​/Previously published in Pacific Pearl magazine April 2024)

Something fascinating happens every year during the week before Easter or Semana Santa. Mazatlan fills up with busloads of national tourists who flock to the beach, while locals also decide to do the same thing. The result is a tapestry of umbrellas covering every inch of available beach. It’s a lively scene with loud Banda music, coolers and plastic chairs. Once you’ve conquered your spot on the sand, you won’t want to give it up to get a bite to eat. Here are a few food hacks that locals use to survive and thrive at the beach during Semana Santa.

Drink like a local
It might not feel as hot and humid as during the summer months, but it’s important to drink enough fluids. Get a cooler to keep your beverages cold and it will work as a table at the same time. How to drink like a local? Obviously a family-style bottle of Pacifico beer is a must. These bottles have a funny nickname; they are called ‘Ballena’ which means whale. So next time you are at the convenience store, confidently say: “Una Ballena por favor”. If beer isn’t your thing, you might enjoy the local vanilla soda Tonicol or how about a traditional ‘Cebada’ (sweetened barley water)?

Eat like a local
The traditional food that many families bring to the beach, is not sandwich or fruit salad. You might already guess the answer: it is fish and seafood. You can find a mouthwatering variety of beach specialties like Tostiloco (think: walking taco with ceviche), oysters or fresh coconuts. What do locals prepare and always carry in their coolers? It’s mackerel ceviche or ceviche de sierra. You might not consider this humble fish as an option for ceviche. It’s prepared with ground mackerel, carrot, celery, onion and cilantro. You might think it is a carrot salad because of its distinctive orange color. Every family has their own way of making mackerel ceviche, but here is the base recipe.

Mackerel ceviche (base recipe)
1 pound ground Mackerel
2 celery sticks
4 carrots
½ onion
1 pound limes
Small bunch cilantro (diced)
Pepper and salt to taste
 
Ask the fish vendor to grind the mackerel as well as the celery sticks, carrots and onion. You can also use the food processor or cut everything in small pieces. Cut the lime in half and squeeze the lime juice in a bowl. Place the ground mackerel in a separate bowl and stir in the lime juice, salt and pepper. Make sure to mix well so the lime juice gets in contact with the fish. Leave to rest for 5 minutes. Drain the lime juice, pressing the fish. Now add the vegetables, add more salt and pepper to taste. Mackerel ceviche is served with corn tostadas or wheat toast Duro.
 (SERVES 4-6 PEOPLE)

If you’re ready to learn more about Mazatlan’s culinary scene, make sure to book your seats for one of the Flavor Teller food tours.

#flavortellerfoodtour
#flavorteller
#mazatlanfoodtour
#foodtourmazatlan
#ceviche
#cevichedesierra

​(Published in the Pacific Pearl magazine March 2023)

Carnaval has come and gone! After the banda has finally stopped playing and all the confetti has been cleaned off the streets, it’s time to gear up for Easter. Catholics in Mexico observe Lent for 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Usually Lent is a time to reflect and give up specific pleasures such as sweets, alcohol or social media. In Mexico there are specific food restrictions: no beef, pork or chicken on Fridays during Lent. However you’re allowed to eat fish and (drumroll…) bread pudding. You would say, bread pudding isn’t really meal, it’s more like dessert. Here’s the catch: during Lent the Mexican bread pudding or ‘Capirotada’ as it’s known, is served as a dish in itself.

Ask any local to recommend the ‘best’ capirotada in town, the most likely answer is: “The one that my grandma/mom/aunt makes!” There are several ways to prepare Capirotada. But at its most basic it has four components: toasted bolillos (Mexican baguettes) drenched in piloncillo syrup with clove and cinnamon, fruits and cheese. Are you ready to make your own and cook like a local?

INGREDIENTS:
20-25 slices baguette or bolillo, 1-2 days old
5 oz or 150 gr butter
10 corn tortillas, roasted (optional)
8oz or 250 gr grated cheese (Cotija or aged cheese)
7 oz or 200 gr raisins or dried plums
7 oz or 200 gr pecans, almonds or peanuts
2 bananas (regular or plantain)
SYRUP:
150 grams piloncillo or caster sugar
3 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves

PREPARATION:
First prepare the syrup: heat the water in a saucepan and add the sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Stir constantly to a light syrup. Remove from the heat.
Toast the slices of bread until light brown and cover with butter.
Heat the oven at 200°C or 390°F. Lightly grease an oven dish and cover the bottom and sides with the tortillas. Submerge the slices of bread in the syrup and cover a single layer in the oven dish. Sprinkle part of the cheese, raisins, nuts and sliced banana on top and cover with another layer of bread dipped in syrup. Continue until all ingredients are finished.
Strain the remaining syrup and pour over the pudding. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes in the oven. Occasionally lift the foil and press smooth the surface with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat to 150°C or 300°F and bake for another 30 minutes. Serve the pudding lukewarm.
SERVES 6 PEOPLE

If you’re ready to learn more about Mazatlan’s culinary scene, make sure to book your seats for one of the Flavor Teller food tours.
 
#flavortellerfoodtour
#flavorteller
#mazatlanfoodtour
#capirotada
​#howtomakecapirotada

(Published in Pacific Pearl magazine February 2023)

You may have heard the phrase “Eat the seasons”, referring to consuming vegetables and fruits in the season that they are plentiful. But have you thought about applying this wisdom to other seasons, like Thanksgiving or Christmas season? We all know what food is traditionally served around those dates. In Mexico we also celebrate many religious festivities combined with a typical dish, like for instance Pan de Muertos around Day of the Dead on November 1st and 2nd or Chiles en Nogada (stuffed poblano pepper in walnut sauce) served in the weeks leading up to Mexico’s Independence Day on September 16th.

In February we celebrate a lesser known religious holiday called Dia de la Candelaria. Now don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard about it. You could call it National Mexican Tamales Day. It’s celebrated on February 2nd, remembering the biblical story where baby Jesus was presented in the temple. Traditionally people would go to church with a baby Jesus figure to get it blessed. And then you would eat tamales. Nowadays few people keep up the religious part of the celebration, but many locals will buy tamales to share with their family. On Dia de la Candelaria the local tamales shops will sell 10 times more than their regular sales. A piece of advice: order your tamales a few days earlier. So what if you’re reading this after February 2nd? Don’t worry, no pasa nada! Any day is a good time to eat tamales. And there is a whole world of tamales that you can explore. Here are a few scrumptious options that you can find around Mazatlan.

Tamal de elote
Mazatlan’s best-selling tamales are sweet corn tamales. They are made with fresh corn grated off the cob, passed through a grinder and wrapped in corn husk. It’s a popular side dish on a traditional Sinaloa-style breakfast with Machaca shredded beef and poblano peppers in cream sauce.

Tamal de camaron
Do you prefer savory flavors? Then shrimp tamales are a local must-try. The corn dough or masa is mixed with a shrimp tomato broth to enhance the taste and the filling is typically peeled shrimp, potato and carrot. You might be able to find Tamales barbudos or ‘bearded’ tamales which are stuffed with unpeeled shrimp, resulting in a richer shrimp taste. You will have to get hands-on to peel and eat the shrimp. It’s all part of the food fun!

Tamal Colorado or Nixcoco
This is the legacy of indigenous tribes who roamed these regions before the arrival of the Spanish. Tamal Colorado is different from other tamales in two ways. First of all, it’s not prepared the same way. It’s cooked with a tree bark which gives it its bright-red color. And secondly it’s a tamal without a filling. It has a unique corn dough flavor. This is the rarest of all tamales around town. Keep your eyes peeled for these small red-colored tamales around the market and give them a try.
 
Tamales oaxaqueños
The world of tamales doesn’t end at the borders of Sinaloa. Every state in Mexico has their own regional varieties, like Corundas from Michoacan or Zacahuil from San Luis Potosí. In Mazatlan you can buy Oaxaca-style tamales which are wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husk. The filling might be similar, but the banana leaves give a totally different flavor. You can find these tamales sold on street corners around the market.

Now let’s commit to eating the seasons in Mexican foodie style! If you’re ready to learn more about Mazatlan’s culinary scene, make sure to book your seats for one of the Flavor Teller food tours.

#flavortellerfoodtour
#flavorteller
#mazatlanfoodtour
#tamalnixcoco
#tamalcolorado
#tamaldeelote
​

(Published in Pacific Pearl magazine January 2023)

Have you heard about Coricos? I have to confess that if I buy Coricos cookies, I can’t just eat one. It’s either the whole box or nothing. So what are Coricos? Mexican coricos cookies look like a mini donut, have a nice crumbly texture, subtle spiced aroma and are sweetened with piloncillo or brown sugar. They are naturally gluten-free and perfect to serve with a coffee in the morning or your favorite tea in the afternoon. Coricos are available in Sinaloa, as well as Sonora and Baja California. They are also known as Tacuarines.

Corico comes from Coricochis in the indigenous Cahita language. The Cahíta were a native tribe living in the northwest of Mexico. The only two surviving Cahita-speaking tribes nowadays are the Yaqui and the Mayo-Yoreme. Tacuarines comes from the word Tacuarinero, the nickname of the South Pacific railway between Altata, Culiacan and Durango. During the late 19th and early 20th century it was common for women to get on the train to sell these cookies to hungry passengers.
So if you have a chance, get a box of Coricos at candy stores in or near the market or try your hand at making them at home. Provecho!

Ingredients (makes 30 Coricos):
300 gr. (10 oz.) piloncillo or Brown sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon anise seed
½ kg (1 lb) lard or butter
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups Masa harina
2 tsp baking powder
 
Preparation:
Bring to the water, piloncillo sugar and anise seed to a boil, set the heat to low and simmer, while stirring from time to time until piloncillo is dissolved and has become an aromatic and light syrup (about 10 minutes).

Place lard or butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add salt and, using the wire whip, mix at high speed until light and fluffy (about 7 minutes). Add the eggs and mix until fully incorporated. Add masa harina, and baking powder. Use the paddles and start kneading the dough at low speed while pouring the piloncillo syrup until everything is fully incorporated. In the end, the dough should have a texture like play dough and shouldn’t stick to your hands.

Now shape the cookies: Pinch a bit of the dough and roll it into a ball with your hands. Place the ball on a surface and with the palm of your hands roll it into a rope about 5-6 inches (13 cm) long. Take both ends of a rope and overlap them, pressing a little bit to make a ring shape. Repeat until all dough is used and transfer the unbaked coricos to a baking sheet lightly floured with masa harina.

Preheat your oven to 360°F/180°C and bake the cookies between 15 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the sheet from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes, then with a spatula remove the cookies and place them in a cooling rack.

Allow the coricos cookies to cool down completely, then transfer them into an airtight container or a zip bag and store them at room temperature for up to one week.

If you’re ready to learn more about Mazatlan’s culinary scene, make sure to book your seats for one of the Flavor Teller food tours.

#flavortellerfoodtour
#flavorteller
#mazatlanfoodtour
#foodtourmazatlan
#foodtoursmazatlan

(Published in Pacific Pearl magazine december 2022)

Winter has finally arrived to Mazatlán. Yes, it’s true! It might not feel like ‘winter’ to those of you who come from cooler climates, but as a full-time local resident you can definitely feel the temperature shift from sizzling hot to pleasantly warm.

There is another way how locals know that the winter season has started. It doesn’t have to do with falling leaves or changing tides. The ultimate proof of winter in Mazatlán is the appearance of Atole vendors on street corners around town. It might sound like the weirdest way to declare wintertime, but this local specialty is only served during the colder months of the year.

You will ask: what is Atole (pronounced: ah-TOH-leh)? It’s a hot corn-based beverage sweetened with raw cane sugar. The ancient civilizations of Mexico already prepared this hot corn pudding and called it ‘atolli’.  It is known to give you lots of energy. Nowadays, you can find Atole flavored with cinnamon, tamarind, guava or other fruits. In Mazatlan the most common flavor is Atole de Pinole, which is roasted ground corn. Its taste can be compared to salted caramel.

Las Atoleras (female atole vendors) always sell their hot atole with sweet fried corn Gorditas. Don’t confuse these gorditas with their savory counterpart from central Mexico. Mazatlan’s gorditas are made with corn flour, wheat flour, baking soda and sugar. It’s fascinating and mouth-watering to see the preparation. The gorditas look like regular tortillas, but once they are dropped into the hot oil they puff up to triple their size. The atoleras skillfully flip them over and make the process look effortless. Getting hot atole with a freshly made gordita will keep you satiated for several hours.

Are you curious to give this local specialty a try? It’s important to know that Atole de Pinole is only available early in the morning (5 - 9 a.m.) or after sunset (6 – 9 p.m.). You can get your Atole per cup or liter, the gorditas are sold per piece. Most customers get their Atole to go on their way to work or back home. But if you want to catch the latest neighborhood gossip or brush up on your Spanish, get a seat at the stand. You can find the Atoleras on the curb of Gutierrez Najera Street close to the Juan Carrasco market or on Aleman Street near the petrol station.

If you’re ready to learn more about Mazatlan’s culinary scene, make sure to book your seats for one of the Flavor Teller food tours.

#flavortellerfoodtour
#flavorteller
#mazatlanfoodtour
#foodtourmazatlan