Discover and re-discover Mexico’s cuisine, culture and history through the recipes, backyard stories and other interesting findings of an expatriate in Canada
As I begin my fourth year as a blogger, I feel very grateful to all the kind readers who have followed my stories and recipes, offered comments, encouragement, and in many cases, their friendship. It is my great pleasure and honour to continue sharing My Slice of Mexico with you all ... click on title for more
Chocolate bars with one or more wafer/biscuit layers are very popular all around the World. Tin Larín is a Mexican wafer sandwich with peanut-flavoured filling and covered with milk chocolate; when I realized it now tasted artificial and too sugary, with hardly a trace of peanut flavour, I decided to make my own at home ... click on title for more
In one of my early posts, I followed the very interesting route of the bisquet, the Mexican version of the American biscuit (scone-type pastry), from its origins on the railroad trails in the US and Northern Mexico, to its travels south to Mexico City, brought by Chinese immigrants turned cooks. That time, I shared my own version of a low fat, quick dough bisquet with no yeast, but since I had a frothy and rich cup of café con leche (coffee with milk) from my last post, this time I decided to give the traditional recipe for bisquets a try ... click on title for more
In the 1720s, it was a French officer who introduced coffee to the American continent, when he brought a plant with him to the Caribbean island of Martinique. After a successful harvest in 1726, other plants were brought to Antilles, Jamaica and Cuba. In the 1790s, the first coffee plants finally made it to the Mexican port of Veracruz in the Golf of Mexico, from the Caribbean islands. Other coffee plantations were established in later years: in the South, in Chiapas, with coffee plants from Guatemala, and Oaxaca with coffee from Cuba; and near the Pacific coast, in Michoacán and neighbouring states, with beans brought directly from the port of Mokha, in Yemen. In the early 1800s, towards the end of the Spanish rule in Mexico, the first cafés opened in Mexico City, and coffee was served, “ … estilo de Francia": esto es, endulzado y con leche.” - “… the French way, that is, sweetened and with milk” ... click on title for more
Sweet tamales are not as well known outside of Mexico as their savoury counterparts, but they are equally tasty, and easier to assemble, because the flavourings are usually mixed in with the corn paste. The classic flavour is cinnamon & raisin, often coloured pink; another popular flavour is pineapple ... click on title for more
