On Tuesday, January 31, we spent all day at Los Dos, a cooking school, focused on Yucatecan cuisine, founded by American chef David Sterling in a colonial 4 1/2 blocks southwest of the Plaza Grande. Sterling had become well-known, featured by Rick Bayless and Martha Stewart, and his classes were very-well reviewed. What we didn't know, however, when we signed up in December for the standard Taste of Yucatan class, was that Sterling had died a month before. We were a little concerned about what to expect from his successor, his former sous-chef, native Yucatecan Mario Canul. But Mario did a wonderful job. We have taken a number of tourist-oriented cooking classes in various places, but this was one of the best. After a nice continental breakfast, where we met our classmate, David, from Iowa, Mario started by explaining what makes Yucatecan cooking different from other Mexican and non-Mexican cuisines. Then we walked to Merida's main market, where we had sandwiches (cochinita pbil and lechon--two versions of roast pork) along with horchata (a refreshing rice drink) at a market stand. They were a lot better than the cochinita pibil at Chaya Maya the night before. Mario bought various fruits and vegetables and tortillas and we sampled some spices.
Then we took taxis back to the school. The first think the taxi driver did when he learned we were American was to ask us about Donald Trump! Mary Joy and I were in agreement with him concerning that personage.
The cooking itself was interesting, though there was less prep work than we've done in other classes. We did some parts of the hands-on cooking, but a lot of it had already been done by Mario's sous-chef, Alan, and the chicken for our pollo pibil had marinated for 24 hours. Also helping out were Wendy and the elderly Doňa Lupe, who taught us how to make the pocketed tortillas for the salbutes and panuchos, and then made most of them herself. If we had had to do all the chopping, etc., ourselves, we would never have gotten done. Yucatecan cuisine, like Oaxacan, involves a lot of ingredients.
Finally, after 3;00, everything was done, and we sat down to a terrific comida fuerte, the "strong meal" lunch that a lot of Mexicans still eat for the main meal of the day, instead of in the evening.
That evening, we skipped supper entirely, instead having hot chocolate at Ki' Xocolatl, off the Santa Lucia plaza, a block from our hotel
.
Then we took taxis back to the school. The first think the taxi driver did when he learned we were American was to ask us about Donald Trump! Mary Joy and I were in agreement with him concerning that personage.
The cooking itself was interesting, though there was less prep work than we've done in other classes. We did some parts of the hands-on cooking, but a lot of it had already been done by Mario's sous-chef, Alan, and the chicken for our pollo pibil had marinated for 24 hours. Also helping out were Wendy and the elderly Doňa Lupe, who taught us how to make the pocketed tortillas for the salbutes and panuchos, and then made most of them herself. If we had had to do all the chopping, etc., ourselves, we would never have gotten done. Yucatecan cuisine, like Oaxacan, involves a lot of ingredients.
Finally, after 3;00, everything was done, and we sat down to a terrific comida fuerte, the "strong meal" lunch that a lot of Mexicans still eat for the main meal of the day, instead of in the evening.
That evening, we skipped supper entirely, instead having hot chocolate at Ki' Xocolatl, off the Santa Lucia plaza, a block from our hotel
No comments:
Post a Comment