The Other Side of the Tortilla

Mexican recipes, culture and travel destinations

iPhone photography

1 Mexico City

Wordless Wednesday: Estadio Olímpico Universitario

I snapped this photo of the Estadio Olímpico while zipping through C.U. (Ciudad Universitaria, the main campus of UNAM) on my last visit to Mexico City. The stadium opened in 1952 and was also used for the 1968 Olympic games. The mural on the outside of the stadium as pictured here, titled “La Universidad, la Familia y el Deporte en México,” was created by the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera. The stadium is one of our favorite places, especially because it’s the home of the Pumas—our favorite soccer team. Read more about the history of the stadium in Spanish on UNAM’s website.

  • Have you been to the Estadio Olímpico? What’s your favorite part about it?

0 Finding Mexico in Chicago

Flores de calabaza at the farmers market

I’ve been stalking visiting my local farmers markets lately looking for flor de calabaza. And every week since they started bringing them three weeks ago, I’ve arrived too late because they sold out before 9 or 10 A.M. So this past weekend, I got up early on Saturday hoping to get my hands on some, only to discover I’d arrived just a bit too late.

But my lovely friends at Nichols Farm advised me to show up at another market location they visit on Sunday mornings in Wicker Park and to arrive just before they opened. I got there just before 8 A.M. and was able to get a big bunch (15 flowers!) as well as snap these photos with the bucket still full of florecitas!…

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0 Finding Mexico in Chicago

Wordless Wednesday: quesadilla de huitlacoche

Over the weekend José and I had dinner at Fogón, an upscale Mexican restaurant that opened this spring in a neighborhood near where we live. I’ll write more about it another time, but I had to share a photo of this earthy-tasting, perfectly over-stuffed quesadilla I ate as an appetizer—it had cheese and huitlacoche (also known as corn smut or corn truffle), epazote, salsa rustica with black beans and was topped with a small dollop of creme fraiche and light greens. It’s the culinary equivalent of black gold! (More on the topic of huitlacoche soon, I promise!)

  • How do you like to eat huitlacoche? Have you ever had it before?

0 Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday: Romeritos en lata

Look what I found at the Mexisuper a few weeks ago. I was too fascinated to not take a photo. Notice the little yellow dot to the bottom left on the can that says, “sin camarones.”

  • Would you eat romeritos en mole from a can?

1 Finding Mexico in Chicago

Wordless Wednesday: Taco de cecina

I ate this incredible taco de cecina last week at La Lagartija Taquería here in Chicago, our favorite changarro. With a homemade tortilla, a light smear of frijoles and a perfectly salted cut of cecina, I was in taco heaven. I topped it with cebolla, cilantro and a drizzle of salsa roja. It’s not on the everyday menu (it was off the daily specials list), but it most definitely should be! If you haven’t had cecina before, it’s a salted and partially dried thin cut of beef (kind of like how some steak houses serve dry-aged steaks).

  • What’s the best taco you’ve eaten recently? We want details!

2 Candies/Dulces

Mexican Candy: Moritas

If you haven’t noticed, I have a bit of an obsession with Mexican candies. Here’s another one of my finds, Moritas. They’re soft, sour gomitas that taste like blackberries and strawberries. They’re not the same kind of chewy consistency you’d expect from gummy bears, and they have a sort of crunchy, sweet, flavored coating of sugar dots. I haven’t had these in Mexico, but I’ve eaten something similar there and figured I’d like these too. My instincts usually don’t steer me wrong, and this was no exception–I’m headed back to the store this week to pick up another little bag.

  • Can you think of any other sweet and sour candies from Mexico?