EatMx: Real Mexican food, at home and on the road

A Toast to Mexico, with Piña Agave

A new venture deserves a toast, and this one is for the launch of my new blog, EatMx.com.

Rather than the same old Champagne or margaritas, it's Piña Agave, a cocktail from the state of Michoacán.

The girl serving it is a student at the Pátzcuaro branch of ICATUR (Instituto de Capacitación Turística), a tourism school. There, classes in gastronomy delve into age-old recipes for pozole, atole and tamales, then get up to date with the latest mixology.

At the bartending lab, Piña Agave is made with local cane alcohol, called charanda, but you can use tequila instead.

So cheers, salud, and keep posted for a fresh look at Mexican food, on both sides of the border.  

PIÑA AGAVE
Pineapple Agave Cooler

3 thin wedges fresh pineapple
3 slices cucumber, peeled
3 slices Mexican lime, plus 1 for garnish
2 ounces charanda or tequila
1 tablespoon agave syrup
Ice cubes
Sprite

In a squat, heavy cocktail glass, combine the pineapple, cucumber and lime slices. Add the tequila and agave syrup. Muddle with a wooden muddler or the bottom of a wooden spoon.

Add 4 or 5 ice cubes. Fill with Sprite. Garnish with a lime slice on the edge of the glass.

Makes 1 serving.

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About EatMx.com

Mexican cooking has intrigued the world, from Great Britain to India to Argentina and Singapore.  And no wonder. With its indigenous charm and European overlay,  it is romantic, fascinating, and so delicious that it has become one of only two cuisines singled out by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The other is that of France.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, I've eaten Mexican food since the age of 4, when my parents took me to a neighborhood restaurant where even the beans and rice were extraordinary.  Living in this city is like being in Mexico, not a stretch when you consider that until the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Alta California was part of Mexico.

While writing for the Los Angeles Times, I started a phenomenally popular column called Border Line, which presented the first (and possibly only) recipe in Spanish ever to appear in that newspaper.

Later I wrote "Mexican Cookery" (HP Books). The enormous success of that book indicated the great appetite for  Mexican cookery in the United States and elsewhere--I once saw a copy in a sidewalk book display in Mumbai.

After that, I wrote a segment of Time-Life Books'  "Great Meals in Minutes: Mexican Menus." Rick Bayless also contributed to that book. And in 2004 my article on mezcal in Oaxaca won a James Beard award.

In 2006, I started the blog www.tableconversation.com, which includes Mexican recipes along with those from other cuisines. But Mexican food is so popular and vast in scope that it deserves its own blog.  

What is Mexican cooking? Anything from earthy "guisados" handed down over generations to  sophisticated interpretations by contemporary chefs. 

Mexican women today may cook with canned chiles, powdered stock bases, prepared mole pastes and other ingredients that purists would scoff at. But their dishes are authentic too, because they know the taste.

And so you will find a little of everything in EatMx.com, but all of it will be totally Mexican.

--Barbara Hansen