返回纽约市土著墨西哥烹饪

Activist and chef Yajaira Saavedra, of瓦哈坎餐厅La Moradain the South Bronx, is tired of seeing restaurants misrepresentIndigenous烹饪。

萨维德拉说：“看到人们扔'mole'，就像这是另一种牧场的调味料，而不是传统的饭菜，这确实让我感到困扰。”“它具有历史。它是非常有意义的。如果我们至少可以在应有的信誉的情况下给予信誉，并承认这些食物是由土著人民制造的，属于土著人民，可以帮助建立[意识]。”vwin德赢ac米兰

Mexican cuisine, if you can even categorize it, is a blend of Spanish cuisine and Indigenous ingredients and techniques that predate European colonization. It is both Old and New World. Yet many diners unwittingly oversimplify Mexican food as a rotating combination of beans, tortillas, meat, and cheese. Indigenous gastronomy is mostly left out of the conversation—even in the most sophisticated dining capital of the country, New York City.

Many of the Mexican foods we eat, like mole, have Indigenous origins that are overlooked or erased entirely. Mole, a sometimes chocolate- and chile-based sauce, is enormously complex. Not only in terms of the amount of ingredients and spices it uses, but also the length of preparation it requires, which can go on for days and involves entire pueblos. Traditionally, Indigenous Mexican women would toast and grind their fresh spices by hand: dried chiles, peanuts, sesame seeds, chocolate, cinnamon, anise, and more. Mole comes from the Indigenous Nahuatl word mōlli, meaning "sauce." Unsuspecting diners might have already seen this Indigenous word as part of the etymological root of the guacamole.

在布朗克斯，萨维德拉（Saavedra）和她的姐姐苏斯·厨师卡罗来纳州（Sous Carolina）是女性，无证件和家庭经营的La Morada的共同所有人，在那里他们与母亲Natalia一起工作。他们的家人是土著人，他们已经仔细保存了来自瓦哈卡西北部山区圣米格尔·阿赫鲁埃特里特兰（San MiguelAhuehuetitlán）的几代人（包括著名的痣）所传递的食谱，使他们在南布朗克斯（South Bronx）中将其带入了生活。他们努力通过菜单来纪念土著祖先。

La Morada与越来越多的纽约市墨西哥餐馆一起加入了居中的媒介和成分。但是，意识仍然存在很大的差距。卡罗莱纳州说：“我不认为纽约人知道什么是土著食物。”vwin德赢ac米兰“您知道美国人如何认为墨西哥食物是炸玉米饼的铃铛？即使对他们的脸进行了解释，vwin德赢ac米兰土著食物也与墨西哥食品脱节，并且一直被视为要比少于墨西哥食物。”

La Morada指出了菜单上的土著食品的标签。vwin德赢ac米兰埃尔·索普（El Sope）是在许多纽约市餐馆中发现的土著菜肴，而食客可能不知道实际上是土著的。在La Morada，El Sope是一个扁平的MASA基地，嘴唇和豆类浇头，如豆类，奶酪和时令成分。卡罗莱纳州说：“季节性是土著烹饪的重要组成部分。”

Torpedo-shaped tlacoyos and thin crispy tlayudas offered at La Morada are also Indigenous. "Tl" is the derivative of corn, says Carolina, in the Indigenous language, so a dish that begins with "ty" is a meal based on corn. Sun-dried chilaquiles were created by Indigenous people as a way to preserve any extra tortillas. A molcajete is actually the Indigenous vessel that green and red Mexican salsas are made out of. La Morada offers the vessel and fresh produce as a part of their menu.

卡罗来纳州说：“没有盘子，叉子或刀子中的土著烹饪。”“你的玉米饼是你的餐巾和叉子。”

The Mother of Mexican ingredients is maíz, which is native to the Oaxacan state, where first evidence of its domestication are rooted in the Balsas River Valley as far back as9000年前。实际上，玉米是许多纽约市厨师的主要工具，他们聚焦于墨西哥土著烹饪。

厨师Zack Wangeman (El Cellar de Can Roca, Per Se) and Jesus Perea (Cosme, Pujol, Cacao Prieto) ofSobre Masain Williamsburg, Brooklyn, strive to educate the public about Indigenous cuisine and its essential place in Mexican food, particularly through the culture of corn. Perea is from Puebla and raised in the Bronx, while Wangeman is from Oaxaca with a father from the United States and mother from Michoacan. They are hyper-focused on their masa: The corn is sourced from producers in Mexico and nixtamalized in-house. (Nixtamalization is an ancient process of steeping corn in alkaline water, cooking it, and grinding it into flour that is then used to make items such as tortillas, quesadillas, tacos, memeles, tetelas, and tlayudas.)

Despite the labor intensive work of nixtamalization, Wangeman and Perea do not take shortcuts. They buy their mole from Teotitlan del Valle since it's impossible to source the right ingredients in New York City. They recently did a series of Fundraisers with Fundación Tortilla to try and save some very old popping corn seeds.

旺格曼说：“我们试图通过提供熟悉不熟悉的事物的东西来混合它。”“我们有tlacoyos，里面装满了豆酱，用鳄梨叶调味过。

纽约市餐厅的新景象是Kuxé，旨在纪念菜单上的土著食谱的另一家餐厅。这是厨师朱利安·麦地那（Julian Medina）的最新概念，位于格林威治村（Greenwich Village）。这家餐厅是地道的Fonda（例如小酒馆或小型旅馆），以玉米的土著墨西哥词命名。Kuxé并不是严格的土著烹饪，但麦地那（Medina）在菜单上经常使用前西班牙裔成分，这突出了Cocina de Pueblo（乡村烹饪）和每个团队成员的食谱。

麦地那说：“在Kuxé，我们以平易近人和熟悉的方式准备土著食材，我们的希望是我们的客人会更好地了解这些成分。”这意味着在可能的情况下，使用玉米，痣，辣椒和nopales，以及在可能的情况下使用传统的烹饪方法，使用土著或前甲基化成分。他们的痣poblano使用四种不同种类的辣椒，肉桂，巧克力和platanos.

他们还为玉米饼，砍刀和皮卡迪塔斯制作了自己的Masa，并使用使用莫利诺，传统的玉米研磨机以及尼克萨塔乳化的成分直接从瓦哈卡州进口。

旺格曼认为纽约人并不熟悉土著食品，因为“……这是不可用的。”vwin德赢ac米兰他解释说，与墨西哥烹饪非常相关的香菜来自东南亚。与侮辱性墨西哥食物有关的草药包括Hoja Santa，Epazote，Pvwin德赢ac米兰apalo，Chepil和Hierba de Conejo等。

他说：“其中一半甚至都不可用。”“我认为问题主要是缺乏信息。这是一种如此巨大的美食。即使在瓦哈卡州长大后，每次我去市场时，我都会了解我对新的辣椒或草药的了解。”

麦地那（Medina）分享说，虽然纽约市都有各种类型的墨西哥餐厅概念，但它们主要是“仅受墨西哥食材或口味的启发”。

La Morada的Carolina感到有积极的擦除土著烹饪传统。她说：“厨师和媒体应该责备 - 人们不做研究。”“这是导致擦除的事物的结合。教育食客是厨师的责任。他们不这样做。”

In order to inform the public herself, she promotes a "tableside education" approach to Indigenous cuisine, similar to how a sommelier explains the origins, varietals, and terroir of a wine while pouring a glass for a customer in detail. "It takes 30 seconds to explain. But no one does it," says Carolina, who also works as the社区教育协调员在石谷仓的蓝山。

除了向公众提供有关土著美食的教育外，卡罗来纳州还致力于提高人们对土著人民的生活经历的认识，即保留人们从中获利的食物的人。vwin德赢ac米兰

"If your intention is capitalism from cooking food from a culture that is not your own, put money where your mouth is and put that capital back to the people, farms, and farm workers," she says. "You are stealing our recipes, not even honoring the fact that we are going through a silent genocide right now. The people that created mole and tortillas are facing the nastiest battle with corporations and struggle for access to clean water and produce not tainted by pollution."

She continues, "By chefs taking from a culture that is not their own and not speaking about it, explaining where it comes from or giving Indigenous peoples credit — what else are you doing to help these people out while you make a profit?"