Tag Archives: main dish

Fast, easy, delicious. When I was asked to share a simple family dinner recipe, I immediately thought of Chicken Tinga. Tinga de pollo is a Mexican dish that came about after the Spanish conquest. The kitchens of the many religious convents in Puebla, Mexico (near Mexico City) began to mix new ingredients (chicken, onion, olive oil) with the traditional and indigenous foods (like corn, beans, tomato, and chiles) to create a new fusion of what now constitutes Mexican food. Because of this, Puebla was considered the “Centro Culinario del País” (Culinary Capital of Mexico). Continue reading →

Preparing food from another culture is armchair travel at its finest: instead of looking at pictures or passively hearing a story, your family can eat their way through the globe.  From another perspective, those who eat a specially prepared meal from their homeland can be a nostalgic experience- one that stirs up happy memories. For my husband, who was born and spent most of his life in Mexico City, tacos al pastor will always remind him of hanging out with friends and stopping with them at a street vendor to eat the juicy pork tacos, topped with pineapple, cilantro and onion. Fried quesadillas remind him of evenings when his parents would spontaneously take him and his siblings in their pajamas to grab a quick bite to eat on the weekends. The smell of mole verde transports him to his grandma’s house, and warm family dinners around her dining room table. Cochinita pibil, an achiote-rubbed, tender pork dish, reminds my husband of a wonderful road trip he took with his family throughout the Yucatan Peninsula (where his grandfather is from, and where this dish is famous). Here is our recipe for cochinita pibil: real tacos from southeast Mexico. Continue reading →