Where – or when does regional cuisine begin or end?

Where – or when does regional cuisine begin or end

by Pedro de Aguinaga translated by Andrew Shaw

I have the pleasure of presenting to you this lovely piece written by my good  friend  Pedro de Aguinaga that I originally posted in Spanish and that Andrew Shaw, a frequent visitor to this site, offered to translate along with recipes from Mexico City caterer Victor Nava.  Such is the magic of the internet and the kindness of  friends and people interested in my work. Thank you, Andy.

More than 50 years later Pedro Luis de Aguinaga recalls the Mexican cuisine of his childhood.

Tepic, Nayarit, MEXICO.- If you visit San Blas, on the coast of Nayarit, one of the oldest ports in Mexico, you will be surprised at the fact that next to the typical local dishes  such as ¨pescado sarandeado¨ – originally smoked with mangrove leaves, now protected and their use  prohibited, or ceviches in which the fish is scraped with a fork  to separate the flesh from the  skeleton, and not in squares or cubes as in other places, banana bread can be found. Why should you be surprised?  Because although banana is one of the more abundant fruits in the area, the banana bread sold at the quaint stands made with palm tree trunks and leaves is a classic North American recipe.

Also, alongside the banana bread you may find  jackfruit  bread. In fact, nowadays, you can get it fresh at most  roadside villages and towns  throughout the state. One would think that as in banana bread, it is a traditional ingredient on local menus. Truth is, jackfruit – also known as breadfruit in other places- is not a local  plant. A few years ago it was planted and harvested successfully due to the conditions of the soil  and climate in Nayarit.

Breadfruit is actually  very similar to soursop ( guanabana),  more  popular for centuries specially in the southern part of the country, where it  can be found in sherbet or candy.

¿ Are these then, ingredients or dishes of local cuisine? ¿Where or when does Mexican regional cuisine start? It is fascinating to observe how much regional cooking has changed in the last few decades.

During the 50’s,  when  refrigerated trucks were not  all that common, ingredients and cuisine  across  the country were completely regional . Therefore if one wished to enjoy a Nayarit dish in Chihuahua, for example, one had to travel to that state and vice-versa.

Of course, in my case, that did nothing but add charm to the trips whether they be in car, bus or train, back then when trains were available for the enjoyment of those of us who had the opportunity to travel by rail, Along the route, travelers found ingredients and regional dishes than could only be found locally, be it on the highway,  the bus  or train stations or on the bus, that contrary to today, would stop with no previous warning in the most unheard of places.

When I was small, in that time, if my father had to go to Mexico City, be it work or family business, he would choose the route according to what food he fancied. The trip, of course, took considerably longer than normal  – sometimes a few days – and the experience turned frankly exciting.  What could be a boring and tiring trip transformed itself into a gastronomic tour: ¨drowned tortas¨in Guadalajara, pork crackling and ¨carne adobada¨ in Tepatitlan, ¨chongos¨ in Zamora, strawberries with cream in Irapuato and ham and cold meats in San Juan  del Rio and so on till our arrival to the capital, where in itself we could enjoy so many dishes and ingredients that did not exist in Nayarit: pizzas and spaghetti, I´m talking about the 50´s, paellas and moles, cakes and pies, maguey worms, crayfish, Spanish sweet nougats, chestnuts, dates, dried apricots, and dishes with something  that surprised me with its exquisiteness, celery! Anyway, depending on the season and what could be found at the market, we would return to Tepic well  stocked with   ¨goodies¨ unavailable and sometimes even unknown there,

Therefore regional cuisines were part of my upbringing. . In Saltillo, we would eat ¨coyotas¨ pastries with crude cane sugar and pecans, and baby goat in Monterrey. In Guadalajara, besides the ¨drowned tortas,  ¨birote¨, fermented yeast dough bread, or myrtle fruit (arrayan) sherbet, In Puebla the Mole Poblano (no translation),  in rice pudding in Fresnillo, (the best I have ever tried). I could make a map of Mexico and instead of city names include regional dishes or ingredients.

Little by little everything began to change in the country, for better and for worse, till today, when practically everything can be obtained almost everywhere and even more, imported oriental, Lebanese, Russian, Spanish or endless more products  from all over the globe have reached Nayarit, and now, besides basil, eggplant, mushrooms, parmesan cheese and of course celery, one can find Dutch cheeses, Italian oils, Chinese sauces, Spanish anchovies, Brazilian hearts of palm, Chilean salmon, butter from New Zealand, Indian curry, French coffee. Flavor does not always arrive the same, and like wine does not travel well.

Sometimes as if by art of magic though, it does!

One occasion in New York, dining at Zarela, one of the daily specials was ¨camarones rancheros¨ ranch style shrimp. Why I ordered these, when I could order any other dish, I do not know, or wait, maybe I do. I had spent a few weeks  in New York, dining at Zarela´s frequently and I felt like trying a little of all the menu. The shrimp arrived at my table, perfumed by the tomato, garlic and cumin and at my first taste I was transported back to a desert beach with a very modest palm thatched roof hut  in which the afternoon tide would rise enough to just wet my feet and where the owner served the same dish. I say the same dish and it was exactly the same taste. With each  bite I relived the experience of the beach back then, that during sunset looked like glitter had been spread over it all; lukewarm waters that fish darted and jumped out of, whales swam with their calves, and dolphins played in the distance; where  rainy afternoons created marvelous rainbows and clams appeared easily  by digging slightly in the sand, full of shells and snails. I remembered that beach from my teen years with  practically nothing or nobody close, to which my father referred to as his paradise, and that today urbanized and extremely popular has become ¨Rincon de Guayabitos¨.m Progress and comforts have been exchanged for that golden sand, shell and snail beach where of course,  the palm hut no longer exists.

Certainly, regional cuisine continues to exist, if well changing, adapting, integrating, sometimes forgotten and later remembered, and just as the surfing ¨hippie¨in the 60´s did with his banana bread récipe, Zarela, no doubt has left hers in New York, Where she has taken not only the regional cuisine of my country, but also of my memories and youth.

The question of where and when regional Mexican cuisine  begins or ends may not have a precise answer, but in our memory , and why not,  in our hearts.