Forget talk of “food appropriation” — let’s get ultra-authentic. Let’s take a culinary odyssey to Puebla and geek out on food instead of bickering over it. This is the culinary heart of Mexico and many would argue the best food (period) comes from this region. Hell, Puebla City was renowned for its street food well before the Spanish showed up. It’s also where corn has its roots, so you know the tortillas are going to be ridiculous.
Puebla’s food — or Poblano cuisine — is an amalgamation of Pre-Columbian foodways that have married traditions and ingredients from Europe to Asia to create a unique culinary corner of Mexico. Anthony Bourdain famously titled his Cook’s Tour episode about the famed city “Puebla, Where The Cooks Are From.” Puebla also has the honor of being the home to the originals of some of Taco Bell’s classic remixed treats. And if that’s not enough reason to adore Poblano food, it’s one of the three states that lays claim to the invention of the delectable cocoa-chili sauce Mole — which many still call mole poblano.
Let’s dive into what you have to eat when you walk the streets of Puebla this summer.
TACOS ARABES
Tacos Arabes are the local version of shwarma. Pork is swapped out for the usual lamb or veal on the rotating spit and tortillas are used in place of lavash. These delicious tacos are then rolled and served with a minimum of extra toppings or fuss.
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CEMITA
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Now, this is a sandwich. The holy trinity of shredded cheese, breaded pork steak, and soft sesame roll equates to a filling meal on the go. There are endless ways you can dress up your Cemita, so go nuts with the guac, hot sauces, pickles, and pico.
GORDITA
This fatty, deep-fried pocket of bread is stuffed with so much goodness: stewed meats, funky cheese, and spicy sauces! Sorry, Taco Bell, but your Gorditas don’t stand a chance against these.
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CHALUPA
You have to love anything that’s this deceptively simple. It’s a corn tortilla that’s grilled around a roja or verde sauce and topped with some pulled chicken (sometimes other slow-cooked meats). That’s pretty much it. But it’s in the delicateness of the sauces, the mix of the tortilla dough, the fire of the grill, and the slow-cooking of the meat that this treat becomes something extraordinary.
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PIPIAN
A Pipian is a filling main course meal. This dish is a lush green sauce made from ground up pumpkin seeds, tomatillos, and an array of spices over a perfectly roasted piece of meat (often chicken) and served with some nice white rice. Rojo Pipian uses crushed Ancho chili peppers to get the ruddy color and adds a subtle heat to the sauce.
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CABRITO
Cabrito means baby goat, so skip ahead if that makes you a little unsettled. Most of the time you’ll find huge fires burning with whole goats roasting to smoky perfection over the flames. Then, the whole animal is served up with plenty of tortillas, sauces, and booze. Alternatively, a huge stew can be made from the whole animal. Either way, it’s a feast!
MOLE DE PANZA
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Every abuela will have a recipe for this menudo, or soup. The main ingredient is cow’s stomach stewed with roots, herbs, chilis and that grandmotherly love we all long for when we eat. This is one of those dishes that sounds off-putting (cow’s stomach isn’t as appetizing as, say, wagyu), but once you dig into a bowl, you’ll be transported to a place of total comfort.
MOLOTES
Molotes are corn and potato pockets of deep-fried joy. These delicacies are usually filled with shredded beef before being plunged into boiling oil. The sizes and quality of Molotes vary from street corner to street corner in Puebla, with some no bigger than a samosa and others the size of calzones. They’re usually served with a rojo or mole sauce and maybe some shredded cheese on top. Or you can just eat them hot out of the piece of paper they were served in. It’s all good.
CHILES EN NOGADA
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This is one of the more classic dishes born from the Spanish influence on Mexico. A poblano chili is stuffed with shredded meat, herbs, and fruits. The chili is then covered in a room temperature walnut cream sauce. The whole thing is then covered in bright red pomegranate and diced green chili — which makes the dish a representation of the Mexican flag.
MOLE POBLANO
Every cook should have a recipe for Mole in their arsenal. Calling this a chocolate-chili sauce is probably the easiest way to define this great gravy. But it always feels disingenuous — there are usually 30+ ingredients in a perfect mole running from spices to nuts to various fruits. Either way, we should all live by the food axiom that everything is better with mole. Everything.
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