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Showing posts with label Roz in La Paz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roz in La Paz. Show all posts
16.9.09
CHILES STUFFED WITH HISTORY & DESIRE
The chiles not only looked good, they were indeed delicious – never before had Tita done such a marvelous job with them.
When you bite into a Chile en Nogada, you get a taste of Mexican history and legend. This is the dish that bewitched the wedding guests in Laura Esquivel’s novel, Like Water for Chocolate.
In the novel, the first wedding guest to react to the chiles in walnut
sauce "immediately recognized the heat in her limbs, the tickling sensation in the center of her body, the naughty thoughts, and she decided to leave with her husband before things went too far. When she left, the party started to break up. " All the other chile-eating guests quickly made their excuses , throwing heated looks at each other, and left. Everyone was in a hurry to make mad passionate love.
The platters of chiles proudly wore the colors of the flag: the green of the chiles, the white of the nut sauce, the red of the pomegranates.
According to some historians, the dish that Esquivel cast as an aphrodisiac was, in fact, invented in the 1800s by nuns in the town of Puebla.
It was August 1821 and pomegranates were in season. The military commander Augustin de Iturbide had just signed the Treaty of Cordoba, granting Mexico its independence from Spain. He was travelling from Veracruz to Mexico City and planned to stop in Puebla, where there would be a feast in his honour. The Augustinian nuns of Santa Monica Convent created a special dish in the colours of the Mexican flag: green chiles, white walnut sauce and red pomegranates.
Nowadays, Chiles en Nogada are served in September, the month Mexicans celebrate Independence Day. It's not an easy dish to prepare, but if you're determined to try, google "chiles en nogada" and "recipes." Take your pick from the dozens of variations listed.
Or look for this dish on the menu at restaurants around town this month. One likely location is El Zarape, which specializes in traditional dishes. It's at 3450 México street (between Oaxaca and Nayarit).
The chiles disappeared in the blink of an eye. How long ago it seemed that Tita had felt like a chile in nut sauce left sitting on the platter out of etiquette, for not wanting to look greedy. Tita wondered whether the fact that there was not a single chile left on the platters was a sign that good manners had been forgotten or that the chiles were indeed splendid.
The chiles not only looked good, they were indeed delicious – never before had Tita done such a marvelous job with them.
Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
When you bite into a Chile en Nogada, you get a taste of Mexican history and legend. This is the dish that bewitched the wedding guests in Laura Esquivel’s novel, Like Water for Chocolate.
In the novel, the first wedding guest to react to the chiles in walnut
sauce "immediately recognized the heat in her limbs, the tickling sensation in the center of her body, the naughty thoughts, and she decided to leave with her husband before things went too far. When she left, the party started to break up. " All the other chile-eating guests quickly made their excuses , throwing heated looks at each other, and left. Everyone was in a hurry to make mad passionate love.The platters of chiles proudly wore the colors of the flag: the green of the chiles, the white of the nut sauce, the red of the pomegranates.
Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
According to some historians, the dish that Esquivel cast as an aphrodisiac was, in fact, invented in the 1800s by nuns in the town of Puebla.
It was August 1821 and pomegranates were in season. The military commander Augustin de Iturbide had just signed the Treaty of Cordoba, granting Mexico its independence from Spain. He was travelling from Veracruz to Mexico City and planned to stop in Puebla, where there would be a feast in his honour. The Augustinian nuns of Santa Monica Convent created a special dish in the colours of the Mexican flag: green chiles, white walnut sauce and red pomegranates.
Nowadays, Chiles en Nogada are served in September, the month Mexicans celebrate Independence Day. It's not an easy dish to prepare, but if you're determined to try, google "chiles en nogada" and "recipes." Take your pick from the dozens of variations listed.
Or look for this dish on the menu at restaurants around town this month. One likely location is El Zarape, which specializes in traditional dishes. It's at 3450 México street (between Oaxaca and Nayarit).
The chiles disappeared in the blink of an eye. How long ago it seemed that Tita had felt like a chile in nut sauce left sitting on the platter out of etiquette, for not wanting to look greedy. Tita wondered whether the fact that there was not a single chile left on the platters was a sign that good manners had been forgotten or that the chiles were indeed splendid.
Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
29.6.09
'Love can't always be trusted. You fight against it, but its power to hold you is too strong to resist.'
from on-line trailer of El Sortilegio
ROMANCE AND ART CAST A SPELL
ROMANCE AND ART CAST A SPELL
El Sortilegio is a soap opera with a bonus. The telenovela -- its English title is "Love Spell" -- uses Mexican art as a backdrop for each episode. That's because the show's producer, Carla Estrada, invited artists from across the country to send in samples of their work. From 900 submissions, well-known Mexican artist José Luis Cuevas helped choose 200 pieces. These have become part of the setting for this hot, new TV series, which began broadcast June 1.
If you have ever tuned in to a Latin American telenovela, you know that these soap operas offer a crash course in conversational Spanish. With Sortilegio, you also get the exposure to contemporary Mexican art, plus a plot thick with intrigue and romance.
Wikipedia describes the telenovela as a melodrama in miniseries format. These shows air in prime time -- five or six nights a week for about six months. They usually end with a bang. They are the most-watched genre of television program in the world, with at least two billion viewers worldwide.
The News, an excellent English-language newspaper in Mexico City, recently published an article on Sortilegio and the tie-in with Mexican art. Here's an excerpt from http://www.thenews.com.mx/
"Sortilegio treads some well-worn but entertaining soap-opera turf. Antonio Lombardo, a successful businessman, becomes alienated by his wife's inability to conceive and henceforth falls in love with and impregnates his best friend Samuel's wife Victoria, who gives birth to twins.
"Samuel goes on raising the children as if they were his own, while later, Antonio's wife dies during childbirth and gives birth to a baby boy. Later, Samuel dies and Antonio and Victoria are able to live life together, with three children completely in the dark as to the true nature of their relationship.”
The children grow to adulthood, and that's when the plot really thickens. A quote from Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott comes to mind: "Oh, what a tangled we weave, when first we practice to deceive."
For a five-minue introduction to Sortilegio, take a look at the English-language trailer on the Web. Go to http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/Jacqueline-Bracamontes/video/x99zsl_sortilegio-trailer-english_shortfilms
The one-hour episodes, created by Televisa, air Monday through Friday at 9 p.m. on "canal de las estrellas" (channel of the stars) in most parts of Mexico. Check local time and channel for La Paz. Sortilegio has been in progress for a month, but with 95 episodes scheduled, there's time to catch up before the story reaches its dramatic conclusion in mid-October.
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