Trade shows can be fascinating--and frustrating.
That's the way it was with the inaugural México Food Fair at the L.A. Convention Center this week. Lots of interesting products, but most of them were seeking distributors. In other words, if you liked something, you couldn't go out and buy it.
For example, Café Orión (at the top) private labels Veracruz coffee for a major market chain here, but I couldn't find any at one of the branches.
Maybe in the future we'll get Orión's house blend of coffees from Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero. It should be excellent, judging by the company's espresso, which was poured at the fair.
La Fama Foods makes flour for tortillas in northwestern Mexico. The three types are plain, whole wheat and one spiced with chile. The whole wheat tortillas are rich and delicious, perfect to spread with honey. Perhaps the tortillas at the fair were good because the tortilla maker (above) was expert.
If you want to eat real mole poblano from Puebla, you may be able to taste a good one in the future. The mole paste from El Recetario de Naty (above) is from Cholula, Puebla, and contains all the mole components, including plantains and peanuts, so you only have to add water or broth.
The restaurant Casa de Los Muñecos in Puebla, the capital city of Puebla state, has a line of products produced by Dolores Zavala Banquetes. Those set out for sampling (above) included mole poblano, passion fruit marmalade and syrupy, spicy sauces made with jamaica, tamarind and chiltepin.
Casa de Los Muñecos specializes in traditional cuisine as well as updated dishes. Its ready-to-use products include mushroom lasagne with mole, chilaquiles with mole and canelones (cannelloni) with huitlacoche (above).
Some booths displayed products but offered no tastes. One woman sat like a watchdog behind a display of traditional glazed nut and seed candies. No samples. And no photos, she said, waving me away like the last thing she wanted to do was promote and sell her products. No matter. I can get the same sort of candies at my nearest 99 Cents Only store.
I had better luck at this display of bottled Chili Mix seasonings from Zacatecas, because I could buy them. For $1 each, I bought ground dried jalapeños with salt and powdered chamoy, which is a sweet, sour and spicy mixture to sprinkle over fruits. I'll use it to rim margarita glasses. The company is El Molino de la Hacienda.
In Mexico, nopal cactus is considered a super food that can cure diabetes and other ailments. Therefore, a variety of nopal products appeared at the fair including crisp tostadas (above) from Alimentos Susalia in Mexico City.
The company makes plain nopal tortillas as well as nopal tortillas flavored with epazote (above), jalapeños or cheese.
Edibles passed around included cheeses, hot dogs and Salvadoran crema from FUD (above), which also had a booth dispensing wraps, guacamole and cheeses. Acapulco's Ice Cream had a freezer box full of paletas in such enticing flavors as mamey, walnut, pineapple, coconut, coffee and corn along with a few chile-spiked bars.
The restaurant La Huasteca in Lynwood set out delicious samples of ceviche, cochinita pibil and chiles en nogada. But mostly you grabbed a chip or two to taste with sauces and other products on display.
No Mexican wines were represented, but there were samples of tequila, mezcal, damiana liqueur, pulque and other alcoholic beverages. For my taste, the one that stood out was Espíritu Lauro mezcal from Ejutla, Oaxaca (above). Made from two types of agave, espadín and karwinskii, it has wonderful, full, smoky flavor. With any luck, it will arrive here soon.
If you think of Mazatlán only in terms of beaches, think again. Above are artisanal liqueurs made there by Onilikan and flavored with mango, orange or blue agave. If you're heading to Mazatlán on vacation, you can tour the plant. And if not, you can buy the liqueurs in California.
Each day of the show included cooking demonstrations. On opening day, Jaime Martín del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu of La Casita Mexicana showed how to make basic red and green salsas and then embellish them with ingredients such as tequila, avocado, roasted tomatoes, chiles and hoja santa.
In a few moments, they made mole from scratch, not a simple version, but the famous mole of Xico, Veracruz, which incorporates chilhuacle, ancho and chipotle chiles, hazelnuts, pine nuts, walnuts, prunes, raisins, chocolate, piloncillo, plantains, bread and still more ingredients. "It's sweet like marmalade but sabroso," said Arvizu (at the right).
The chefs have bottled their own mole paste, and that was on display at the La Casita Mexicana booth. If you missed the fair, you can still get the paste. It's sold online and at La Tiendita, the shop next to the restaurant, which is in Bell.
99cent store where?
Posted by: Marco | April 06, 2018 at 11:10 PM
I saw a bottle from this brand at the 99 Cents store, but otherwise, only encountered them at the show.
Posted by: Barbara Hansen | April 03, 2018 at 06:19 PM
Where did you find chilimix in Zacatecas?
Posted by: Marco | April 03, 2018 at 01:40 PM