Revista méxico intercultural english version

MAY-August 2016 VOL.4

Culture

& Education

Kitchens as cultural heritage of humanity The flavor route street bites

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Content Founder Elizabeth del Castillo Zavala

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Kitchens as cultural heritage of humanity

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Verses for insipidity

*** Editor in chief Elizabeth del Castillo Zavala Editorial coordinator Carlos Alberto Reyes Arroyo dirección.editorial@mexicointercultural.org Editorial care and copyediting Berenice Romero bramos1@uc.cl English translator Emmanuel González Genis gs_paragas@hotmail.com

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Life is short, enjoy what you eat

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Espresso

The origin of baroque food

Travel across the paradise 18 through, the flavor route

20 Street Bites, a cultural experience

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Editorial “We are what we eat”, that was the topic to talk about in an important business diner that had nothing to do with the art of gastronomy. The food we ordered had already been quite delayed and therefore the person sitting to my right, in order to endure our waiting (or at least so I thought), told us the following story that was written by a young literary promise: in an elegant diner, (like the one we were having), there were five chairs, but only four were occupied, two men and two women with evident signs of desperation and worry drawn in their faces. And how could they not be? They had been kidnaped and they were told that in order to escape, they had to eat one of the five dishes that the chef was serving, four from which had a strong venom as the main ingredient. Needless to say that the chef (intellectual author of this… “Gastronomical Russian Roulette”) was one of the best cooks in the world, a genius in the whole sense of the word; I can say, without the fear of being wrong that this “geniusness” was what caused this situation, because many times the best, the extraordinary, the genius, reach levels so high that they tend to get bored and they become a bit “eccentric”, not to say mad.

The story was interrupted with the arrival of our meals to the table, and even though we looked at the food with distrust for a few minutes, our hunger was stronger than the imaginary fear. That is where our new edition comes to reflection: we want to invite you, not only to know the ingredients of what you are eating; we look forward to cook inside of you the curiosity of the dish in the story, the garnacha, antojito, dessert, diner and other culinary delights that you have every day in front of you.

We ask you to taste, discover and perceive an endless number of new flavors to satisfy that instinct that bring our bodies back to life, a cultural art that conjugates the environment, the traditions and customs of each country.

We wanted to present you a distant glance to gastronomical culture. ”There where you would go, drink what you see and eat what you want” Feel the ecstasy of what you are tasting, talk to the person who is cooking it, because that dish has an interesting story behind it.

Discover this universal art of eating well along our pages, what turns the kitchen of a local area into a cultural human heritage, new gastronomical routes and why not a little bit of love insipidity in this flavored universe.

Bon appetit!

A glance of Mexico across the world

Kitchens as

cultural heritage of humanity Paola Jeannete Vera Baez

T

he culinary text or the dish is seen as the product of an individual and collective conscience that interacts and generates changes to remain in the cultural memory, and even though the time passes, the dishes preserve the mark of their origins: the original culinary texts. Through the food it is possible to analyze the semiotic-cultural aspects reflected over the diverse culinary texts. Hence, it is important to recognize that there is a cultural memories in the traditional dishes of each country, and therefore they form part of the non-material cultural heritage of humanity.

It must also be comprehended that the different kitchens, as we know them today, even if they are independent and they move on their own, are in fact a product of the miscegenation, that is, the bounding encounter between diverse cultures.

Then the dishes or culinary texts are conceived as heterogeneous and polyglots, in so far as across time, they acquire certain symbolic senses or meanings. The cultural interaction that different societies have been through during all human history has, as result, generated a blend of flavors and culinary techniques that has given as result the infinite variety of dishes that nowadays are considered –although not all of them officially recognized- as a whole, a cultural heritage of humanity.

It is precisely that union or gastronomical miscegenation what currently has being appealing the attention of the contemporary culinary world, a fact that increased since the traditional Mexican kitchen was officially listed as non-material cultural heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on November 16th 2010. This Organization, throughout a General Assembly, is in charge of pro-

tecting the cultural wealth of humanity, including among others, manifestations such as language, music, textile art, dance, rituals and gastronomy.

From this date on, and especially, starting with the conceptualization of the term “non-material cultural heritage” in the Assembly for safeguarding the non-material cultural heritage of the UNESCO (2003, p. 2), it has been understood as a non-material heritage “every kind of heritage that must be safeguarded and consists of the acknowledgement of their uses, expressions, knowledge and techniques transmitted from generation to generation and that infuse a feeling of identity and continuity to the communities and groups, promoting this way the respect to cultural biodiversity and the human creativity”. In fact, this Assembly took effect until 2006 and as it is defined in the Assembly, the gastronomy forms part of this non-material cultural heritage, since it is something that has been transmitted from generation to generation, furthermore, it has been constantly recreated by communities and groups in function of their environments, of their interactions with nature and their history.

According to UNESCO (2010) the traditional Mexican kitchen is a non-material cultural heritage for humanity fundamentally because: It is a complete cultural model that consists of agricultural activities, ritual practices, ancient practical knowledge, culinary techniques and costumes and ways of ancestral community behavior.

This has been possible thanks to the participation of the collectivity of all the traditional alimentary chain: since the sowing and the crop harvesting to the culinary preparation and degustation of the

A glance of Mexico across the world

delicacies […] The Mexican culinary art is very elaborated and is charged of symbols […] Across Mexico there can be found groups of cooks and other people practicing culinary traditions that dedicate themselves to the improvement of the harvesting and traditional cooking. Their knowledge and techniques are an expression of community identity and allow to strengthen social links and consolidate the feeling of identity on national, regional and local levels. The efforts made […] to preserve the traditional kitchen also highlight the importance that it has as a way of sustainable development.

The gastronomical traditions –not only in Mexico, but around the world- offer like this a wide variety of dishes associated to each of the regions and ethnic groups of the different societies, there are several kitchens that are not only the reflex of a wide ecological and cultural diversity of each country, as well as a complex historical experience. Then, the kitchens can be seen as the result of a series of complex processes of cultural creation.

Nevertheless, it is important to catalogue in which state the culture is located, any kind of culture, it has to be interpreted, centering the action of the meaning as a unity of analysis and focusing on what it means, and not on what it apparently is.

It has been previously mentioned that culture is dynamic, it is still alive, it is vigorous because the social actors that produce it, use it and reproduce it, they do it constantly, making it part of their daily life. In this sense, the culinary culture is living culture, healthy and remarkably vigorous since it forms part of this day everyday life (Sánchez, 2006, pp. 20-21). This dynamism also helps to build the way of conceiving a culinary text or a dish, which must look as well as part of material culture. The living culture belongs to a social group and in the modern world the culinary culture has already transcended the societies.

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In the analysis it is fundamental to attribute a meaning to material culture, this is, the culinary text: discuss the symbols and the ideology in relation with the history and the problems of perception and interpretation of the testimonies, explaining the procedures to read the past. Following this approach, it does not result useful to have only the description or the explanation of the culinary texts or dishes as a cognitive objective, since it would be useless to stay in this level if we do not try to unravel the meaning of the same in order

to comprehend the behavior of the people that created them and understand why they must be considered a non-material cultural heritage for humanity. The only thing that finally matters are the significations (Hodder 1988) and, even though these can sometimes have a material base, the important thing is to elucidate such significations as directed to someone (Hodder, 1987, p. 23).

In this context, even if everyone agrees with the fact that it is not possible to talk to people from the past, we cannot limit ourselves to study the material “mute” rests, hence such passivity has brought as consequence a strong dichotomy among the material and the ideal. This we have to transfer to culinary text, that is, the dishes produced by a determinate culture. Nevertheless, even if there undoubtedly exists an idealist factor behind this materialist posture –for it necessarily implies a series of ideas born exclusively in the mind of the person external to the culture that produced the dish-, one of the worst errors we can commit is to judge the quality of each dish through considerations exclusively referent to the senses (Tomasini, 2002) such as sight, smell and taste.

Therefore, as previously mentioned, we cannot be limited to explain the past and/or the history of determined dish or culinary text, but to interpret it: to try to give it a “voice”. Even though here we face a dilemma: as the cultural symbols are variable and no one can explain us the symbolism of certain object, in this case of certain dish or culinary text, one can only speculate, but not conclude. However, we count with the version of the cooks, who are in charge of recreating something that has already been determined before by the tradition and the culture, besides the incorporation of some elements of their own inventive.

What role plays the cook as the direct creator of the message in the semiotic culinary process, then? Evidently, the cook is in charge of dialoguing with the code and he manages it, he even chooses it according to certain rules corresponding the type of kitchen (Silva & Fernández, 2008, p. 9), but up to where is he capable of giving it a new meaning? The cook rebuilds the history seeking the authentic recipes –the original texts- to reproduce them, even though he usually ends up innovating and updating recipes.

Due to this, it is important to study the different hand to hand with culture and end up affecting or

influencing each of the members of a society. This kitchens are a human heritage because they form part of the set of objects that remain notwithstanding time, either in use or in a museum (Ballart & Tresseras 2001). The kitchens as a human heritage are the inheritance of the past civilizations: culture inherited and transmitted from generation to generation that gives an own identity to a determined geographical framework.

It is also important to have a clear concept of “kitchen as a cultural heritage of humanity”, because it is necessary to implement studies, public policies and programs of action to rescue and preserve and promote the kitchens at a worldwide level, especially those that count with ancient origins that involve a whole complex set of cultural symbolism.

When a kitchen is officially designed as “cultural

heritage” it is not only about a title, but a defense of a lifestyle that reflects diverse cultural characteristics: beliefs, rituals and world visions, identity and social cohesion, continuity and history.

Besides, we must recognize that currently the kitchen – the gastronomy in general- is an important factor of touristic attraction and a source of economical wealth, since through it, the tourist can vividly experiment and know the culture of the place he visits. In this sense, it is also a generator of inversion, a source of work and economic and social development, but for gastronomy and for cultural heritage as a whole to be recognized by others, first they must be recognized by their own people, from which their preservation strongly depends, as their defense and management, without being victims of the banal culture commercialization.

REFERENCES Ballart, J. & J. Tresseras (2001). Management of Cultural Heritage. Barcelona: Ariel.

Hodder, I. (1987). The Archeology in the Post-Modern Age. In Prehistoric works 44:11-26. Madrid: Department of Prehistory, Centro de Estudios Históricos y Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.

Hodder, I. (1987). Archeological Interpretation: modern currents. Barcelona: Critic.

Mejía, L., Hernández, R. y S. Mejía. (2013). Kitchen and Art: the double meaning of gastronomy. Culinary. Virtual Magazine specialized in Gastronomy.

Nº 6: 07-22.

Recovered from http://www.uaemex.mx/Culinaria/seis_ne/PDF%20finales%206/cocina%20y%20arte%20ok.pdf United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2003).

Assembly for safeguarding the non-material cultural heritage. Recovered from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001325/132540s.pdf United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2010). Mexican traditional kitchen, common, ancient and living culture. The Paradigm of Michoacan. Recovered from http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/es/RL/la-cocina-tradicional-mexicana-cultura comunitaria-ancestral-y-viva-el-paradigma-de-michoacan-00400 Sánchez, A. (2006). The party of delight: The construction of Mexico Through their Meals. Option, December, Year/vol. 22, number 051, pp. 9-25.

Silva, T. y Fernández, C. (2008) How does food communicate? A semiotic Perspective. XII Investigation works. Scientific Investigation Magazine. Vol. 4, Nº 2. New Age, May-August, pp. 1-15.

Tomasini, A. (2002). Art and Gastronomy. In Tastes, Genres are Broken Vol. I. Merida: Instituto de Cultura de Yucatán. Recovered from http://www. filosoficas.unam.mx/~tomasini/ENSAYOS/Gastronomia.pdf

Verses for

Insipidity

Life is short

enjoy what you eat Chef David Rafael Espejel Sรกnchez

O

ur lives are full of pleasures, hassles and tortures; even though the last two seem to predominate in most of us, leaving pleasures relegated to barely a few sporadic minutes a day –as long as it isn´t a bad day-. Anyway, there are so many bitterness and concerns that overwhelm us that we learn to value and treasure the small moments of pleasure we find. And without a doubt one of the biggest pleasures we can enjoy every day (3 times?) is precisely food.

with the pledge that if the costumer didn’t like “my salad”, I would change it for any other entry with no extra fee, plus a courtesy beverage to wash away the bad taste. What occurred was that the costumer ended up fascinated with the salad, in particular with the dressing. The following week the costumer returned and was served by the same waitress, but this time he would order the “special chef’s salad”, Is it possible that any other salads tasted the same to him before that day?”

Eating is an activity that stimulates all of our senses (at least the known ones), the colors, the shapes, the aromas, the textures, the sounds -Don’t you enjoy the crunchy sound of a good tostada?and the flavors of course. Nevertheless, due to one reason or another (or many), the stimulation obtained from the food does not always reach the expected pleasure levels. In my opinion this is not necessarily because of the quality of the food, but also because of the variety. I hope the reader doesn’t misunderstand what I´m trying to say, because although Mexico is one of the few countries lucky to have a wide variety of… practically everything, it also turns to be one very “closed” or “squared” gastronomically speaking. Allow me to explain my point with an anecdote:

Another similar situation to that of the anecdote, that also exposes the idea that I want to deal with, is that of the sweet food, and with this I am referring to “stews”, to meats, soups and of course salads too. In my opinion, Mexican food has in general few (iconic) sweet dishes, even the baroque food of my Puebla, with legendary dishes such as mole poblano or chiles en nogada, it offers little (yet excellent) variety of sweet dishes. The culture of sweet food is so poor that many Mexicans are still surprised (Scared?) when they see or hear about things like “bacon with chocolate”, “mint ribs”, “chicken with mango” etc. And it surprises me that they are surprised for the similarity of ingredients that Mexican food shares with Indochinese style, for both styles use many ingredients such as chili, lemons, coriander, tropical fruits, sesame, rice, etc. And even though when cooking we mix them in very different ways, I can assure you that any Mexican who likes tacos al pastor, would also love this food, in particular Thai and Cantonese.

Certain day, when I would still work in my restaurant, one of the waitresses let me know that a customer wanted to change the salad in his “daily menu” for any other thing, the cause was that the costumer simply didn´t like “the salad”; so with the idea of winning some time to think what to substitute the salad of the menu with, for further similar cases, I proceeded to simply serve the salad and ask the waitress to just offer it to the costumer

Likewise, Mexican society tends to overrate imported products, especially those which accessibility is more restricted. Nevertheless, when we talk about eating, the “malinchism” is reduced to

A glance of Mexico across the world

a minimal grade before a good taco or garnacha; and it is no little thing because any good taco or garnacha is as good as any “antojito”. In my opinion, the Mexican “antojitos” often turn out to be more delicious because of the intensity of the flavor that provokes a bigger stimulation of my palate than when I compare them to the famous snacks from other prestigious kitchens. With this I do not mean that one cooking style is better than the other, simply that us Mexicans are used to eat –as commonly said-: “chingón”, therefore, in occasions the foreign food tends to disappoint the Mexican palate. It is important to mention that foreign food (it doesn´t matter where you live) in general has to be adapted to local circumstances, such situation oft forces to substitute ingredients and even modify almost totally the original dishes, adding another factor that confuses the palate that doesn´t know how that dish in particular should taste like, and ends up taking a wrong impression of what it should be.

Spicy food is a topic that deserves its own article, however, it is perfectly related to the topic we will deal with. In some occasion, I could listen to a Germanic origin lady, surprised to see a “compa” seasoning his beer with lemon, salt, Maggie sauce and the respective Valentina sauce, the Teu-

ton girl couldn´t believe that “Mexicans add chili to everything, even beer!” (Something like that I understood). And certainly if the same “compa” would travel to Germany, he would be surprised (scared?) when he would not see anything with chili on their Teuton menus. The thing is that many Mexicans can’t (don’t want) to enjoy their food if it isn´t spicy, which makes many of them to give up on even trying something that isn’t spicy. Fortunately we are the world champions on sauces and spicy dressings that can deal well with the dilemma.

On the other hand, we also have the issue of everything being harmful, this gives cancer, sugar generates diabetes, the cholesterol, etc. Well, I say that it is scientifically demonstrated that happiness is healthy –Didn´t you watch Patch Adams?the trick is NOT to abuse the food, in other words, any excess is bad (even drinking too much plain water could kill us). And what better way of not exceeding eating certain food than just eating a different one? So, as you see my dear reader, the conclusion I got to, is that it is more fun, delicious and healthy to try a little bit of everything, than eating the same all the time, as good as it could be… besides, that way, you´ll know better.

The origin of baroque food Arturo Vieyra Santos

B

arros (2008), clarifies that almost 500 years ago, Mexico gave the world products which without, it would be difficult to understand worldwide cuisine: “the corn, the tomato, the beans, the chili, the cacao, the vanilla, the avocado, the nopal, the gourd, sweet potato, squash, the sapodilla, the mamey, the papaya, the guava, the turkey” among others that gave origin to baroque food (p. 148).

Pedro de Gante was the first missionary cook in the New Spain, who started serving the priests and the bishops. The first Mexican dishes included native flora and fauna, combinations of milk, wine and fruits brought from distant lands. Indigenous people used to eat chili and little by little Spaniards were habituated to spicy food, as they could not dispense with sauces or other peculiar seasonings such as epazote. The clever novo-hispanic architects developed a way to preserve cold food from the XVII Century, building fridges and storages in the monasteries. In the dining room, the Bible would be read, and then one would eat.

The congregate friars changed views of the new dishes, they talked and proposed, they were the first religious cooks in New Spain, even before the famous nuns.

The reason of the dedication of the novo-hispanic nuns was because cooking was an act of love that was repeated day by day, it was a tradition to say a prayer before ingesting food and giving thanks after eating them. The religious had to feed a wide number of people almost everyday. They possessed two big kitchens and well equipped, and with the necessary resources to elaborate new recipes.

All that encouraged the creative spirit that reigned in the monasteries.

The baroque food dates back to the XVII and XVIII Centuries and is characterized by the multiple seasoners and ornaments that it contains, which

flavors are mainly sweet, because they are based on honey, nuts and some butter. The baroque food is sweet because it has many nuts, like almonds, raisins, walnuts and pine kernel, seasoned with spices, like cumin, clove, laurel, pepper and others”.

Some examples of baroque dishes are the chiles en nogada, lamb soup in pearl barley, honey chicken, Mexican rice, and Vizcaino rice with capon chili. There are also mare and meatball soups, chicken with grained vegetables, supreme-baroque and caper soup, larded beef and beef with peanuts, as well as monastery cookies and fritters.

The roast wedding, the manchamanteles, bishop and garapiña water and purple milk, which are some examples of baroque food, because all of them have over seven ingredients, and which characteristic is to be sweet.

Puebla is the most representative Mexican city for its dishes with baroque style in the world, the most baroque of the dishes is the mole poblano.

The mole is a product with pre-hispanic past, molli or mole, that was made in the Puebla monasteries of Santa Rosa, Santa Monica, Santa Teresa o Santa Clara, authors of the theresian fish, marquesotes de rosa, carmelitan chicken, the guadalupano sweets and biscuits, the alfeñiques and San Lorenzo caramels, the fresh waters of the preachers order, the covered fruit and marvelous preserves of the Santa Catarina and San Jeronimo monasteries, as well as the Santa Clara de Puebla tartlets and sweet potatoes.

The novo-hispanic kitchen is a communion of new fire, sublime art of flavors and colors, sugar and salt, indescribable harmony over clay and stone.

The cloistered art that ironically encourages gluttony, is always shown seductive, baroque, celestial, transcendent in time and eloquent on its own.

REFERENCES Morales Baltazar José Carlos, (2010). Puebla de Los Ángeles Kitchen. León Spain: Everest Hernández and Martínez María Elsa, (2014). Chiles en Nogada history, legends and recipes. México D.F.: Lirio Editions S.A. de C.V. Unknown Mexico Magazine, number 470 Year XL, April 2006 http://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/revista-md-470-secretos-que-se-revelan.html

A glance of Mexico across the world

E

ating has never been as satisfying as in here.

The Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, located to the north of the State of Querétaro, has among its several assets, a gastronomic surprise that delights its visitors: the Ruta del Sabor.

Thanks to the Ecologic Group Sierra Gorda (GESG as in Spanish), a civil organization with 29 years of experience in the preservation of the most eco-diverse natural protected area in Mexico, there are currently twenty restaurants and inns that serve as the economic support of several families in the region.

In a zone with scarce job opportunities and where a wide percentage of the population decides to migrate to the United States seeking a better life quality, any business that enables a dignified living without a change of life represents an absolute success.

Reestablished with traditional clay and straw techniques, and managed by local micro entrepreneurs that have received several trainings dealing with crew attention and accountancy, each establishment of the Ruta del Sabor has its own specialty and unique seasoning.

Thus, for instance, while in the fonda Doña Chole, comal grilled eggs are prepared with a centennial recipe, it is almost an obligation to order beef with chickpeas or pork by Doña Mary.

At the Las Manzanitas Inn, located in the heights of the Sierra Gorda, during rainfall seasons, it is recommended to ask for mushrooms with fava

beans, while at Las Orquídeas, the owner offers sear beef jerky and grilled cheese in red sauce as one of the specialties.

The Restaurant Lupita is also distinguishable in this gastronomic tour. Just for its decoration, it is worth visiting it, as there are Sierra Gorda preserved relics hanging on the walls, such as farming instruments and straw ponchos to take shelter from the rain.

Besides, the food in this place is extremely special.

Its cook, self-taught, and one of the few men behind the stove, decided to elaborate dishes little known in the zone, like chicken with fine herbs or duck with orange. Like that, day by day, new surprises and steaming stews emerge from the re-interpretation of original recipes from the other side of the world. All this for the price of a common inn.

Furthermore, during seasons, he prepares dishes with different types of wild flowers of the region.

Consumption that benefits everyone Inside the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, there are 638 human settlements and about 100,000 inhabitants, among many of them live under the threshold of poverty.

Just like in other rural areas in Mexico, the destruction of woods and jungles with agricultural aimings and the vanishing of biodiversity are intimately associated to poverty, the population growth and the lack of productive options. The extensive cattle shepherd has damaged ecosystems and

endangered the priceless environmental services they offer; the destruction to establish paddocks or harvesting areas; the intentional fires and other derivate from the production activities; the furtive hunting; the illegal extraction of wood and mercury mining are activities against forest life of the abrupt Sierra Gorda mountains, not accord with the Federal Executive decree created by the Reserve on May 19th 1997.

Due to this, when business are created under environmental impact, such as these inns that accompany the visitor through his tour across these spectacular hills, local and foreign people have a motive to celebrate the possibility of a different production scheme.

important as equality and respect, and personal growth draft new generations.

Nowadays, with the support from the SecretarĂ­a de Turismo del Estado de QuerĂŠtaro, GESG, it is expected to be able to help more inns for them to reach the standard that every visitor wants to find when they go out to enjoy their vacations: cleanliness, good seasoning, quick service and the best possible treatment.

If you want to know the different options of the Ruta del Sabor, visit: http://sierragordaecotours.com/es/explora-la-sierra-gorda/lugares-para-comer/

At the same time, the women representing the kitchens perform a role of vital importance for the community and its households, since they begin to bring home money that they never thought they would get. This also helps them to value themselves as people, and little by little, values as

A glance of Mexico across the world

E

ating in the Street is an activity that Mexicans –most of them- enjoy and consider an adventure each time they propose themselves to discover new flavors, because the street food has its strength in the mouth-to-mouth recommendation.

There is no marketing. Nor public recognition. It is the diner´s palate that keeps the street posts in vogue, for the best sauce or the best taco.

The lifespan of these establishments will be determined by the importance that each of their sellers is willing to give, as well as an important family recipe that will allow the relatives to continue this culinary development throughout the years. The consumers keep a tradition, and hence, for a family history, they know the right people that offer antojitos to enjoy each scent, the most consistent recipe, the most comforting street-eating experience, where a blend of flavors and sensations bind to the own personal history are seasoned.

For instance: the act of returning to a determined place where a molote was tried for first time, the expectations will be high and the diner will look forward to satisfy those memories from the aromas, the looks, the textures, faces and warmth that made him constantly revisit that public kitchen.

The environment where the street gastronomy is lived strongly differs from the restaurant, from the formality, from the protocols, namely, with each visit to the public space, the experience will ne-

ver be the same, due to the probability of meeting a person who starts a selfless dialogue in every moment, to the quality of elements that usually are not considered fundamental during the meal, the uncertainty of disappearing or losing sight of a street post provokes important personal intrigues because of the possible friendly relationship with the owner, far from the economic product exchange.

Mexican gastronomy has grown with street food, the most common use of the culinary triad: corn, chili and beans; are presented in an important way in the urban culinary, despite the cloistered historical memories that exist surrounding the gastronomical richness of the country. The gastronomic culture is hand in hand with nationalism and local identity. The ingredients, the methods, techniques, even the posts, are part of the individual richness, the streets are full of knowledge and experiences. It is relevant that the cooks that start their professional development know their roots, their origins, the food of their neighborhood to defend the culinary environment where they were born, nobody will defend and preserve their wealth more than those who grew up with it. It should be recalled that with each street-food bite, there is a background of knowledge, of family heritage, from the product and its creator that shares and expects to leave a mark on their customers.

Gastronomy seeks to communicate a message through food and its preparation, the street food is no exception, the message is not as evident as it

A glance of Mexico across the world

could be in a house meal or in a casual restaurant, the consumer must comprehend that the street factor adds endless experiences, giving it a completely opposite meaning to the original one, and therefore the public kitchen activities represent a challenge, not only for the ones who own them, but for the ones that look for it. The social phenomenon that street food lives refers to the importance of the interchange generated when two unknown people meet in the tho different ends of a grill and a comal, and forget about the rela-

tionship between the consumer and the seller, setting down the encounter as a casual opportunity of sharing and listening each other’s experiences, the culture of the antojito and the street food is that where the taquero, the molotera, the woman who prepares chileatole, carefully listens and offers comprehension and advice to that man or woman who come to satisfy a physiological need and take a social and sympathetic experience by someone who offered them chitchat, and above all, time in a tiring life as the street commerce is.