats, as for Tamales (tamalli). When dried, the Masa can be used as flour or, when mixed with a sweet substance or ground chocolate, to get Pinole (pinolli), a very dry treat, much appreciated by children, who sometimes blow it over their friends’ clothes or faces! This process of transformation, called nixtamalization, provides many, healthy benefits, among them an easier digestion, the addition of calcium - good for the teeth and bones - and makes the protein in the maize available to the body.

Because the Aztecs occupied the Altiplano - the high-level plain in mountainous Mexico - there were many lakes and therefore a wide variety of fowl, fish, frogs, insects, larvae and algae. They ate turkeys, called Guajolotes (huexolotl), and their eggs, ducks (canahuhtli); quail (zolin); hairless dogs (itzcuintli); collected honey from bees (necuhzayolli); and a wide variety of fruits. Beans (etl), green beans, Ejotes, (exotl), and Chia (chian) were plentiful, as was squash (ayotli). Chiles (chilli) were available in all shapes, sizes and colors including the Chipotle (chilpoctli). The chiles went around the world, reached as far as India, to become a staple of its cuisine. The culinary sophistication of the Aztecs is apparent from the list of spices which they would use with Chocolate (xocolatl), another native crop. Served by the Aztecs, roasted and ground into a powder, sweetened with honey and spiced with cinnamon or chilies and other flavorings, it was a frothy drink used mainly for ceremonial purposes. The cocoa bean was valuable to be used in prehispanic Mexico as a currency.

The Aztecs ate amaranth (huautli) in large quantities, second to maize. They shaped huautli dough into small figures of the gods and ate them on ritual occasions. Today, Mexican children relish eating popped amaranth seeds in pastries called Alegrías (happiness). Nopales (nohpalli) cacti are cultivated in the Valley of Mexico for the paddle shaped leaves which are a popular vegetable once the spines have been removed. They are to be found in the US and Europe. Tunas (nochtli), the prickly pear, is its sweet succulent fruit. Together with the Pitaya fruit, they are prized around the world. The juice of the root of the Maguey agave (nekumetl) called Aguamiel (aoctli) is still a popular drink. Once fermented, it provides Pulque (octli) sold at outlets, particularly in central Mexico. The Spaniards steamed the root of the Mezcal agave, (metscatl) pressed its juice, which fermented and distilled, gives a spirit called Mezcal and - if from a specific region in Jalisco, and prepared in a slightly different way - called Tequila. The root of this Mezcal, whose baked leaves become a candy-like sweet, is sold in markets and at school exits and is also called Mezcal (mexcalli) although it has no alcohol.

THE AVOCADO IS PROBABLY THE BETTER-KNOWN FRUIT, together with the red tomato, that comes from Mexico. The Nahuatl word for avocado, ahuacatl, literally means testicle, apparently from the way the fruit hangs from the tree. There are over 400 varieties of avocados. Due to taste, color, shipping characteristics, size, ripening and other preferences only about 10 varieties are available in markets. Some of them can be eaten with their thin, black skin. Some are seedless. Avocados are found globally and its uses go from the traditional guacamole, which means avocado sauce (molli), to the currently trendy avocado toast. The blue-green Chilacayote (tzilacayohtli) and calabashes (used as containers or bowls, when emptied and dried) are important crops. Their flowers are highly appreciated, known as squash blossoms.

THE DRIED SEEDS OF THE SQUASH, PEPITAS (ACHTLI) in shells or hulled, can be found world-wide and are the basis for sauces and dressings, including the Papadzules in Yucatan or the Mole (molli) de Pipián, from Oaxaca. The Aztecs raised Chayotes (chayotli), easily found in the US and Europe, and several varieties of onions, (xonacatl) as well as red tomatoes, Jitomates (xictomatl) and green tomatoes, Tomates (tomatl). The xictomatl literally conquered the world; there are few places in the world that do not have access to them for all varieties of preparations. The tomatl, known as tomatillo in the rest of the world is slowly following in the steps of its red partner, although both are different plants. Sweet potatoes (camohtli) were grown as an important root crop, as was sweet manioc. Today camohtli are the delight of Thanksgiving dinners or of children on cold nights. The Jícama, (xicamatl) was eaten raw or steamed or stewed with other ingredients in a variety of dishes. Raw jicama can be found in salads all over the world today. Peanuts, Cacahuates (tlacucahuatl) and popcorn (momochitl) were other significant additions to foods that have conquered the world. The Aztecs chewed the sap of a Chicle (chictli)) tree, bitumen, and other natural gums to clean their teeth. There is no place in the world, except Singapore, that does not have chewing gum. Santa Anna, a former president of Mexico, brought Chicle to New York in the 1860s to be used as a rubber substitute. Thomas Adams could not use it as such but cut it into strips and marketed as Adams Chewing Gum in 1871. Wrigley and Chiclet’s were early brands; its distribution to American GIs during the II World War, gave it global presence. Many fruits were cultivated by the prehispanic and later went to the rest of the world, including Mamey (tetsontsapotl), white and black Zapotes (tliltsapoti), Cherimoyas (lamatzapotli), guavas (xaxocotl), and the world-famous pineapple, Piña (matsatli), whose origin is not, as believed by many, in Hawaii. The name in Spanish refers to the similarity in shape to the hard pine fruit which gives pine nut seeds.

INSECTS ARE LESS WELL KNOWN INTERNATIONALLY, but used in traditional Mexican cooking now; a large variety of them were consumed by the Aztecs. Today, these include Escamoles (azcatl) or ants’ eggs from Hidalgo; Chapulines (chapullin) or grasshoppers and Chicatanas (tzicatanah) or Flying Ants mainly from Oaxaca; together with Maguey worms (chilocuilin) all are eaten generally fried or sautéed in butter and wrapped in tacos with a tomatillo sauce or guacamole. The Mezcal worm (chinicuil) is vaunted, in the US, as a feat of manliness, to be eaten at the end of a Mezcal shot. This is totally an urban legend. No Mexican would be caught doing it and all consider this an idiotic, barbaric and uncultured act.

SOME OF THE HERBS FROM MEXICO ARE CONSUMED LOCALLY such as the Pápalo and Papaloquelite but the Hoja Santa (acayoxihuitli) with its pungent, aromatic flavor is already sold in the US, as is Epazote (epatzotl), Achiote (achiotl) for baking pork or chicken; or Mezquite (mizquit) wood for smoking or grilling meats and vegetables.

Globalization has increased the size and the geographic presence of original Mexican vegetables, fruits, legumes and grains over the world. Mexican cuisine, in its enormous diversity - the result of Spanish and French influence and Mexican originality - is considered, together with French and Chinese cuisines, as a World Heritage. Mexican cooks and chefs work in all continents. International chefs come to Mexico to discover and experiment with the locally sourced products. Many of the original Nahuatl names have been adapted to usage in European languages. But what is more important is the continuity of cultivation.

MIGRATION OF PEOPLE THROUGH THE BEHRING STRAIT INTO THE Americas began around 12000 BCE. These nomads slowly trekked southward and started settling along the way until they reached South America some 20 centuries later. As the nomads were making their way, the people in Mesopotamia were cultivating grains and domesticating animals between 8500 and 5000 BC. The nomads in the Americas started settling; by 5000 BCE they were cultivating potatoes in the Andes and, by 4000 BCE, maize in Mesoamerica. By the time the Spaniards arrived in Mexico, agriculture was well established, cultivation of fruits and vegetables was in full production and animals had been domesticated. Tenochtitlan (as Mexico City was then called) was a city of more than one million people, whereas Seville, where Cortés came from had around 40 thousand. Building and administering Tenochtitlan took a superb organizational structure that relied on a sound economic footing. This is one aspect of significance of prehispanic food production: it was a running, efficient, successful, wealth producing operation that got there through research, experimentation, failure, determination and management over the course of 50 centuries. The Spaniards quickly recognized that the produce of Mexico could be exported for cultivation in the Old World and quickly adopted the fruits and vegetables and fowl for their own benefit and pleasure. They expanded in throughout their world. The extraordinary stone monuments, the bark paper (amatl) codices, the legends and the settlements of prehispanic Mexico are a testimony of prehispanic civilization. But the great variety of native products that now encompass the world is as well a significant contribution of Mexico to our global world and our global well-being.