Mexico Shows Off Its Best: Part 2

5. Costillas de res al ataúd. Costillas are beef ribs, and an ataúd is a coffin. That sounds grisly, but in this case the ataúd was an oven, and it did a heavenly job of cooking the ribs.

The key to the flavor was the seasoning, an adobo created by José Viejo Garza, who has a meat shop in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León.

José cooked chicken in the same adobo--it's next to the ribs on the grill--at an outdoor lunch for visitors and townspeople in a shady park called Ojo de Agua.

6. Coyame Sotol. Made from a wild desert plant called Dasylirion wheeleri, sotol is the liquor of choice in the state of Chihuahua. It's so popular it's even sung about in the famous "Corrido de Chihuahua."

I tasted several brands, but Coyame was the one I would have put in my suitcase, if there had been room. It had lots of character and the intriguing smoky taste of a good mezcal. Unfortunately, I only saw it once, at a tasting in Chihuahua city.

The golden reposado is in the photo. There is also a colorless tradicional and a nut-flavored reposado.

The name comes from Coyame del Sotol, a municipality in Chihuahua state.

7. Mennonite baked goods. There are 40,000 Mennonites in Chihuahua state, and you can learn their history and get an idea of their lifestyle if you visit the Menonite museum (the building in the photo at the bottom), which is located near Ciudad Cuauhtémoc.

Exhibits include a model kitchen, bedroom, dining table, old wood-burning stove and more, and you can buy potholders and other handicrafts in the shop.

But what has made the Mennonites famous in Mexico is their cheese. Their home cooking is also very good, judging from a tasting for my tour group at the museum.

We tried Mennonite sausages and ate cookies (right) that were extraordinary, as if the gentle philosphy of the bakers had permeated the dough.

The buns that were set out for sandwiches (above) were light and airy, with a touch of whole wheat and such good flavor that you wanted to eat them plain in order to enjoy the taste.

Museo y Centro Cultural Menonita, Km. 10, Carretera Cuauhtémoc to Alvaro Obregon, Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua. (625) 593-1895.