The food of Chiapas

Latin America, culinary cultures — By Bob Riel on August 2, 2007 at 2:27 pm

One of the most interesting ways to experience a culture is through its food. For Chicago chef and tour guide Rick Bayless, the regional dishes of Chiapas are among the most interesting in Mexico. As noted in this travel story by Robin Mathers Jenkins:

For Bayless, temperamentally still the curious graduate student he was when he visited Chiapas the first time, the best reason to travel is to talk with the people he meets along the way.

“Everything I learn from them – what they had for dinner last night, what they cooked for their mother’s birthday last week – helps me understand how the food fits into their everyday lives,” he said. “At the restaurant, I need to get some of that (understanding) on the plate, of course, but oftentimes, it’s so far away that it’s easy to forget its cultural context.” …

The foods of Chiapas aren’t as familiar to the American eye and palate as those of other Mexican states, Bayless said. “Foodwise, the most exotic place is definitely Chiapas.” In markets in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, and San Cristobal, mysterious greens, unidentified herbs, novel chiles and myriad tropical fruits foreign to American eyes spilled out of booth after booth.

Cooking methods in Chiapanecan cooking are simple and rustic, but sauces from moles to salsas are complex, and tamales appear in dozens of variations.

The author also followed Bayless into a local market in Chiapas and described the scene:

The market was a swirl of activity. The women from the mountain village of San Juan Chamula wore heavy, hairy (from goat hair) black skirts fashioned from cleverly tucked lengths of fabric. The women of Zincantan, an even smaller village, wove a stunningly beautiful pink and purple fabric from which they made garments. In this culture, the individual is far less important than the collective identity of the village.

Men lugged crates of pineapples balanced on one shoulder, or pushed long, low two-wheeled carts laden with boxes and burlap sacks. Here and there, market vendors offering live chickens, the birds hanging upside-down from their wings, waited for appreciative buyers. An aging blind woman, perhaps too poor to afford the stall rent, sang in a clear mezzo-soprano as she simultaneously dangled a small child and arranged and rearranged her few offerings on a mat in an aisle. Nearby stall-holders helped her make change for customers.