Daily AfroMexican meals in the Costa Chica of Mexico
Here I’m translating from Francisca Aparicio Prudente’s ground breaking La Sazón de la cocina afromestiza de Guerrero.
Or at least I am having a shot at translating because the region is known for many local words and expressions and the glossary does not explain all of them. I have also broken up the text where I take it the author is offering alternative menus.
“In the morning,
black coffee with a tamal or a pan dulce (slightly sweet roll, bun in English English),
aporreadillo of beef (I could use help with this one),
fried fish or fish in broth,
dried beef (cecina) fried with a sauce of chile costeña and tomato.
For midday,
beans fried with lard accompanied by boiled rice, pickled chiles and fresh cheese (queso fresco),
beef broth cooked with chile rojo seasoned with leaves of yerbasanta and ripe plantain (plátano macho camunco) boiled with salt,
pork (marrano), turkey or chicken mole, accompanied with boiled white rice
and for the heat a glass of chilate (basically a kind of atole, recipe later) prepared with cacao, huapataxtle (a wild cacao), panocha (raw sugar cone), rice or ground maize (masa de maiz).
For the weekend, dried beef (una carne de res oreada) cooked over the coals or in a clay pot with hot memelas (thick tortillas) and green chile pounded with tomato en cajete (in a box?).”
This is not metropolitan Mexican food. But it does not seem much out of line with many of the other very regional country cuisines described in other books in this series. Of course rice and beans and plantains suggest possible connections with the Gulf of Guinea and the Congo Coast so we’ll turn to those in the next post on the subject. Plus some recipes.
- Afro-Mexican Cuisine: Getting Started on the Costa Chica
- The AfroMexican recipes from the Costa Chica of Guerrero
Any information about the type of beans used or the name of the bean dishes? The New World is full of native bean types, but the Old World bean Cajanus cajan (gandul, guandul, guandu, Congo pea, Gungo pea, Gunga pea) is often associated with Afro-American (North and South) cuisines.
aporreadillo refers to the stew or egg and dried beed dish made from air or salt dried beef (machaca). In order to reduce it to manageably sized pieces, one had to pound it (apporear – ‘to bludgeon’) often with a tejolote or mano to shred it and reduce it to the required sized pieces.
The name stuck to the preparation … even after the bludgeoned beef departed the scene.
Regards,
Sharon
Aporreadillo is also a favorite dish of la Tierra Caliente de Michoacán. It has migrated to restaurant menus in the not-so-hot lands of the Michoacán highlands.
“Chilate”, by the description, has a resemblance to the “texate” of Oaxaca and the “taxcalate” of Chiapas. Cold, water based beverages with cacao and maíz. The seasonings may differ from region to region.
Best wishes,
Mike
Adam, the beans are always referred to generically as “frijol.” But obviously that is one of the questions to ask. I’ll be talking about the bean issue when I get to the post on Africans in Guanajuato.
Sharon, I should have guessed that you might be the one flying to my rescue on this. I will happily add apporear to my pounding, cutting, slashing vocabulary!
Michael, thanks for posting. I’ve been following your blog for some time. I obviously have to come to Michoacán to try aporreadillo. And thanks for the correction on chilate. You’re quite right it is one of the host of starch-based cold drinks not a hot atole. Funny there’s so much written about the latter and relatively little about the former.