Visiting and Tasting Queretaro Mexico

All photos by Pedro Luis de Aguinaga

See some more photos here.  More to come

 

 

For years my friends Jim Dickson and William Garcia have been raving about Querétaro and for one reason or another, I had never made it there.  Oh!  What I have been missing.  It is one of the most gorgeous cities in Mexico and definitely the cleanest of any that I have visited  The gentile, welcoming, and lovely citizens take great pride in that and in the fact that there are no stray dogs anywhere to be seen.  All this should make my job easy.

We were there only for 2 1/2 days just enough to get a feel for the flavors of the city. We walked all around downtown and my friend Pedro de Aguinaga took literally hundred of pictures so I need to edit and re-size them and I’ll post them on flickr in the next few days.

One of the best things we did was take one of two tours on the old tramway.  The tour guide was charming and had a wry sense of humor and I learned a lot.

 

Some of you may have read that I have launched Zarela’s Riata, a public relations company whose primary goal is to  promote the culture and gastronomy of different Mexican states like I did for Chihuahua at almost totally my own expense to learn the ropes (read about it here).  I studied mass communications during the Marshall McLuhan years when his tenet “the medium is the message” reigned in the field. That has never been more true than in this time of the Internet and social media. For me,  it does not make sense to have a simple gastronomic  or tourism promotional  event  but rather for people to have the opportunity to get to know all aspects of a state: the history, architecture, arts and crafts, literature, music, sightseeing attractions, ecology etc.  The point is to whet their appetite for travel there. (End of commercial.)

Querétaro is the perfect place to start.  It is beautiful, safe, clean, has good food, some excellent  hotels and even a New Orleans’- style cafe, Hank’s, with a soulful jazz singer and fine fried oysters.  There are fascinating  side trips to mineral baths, to 5 restored convents (now hotels) in the Sierra Gorda where you might run into a jaguar that has made its comeback after being purportedly extinct.

La cocina conventual (the food of the convents) was where much of  the Mexican food as we know it today was  developed.  I look forward to my next trip to learn more about it.  One of my most treasured books is Cocina de Antaño that has beautifully illustrated and wonderful recipes from convents all over the country .

 

Chef Carlos Arroyo, Olivia Alegria and me. (Please note pose . It will be the same in each photo to avoid double-chin!)

After years of field research I’ve discovered that the best way for me to get to know a place is to get in touch with a knowledgeable local, preferably in the culinary field, and have them suggest where to stay, what and where to eat, and what to see.  Ada Solana, my long-ago assistant lives in Querétaro but who would be out of town during my visit laid the ground work for me. She got me an appointment with the Director of Tourism, Mauricio Salmon,  and put me in touch with Olivia Alegria, the well known and renowned culinary researcher and owner/director of the well regarded Instituto Gastronomico de Estudios Superiores whose graduates would probably be good options for the many people who call me to ask if I know any Mexican chefs. She proved to be a fountain of knowledge. a real jewel.

 

She found me a beautiful hotel, La Casa del Atrio  at a good price.(see pictures)  The bedrooms are spacious, the beds comfortable, there is wi-fi and free telephone calls to the US.  The free breakfast is delicious and the art gallery/antique shop has many unique things to buy which is good because the only thing in Queretaro that I did not find was great arts and crafts.

Prior to or arrival she sent me a list of places to go and things to see:

La Mariposa for candied fruits and other sweets. We bought the duraznos prensados (pressed candied peaches) for a hefty $15.00 US dollars a box.  They were too sweet for me.

Fin de siglo (a tremendous disappointment)

Nicos (see below)

For dinner.

1810 Centro

Cenaduría Blas

Taquerías en la calle de 5 de mayo.  We particularly liked La Antojeria.  The service was superb.

Mercados -the markets do not wow

 

 

She organized a gastronomic tasting at Dona Urraca  (read separate entry) but first  took me to her friend Maria Elena Vazquez Lugo’s restaurant  Nicos an off-shoot of a 50-year old Mexico City institution where we sampled some traditional Queretan food: the addictive tostadas de maiz quebrado (crispy corn tortillas made with a masa of cracked corn) and some gorditas de queso (cheese filled corn masa gorditas -no translation) and a non-traditional sopa de natas (a layered casserole of light as air crepes with a delicious tomato sauce)  that I immediately came home and replicated.

There was also a smoky stuffed green chile in a chunky tomatillo sauce, and rabbit in pulque. we got our first taste of the traditional  dishes along with a thorough lesson on the history of the cuisine.