Waiter, There's a Stone in My Soup!

“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.” ― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Some people travel the world to see great architecture, some people travel to see strange animals and others travel to see great mountains and deep canyons. I travel to eat. Well, mostly anyway. 

Oaxaca is one of the great food cities of the world. Not just of Mexico, but of the entire planet. Ask any foreigner who is here why did they come to Oaxaca and the almost certain answer is, "To eat".  France has Paris, Italy has Rome, China has Hong Kong and Mexico has Oaxaca. People who have only eaten Mexican food in the US have never eaten Mexican food. Grey refried beans smothered in melted cheese is not Mexican food, but Mexican American. But the real deal can be found here in Oaxaca in abundance, whether it's a tlayuda in the local mercado that will cost you $3, or an amazing grilled octopus in a fancy restaurant that may cost you $17 

Every morning we try to make it to the big mercado in downtown Oaxaca. Unfortunately, the city is doing some major work on it, so all the stalls have been put out on the street. The city built little stands for them so they can still do business and the cars have been blocked off. Our favorite drink there is a fresh chocolate con leche. Chocolate is added to hot milk and is then stirred up with a special wooden spoon called a molinillo.  Then it is poured into a big bowl and served with sweet bread. Oaxacan chocolate often has almonds and cinnamon in it to give it that special Mexican flavor. 

Another great dish you can get here in the market is  "Tlayuda". This is like a Oaxacan pizza; a large crispy tortilla covered with beans, cabbage, tomatoes and Oaxacan cheese. Then you choose the meat of your choice. I like chorizo, a spicy sausage. This will run you about $3. 

We also often eat lunch in the markets. Our favorite one this trip was in the Zapotec town of Tlacolula, east of town about 30 km. It was not the actual market day here, so it wasn't very crowded. But we found a nice little eatery with some lovely young local girls serving an amazing taco babacoa (delicious meat braised for hours, sorry, forgot to get a photo) and a spicy red soup with braised beef. My rule is, if it's red and it's a soup, it's always good. This did not disappoint. Plus, we entertained the girls with all of our picture taking. 

Since we do mercados for breakfast and lunch, we can splurge for dinner. And there's lots of splurging possibilities in Oaxaca. Our favorite two restaurants are La Catedral and Casa Oaxaca. La Catedral is an old favorite of ours and we've been there many times. Another place we like is Los Pacos, which specializes in moles, of which there are seven kinds in Oaxaca. So Amy had the "mole sampler", where you get all seven. I had the mole coloradito with pork. 

There have been some great new finds for us. Usually around the zocalo, or main square, the restaurants aren't all that great. But we found a pretty good one, called Sabina Sabe. They actually are experts in mezcal, the local drink made from the agave plant. Most mezcals are pretty nasty and will give you a major headache. But we had an añejo mezcal that was smooth and delicious, called Agave de Cortez. This one is aged three years in French oak before it is bottled. It isn't cheap, about $55 retail (we bought two to bring home). But it is a real artisanal mezcal. With this we had a delicious salad made of nepal (cactus leaves), Oaxacan cheese, tomatoes and herbs. This was followed by a taco barbacoa de coñejo...slow cooked rabbit. A second time we came here we had an amazing pozole with a dark Chichilo sauce and four kinds of fish. Never had pozole with fish, but this was great. 

One of our most amazing meals we had was the Sunday buffet at La Catedral. This consisted of maybe 40 items you could try. Different soups, salads, main courses and desserts. Everything was so good, but it was difficult to try everything since there was so much. But I think we tried most of the items. 

La Catedral is also a favorite of ours for dinner.  We've been coming here since our first trip to Oaxaca in 2003. The first night here I had some beautiful pork ribs with the dark mole called Chichilo. Amy had a beautiful mixed vegetable plate (we haven't been eating a lot of veggies) and this was all washed down with our favorite Mexican wine, Casa Madero Shiraz. Casa Madero has been a winery since 1597, or so says the date on the cork. At another dinner here we had an amazing Lechon, suckling pig roasted to perfection and oh, so tender. 

One of our new finds this trip was Casa Oaxaca. This is a VERY popular place and has been hard to get reservations. But we were able to eat here twice, up on the rooftop with a nice view on the Santo Domingo church. Let me just say that I had one of the great meals of my life here...a grilled octopus, served with rice that had huitlacoche (corn fungus) in it. The octopus was unbelievable; very tender, yet firm. It was so tasty and the huitlacoche rice was to die for. Amy had a mole Mixteca, a play on the Mole de Caderas we had last fall...braised goat served in a rich, red sauce. We also had a salad of floras de calabasa, stuffed with goat cheese. All was washed down with a Casa Madero Shiraz. Also, this is the only place I've been to where they make your salsa right at your table!  It was so good we came back a second night. I had the octopus again and Amy had the Lechon. This time we washed it down with a Casa Madero Chenin Blanc. 

But with all the mercados and fancy restaurants, one meal will stand out above all others. On a PBS series about the food of Oaxaca, they showed a restaurant called "Caldo de Piedra", or Stone Soup. This place is out of town about 12 kms, on the way to the big tree, El Tule. It specializes in, you got it, caldo de piedra. This is a Chinentec specialty, from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Juarez, about 200 kms east of Oaxaca. The owner moved here several years ago and opened this restaurant with his family and fellow Chinentecs. 

So here's how they make caldo de piedra. They have a big fire, where they heat up these round river rocks, about 4 inches in diameter. The rock gets really, really hot. Meanwhile, in a bowl made of a dried squash of some kind, they put a big slice of fish, with bones, about 6 big river shrimp, onions, spices and other unidentified ingredients. Then they take these big tongs, pick up the rock and knock it on a stone slab to get rid of any ash, then they drop it in the soup. The soup immediately boils like crazy, as they stir the soup a bit. Then they bring it to your table and in a few minutes, your soup is cooked. It is very, very tasty and everything is cooked to perfection. With this, they serve a huge quesadilla, with Oaxacan cheese and zucchini blossoms. The tortilla for the quesadilla is made right there, as a lady takes the masa, mashes it in a tortilla press, and cooks it on a big comal. The quesadilla was as good as the soup...perfection!