Amira and I were invited by our friend Dalia to her indigenous, Zapotec-speaking village in the middle of Oaxaca to join her traditional Day of the Dead celebration. Dalia is an amazing cook who grows all her own food and makes everything from scratch. Here are some of the highlights of our day.
Dalia made for us a regional specialty called atole con chocolate, which is a white corn drink very common throughout Mexico, but with a local twist: white-chocolate foam. She ferments a white variety of cacao under ground for three months, adds a little wheat, then grinds, sifts and froths it using a wooden Aztec hand mixing stick. This is the chocolate foam before being added to the atole.
Here’s the completed drink. It’s truly delicious and wonderful.
Dalia’s barbacoa is made from lamb from her own flock.
They make giant, very thin and crispy tortillas around here made from their own corn that they grow and usually mill by hand using an Aztec stone grinder called a metate. Amira got involved. Amira is wearing a kind of apron vest called a mandil, which they loaned her as a way for her to be part of the group.
This is the wood fired comal Dalia uses in the corner of her kitchen.
Dalia’s barbacoa is mind-blowingly good.
Here’s Amira enhancing the barbacoa in the traditional way with lime, cabbage with cilantro and green salsa all from Dalia’s garden.
Dalia’s mole negro, made very traditionally with more than 30 ingredients, is one of the best I’ve ever tasted.
After lunch we spent some time with Dalia’s ofrenda.
Dalia lit the candles.
Masks off for a moment so that Dalia could ritually purify Amira with copal, a flower they gather in the mountains and turn into incense.
We had a nice long walk through the village to Dalia’s mother’s house.
The ofrenda at her mother’s house is dedicated to her father, who passed away five years ago.
Dalia offered us some mezcal from a plastic jug. They buy it from a place that dispenses it from a barrel.
The multitalented Dalia also weaves. She makes rugs, table runners and more, all stunning.
She showed us how it’s done.
These are her naturally-dyed wool yarns, which she dies by hand using plants either picks wild in the mountains or grows in her garden.
These are tiny coasters!
Before leaving, we enjoyed these baked apples. Dalia just tosses them on the coals (in Spanish: Al rescoldo), then peels and slices them. We drizzled them with wild honey. The perfect ending to a very sweet visit.