- Do you believe in magic?
I didn't until Oaxaca cast its spell on me.
In this bewitching place, culinary wonders are conjured.
There's a lot of exciting chefs
coming out of this region.
And Oaxaca is now a mecca for food lovers in the know.
So good.
The gastronomic wizards here...
Wow.
Can summon so many of Mexico's most iconic ingredients.
Have you ever seen such a rainbow of corn?
It's the original string cheese.
I'm Eva Longoria, born and bred in Texas
with Mexican-American roots, which makes me a Texican.
I'm exploring Mexico to see how the people, their lands,
and their past have shaped a culinary tradition
as diverse as its 32 states.
Nestled within three vast mountain ranges,
Oaxaca is so blessed with food riches.
Roasted chocolate.
It's as if the gods themselves dined here.
And for its ancient Indigenous communities...
[laughter]
- This land and its produce is sacred.
But in these parts, you've got to work hard for your dinner.
Oh, my God.
I mean, really hard.
God, I'm sweating.
Wish me luck.
[shouts]
[steady music]
♪ ♪
Since pre-Hispanic times, ancient trade routes
bringing an abundance of amazing ingredients
have snaked from South America
into the belly of Mexico via Oaxaca.
♪ ♪
Today many of these food gems find their way
to the Mercado de Abastos,
a giant market on the edge of the state capital,
Oaxaca City.
♪ ♪
[sizzling]
♪ ♪
And in this warren of stalls...
Hola. - Hey, Eva!
- I've hunted down the pioneering chef
who put Oaxacan food on the map, Alex Ruiz.
♪ ♪
Uh-huh.
This was your playground? [laughs]
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm sticking close to this guy.
Get lost here, and you may never be found.
Habaneros. - Yes, habaneros.
- Oh, my God, look at this.
This is the biggest piece of cheese I've ever seen.
But Oaxaca's most famous ingredient, cacao,
actually came here via those trade routes.
Ooh, I smell chocolate.
And chocolate went on to become a cornerstone
of Oaxacan gastronomy.
If you want your chocolate fix,
the mercado is still the place to come.
But I'm not talking
about anything as simple as a sugary snack.
Hola, don Chava.
Oaxaca's Willy Wonkas
create bespoke chocolate mixes
for their customers to use in cooking.
Mmm.
Bitter.
- It is bitter. - Pure and raw.
Alex's personal blend combines cinnamon with almonds
and a sprinkle of sugar.
It's the perfect alchemy
for one of his legendary recipes,
the luxurious sauce mole negro.
This is it? - [speaking Spanish]
- Machine.
- So we're gonna grind this into a paste?
- Yes.
- The oil from the nuts turns the dry beans
into a luscious paste.
Smells incredible.
Yes.
Okay, let's see.
Mmm. Mmm.
But the aroma--
the aroma is... [inhales deeply]
Roasted chocolate.
This chocolate is a direct connection
to the Indigenous ancestors of the Oaxacans,
who worshipped it as the food of the gods.
- Only for the kings. Only for the kings.
- Yeah. - Mm-hmm.
[laughter]
Very nice. - It's so pretty.
So now we have our chocolate
for the mole. - Yeah!
[horn honks]
Alex's world-famous restaurant, Casa Oaxaca,
celebrates the glories of this region's produce.
So there's no better place
to try Oaxaca's famous mole negro.
Is this everything that your mole has?
- Yes, correct.
- I mean, this is a very culturally mixed dish, mole.
These 28 ingredients are a marriage of Spanish imports,
like limes and walnuts,
with Indigenous staples
likechiles and, of course, chocolate.
Okay.
- Muy bien.
[light music]
- I love that everything just goes all together.
The chilesoff the comal.
Rather than spicy heat,
these charred, dark-brownchiles
native to Oaxaca
add a rich smoky texture to the mole negro.
That's all you do is crush them in?
Smells wonderful.
[blender whirring]
Okay, here goes the mole.
- Chocolate! - Chocolate.
- Want me to get it out? - Yeah, yeah.
There.
- Alex's custom-made chocolate is the crowning ingredient...
So smooth and silky.
To this magnificently complex
and sophisticated sauce.
Okay.
- Please, Eva. - Okay.
Mmm. It's super chocolatey.
- Yeah. - So good.
- You like it? - Yeah.
- Good. - Oh, my God.
I knew I was gonna get mole on my dress.
- [laughs] You now-- - Now I'm Oaxacan.
Now I'm a real Oaxacan. - You can marry in Oaxaca.
Sí, señora.
♪ ♪
- What better way to celebrate my new Oaxacan citizenship
than dinner on Alex's gorgeous rooftop terrace?
♪ ♪
- Hey, Eva.
- Oh, wow.
Turkey?
Spaniards?
So they had poultry?
The turkey is marinated with herbs and slow-cooked,
served with rice, some plantain, and a tamale.
But the star of the show--
Alex's velvety, chocolaty mole negro.
Oh, that's delicious.
It's the chocolate. It's the chiles.
It's the nuts. It's all of those herbs.
It's very herbal. Mmm.
It tastes totally different now.
This is so, so nice.
What an honor to eat your mole negro.
Oh, yes, our mole negro.
So when did you start cooking?
Five?
- No? - [gasps] That made me cry.
Vicenta.
Salud, doña Vicenta. both: Ahí está.
[both laugh] - Salud.
♪ ♪
[upbeat music]
- Hi, Eva. - Hi.
How are you? - Great.
Great meeting you. - Oh, so nice to meet you.
- You too. Bienvenida.
Welcome to the world capital of quesillo.
- Oh, it's my favorite cheese.
Food writer Omar Alonso is passionate
about Oaxaca's most famous export, a stringy cheese.
Legend has it, it was created
here in the sleepy town of Reyes Etla,
where the locals christened it quesillo,
meaning little cheese.
- So, yeah, quesillo is a very important part
of our diet in Oaxaca.
- In your sandwiches? - Yeah.
[dog barks]
Omar is taking me
to meet one of the most distinguished quesillo makers
in the region.
There's a difference between the industrialized one
and the artisanal way?
Yeah.
Janet López Canseco's family farm
is one of the last in Mexico to produce quesillo
the traditional way.
♪ ♪
This is so exciting.
I've never seen how quesillo is made.
- This is your lucky day.
- Uh-huh.
Turning the curds into the stringy goodness
we know and love takes hands-on attention
from Janet and her dad, Juan.
[laughter]
They say that an ancestor of Janet's,
a clueless teenager, took her eye off the curds
and added boiling water in a panic
to save the family's cheese.
Oh. - Oh, it's happening.
- It's getting so creamy, smooth.
- La textura. - From that crumbs...
- Yeah.
- To a solidified ooey-gooey goodness.
And so each batch is done by hand?
- Sí. - De mano?
Wow.
Of course, behind every great cheese, there's great milk.
And for that, we have the Spanish to thank,
when they brought dairy cows to these valleys
in the 16th century.
But they never could have imagined
what Janet's family would create with the milk.
Is this cold water?
Like a never-ending scarf from a magician's hat,
the cheese just keeps on coming.
Mmm. - Wow.
[chuckles] Have they got a rabbit in there, too?
Okay.
But how do you pack a fire-hose length
of delicious cheese into your fridge?
Okay, here we go.
You're going to have to roll with it, by hand, of course.
So you salt it all the way through?
♪ ♪
Wow.
♪ ♪
Wow.
I don't even want to attempt to try it.
I mean, I can.
- Sí, sí, claro. - Oh, my God.
Oh, Lord. My hands are clean.
[playful music]
[laughs]
I feel like I'm making a baseball.
- [laughs] - Oh, God, I'm sweating.
That's my quesillo! - Hey.
- Oh, my God. Look at his, though.
I'm just gonna say I did this one.
Wow.
Y mira. Mira, mira, mira.
It's the original string cheese.
Oh, wow.
You can taste the milk. - Mmm.
- It is super lactose-y. [laughter]
If you're lactose intolerant, don't eat this.
You can make so much with quesillo.
- Even ice cream. Have you tried it?
They make it in Oaxaca. - No.
- It's delicious and amazing.
- Mm-mm. Oh, look at yours.
My God.
Respect to Omar.
I have never seen so much cheese gobbled so fast.
Sí.
I always assumed it just came in this shape.
[laughter]
[light music]
Back in the city,
I want to check out how this local cheese is celebrated
at Oaxaca's hottest restaurants.
Star chef Celia Florián loves innovating
with traditional ingredients in her kitchen
to create gastronomic magic.
Hola.
Un gran placer. - Mucho gusto.
- Ay, mucho gusto. [chuckles]
- Okay.
Uh-huh.
Yerba santa is a local herb that has flavors of anise,
eucalyptus, and mint.
And since pre-Hispanic times,
it's also been used for medicinal purposes.
Oh, my God. Have you guys eaten these?
They're grasshoppers.
Wow.
Eating insects is a practice
that dates back hundreds of years...
See the little legs?
And continues to this day.
The creamy, full-fat quesillo
is layered onto the yerba santa.
Ah! - [chuckles]
- I feel like the whole purpose of chapulinesis the crunch.
So... [chuckles]
I hope they're crunchy.
Like a toasted sandwich, it's touched on the hotplate
to help the quesillo stick to the leaf.
Oh, you roll them up.
- Es un bocadillo.
- Little bite sizes.
- Wow. And these are edible flowers?
- Bueno. - Beautiful.
This plate is literally making me happy.
Oh, that's a perfect bite right there.
I think I have a little bit of everything.
Crunchy.
Mmm. It's such a balance of flavors.
- Sí. - Wow.
Who would think to put cheese with grasshoppers with flowers?
[laughs]
Celia's exquisite dish honors Oaxaca's past
while keeping an eye on the future.
I'll never look at cheesy insects the same way again.
[laidback music]
- Some of Oaxaca's greatest culinary creations
come from its Indigenous communities,
like the ancient Zapotecs,
who thrived here for 3,000 years
with a large population in its Isthmus region.
Known as the Waist of Mexico,
it's where the Atlantic and Pacific Coast are closest.
These days, the proud guardians
of Zapotecan cuisine are the extraordinary Muxes.
And I'm lucky enough to be invited to lunch.
Hola. - Hola. Buen día.
- Hola.
- Hola, Eva.
♪ ♪
- From a young age, Muxes identify as a third gender,
often displaying feminine attributes
and wearing feminine clothes.
- Salud.
If the food is as fabulous as the outfits,
the eating is going to be good.
Oh, my God.
[laughter]
Okay.
- Sí.
- Okay.
Sí.
Historically, Muxes adopted traditionally female roles
within the family,
becoming caregivers, needle workers,
and, most importantly, cooks.
- Sí.
- Very tropical, with the pineapple
and the tomatoes and the onions.
And then with this dense pork,
I think it's gonna be pretty amazing.
[shouts]
Clearly, this is a dish
worth risking third-degree burns for.
♪ ♪
Oh, my God...
It smells so good.
♪ ♪
Wow.
♪ ♪
Okay.
I could walk home in that time.
But don't worry. We don't have to wait that long.
And now for the carbs in the kitchen.
Rubich and Victoria are whipping up
a decadent potato side dish.
Okay.
both: Mmm.
[laughter]
- The mashed potato is combined
with spring onion, carrot, egg,
and mountains of butter and garlic.
Uh-huh.
[laughter]
Muxan culture has given a sense of freedom
to Zapotecs who don't conform to gender stereotypes.
And today they are celebrated in the Isthmus and beyond.
- Sí, por favor. - Oh, my God.
Wow.
This feels amazing, the texture of this cream.
A ver...
[laughter]
Wow.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
Muy bien.
[light music]
Aw.
And now I'm hungry for that stuffed-pork dish.
Time to fatten me up.
Oh, my gosh, look at this.
[sniffs] Wow.
Oh, my gosh.
And I get a bone. [gasps]
I mean, look at that juice.
And this is the potato puree.
Wow.
It smells... [sniffs]
So good.
Oh, my gosh.
[indistinct chatter]
God.
It's falling right off the bone, and it's so soft,
so flavorful.
It has everything we put into it.
It complements so well--
the pork with the cooked pineapple
with this potato puree...
- Sí.
- Perfect combination.
It's been such a privilege
for me to spend time with the Muxes,
who've cherished these incredible recipes
and forged their own path in Oaxacan culture.
I'm never leaving.
Mmm.
Salud. - Muchas gracias.
- Muchas gracias, Feli.
- An hour's drive from Oaxaca City
lies the farming town of Santa Ana Zegache,
the unassuming epicenter of corn.
Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Amado Ramírez Leyva is my guide to this region,
where corn has been worshipped for over 6,000 years
and is still the beating heart of Mexican cuisine.
Cut us, and we bleed yellow.
[soft music]
[dog barks, animal bleats]
Hola.
Soy Eva.
Hola.
Okay.
Amado was battling to keep Oaxaca's ancient species alive
by working with corn farmers like Ponciano Méndez Galván.
[chuckles]
Oh, my God, this color's beautiful.
Look at this color. [gasps]
Velatobo.
Pinto.
- Sí.
- Have you ever seen such a rainbow of corn?
The range of colors comes from growing crops
at different altitudes
and varying amounts of sunlight exposure.
The darker heritage corns are often sweeter
and more herbal than the yellow ones.
So are these disappearing?
Because all we ever see in the supermarkets is yellow.
- Mm. Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm.
Tannins, yeah.
- ¿Sí? - Sí.
This was me when I was little, y'all.
My dad would have me and my sisters peeling the corn.
There'd be worms inside sometimes.
That was a fun surprise.
And we would have to fill all of these baskets,
and we would go sell the corn, just the yellow ones.
Sell it on the side of the road.
- Sí. [laughter]
- Unfortunately, Ponciano takes me up on the offer.
Oh, my God!
Now I've got to keep up with the hard-core 82-year-old
as we clean the corn.
Oh, yeah.
This is a great workout. [chuckles]
♪ ♪
¿Ya está?
I've sure worked up an appetite.
And as luck would have it, Ponciano's wife, Antonia,
is making a traditional Zapotec farmer's breakfast.
This Oaxacan vegetable soup, sopa de guías,
is like a vegan super fuel packed with nutrients.
It's perfect to come back to
after toiling in the fields since sunrise.
The herb chepil is native to Central America
and tastes like spinach and watercress.
But the soup gets its name from guías--
shoots of squash and their leaves
bursting with vitamins and minerals.
Wow. I love a good vegetable soup.
♪ I'm on fire ♪
Sí.[laughs] - Sí.
♪ ♪
And added last, so they keep their delicate form,
the squash flowers.
Such a beautiful green.
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
Ponciano's hardworking family have gathered for breakfast.
And the star of the meal
is, of course, their beautiful corn.
It's so good. I'm so hungry.
[gasps]
Wow.
Oh, my God.
- Sí.
I love everything has lemon in Mexico,
even vegetable soup.
It's wonderful eating this delicious simple food
with the family who grew it on their land,
just like their ancient ancestors did
for thousands of years.
I know corn is important to Mexico,
but I never knew it was endemic to Oaxaca.
Que nació aquí. It was born here.
[laughs]
[indistinct chatter]
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Oh, look at these agave.
Oaxaca is the land of the agave plant.
And where there's agave, there's mezcal--
the smoky liquor this region is famed for.
I've always been more of a tequila girl myself,
so I'm off to apalenque, an agave farm,
for a little mezcal education
in San Baltazar Chichicapam.
And I'm excited because this palenque
has a maestra mezcalera,
which is a female master of mezcal.
And it's very rare in the mezcal industry.
Tequila is only made from blue agave,
while mezcal uses a variety of species.
So, to see the field out here with all this diverse agave
is pretty cool.
Hot, arid plains are the perfect breeding ground,
but you got to be patient.
Some agave can take over 30 years to mature.
Hola.
Connoisseur Sylvia Philion
champions traditional producers.
A mezcal authority, three years ago,
she discovered doña Berta's artisanal spirit.
- What doña Berta is doing now--
how we say it in Oaxaca...
shaving the agave.
- And what type is this one?
both: Cuishe.
- This is a species
that you can only find in Oaxaca, actually.
- Okay.
- What she's doing is she's taking out all the leaves
so we can have the heart of the agave.
- And this is the part that's gonna be cooked?
- Yes.
[surf rock music]
So this is a very important part of the process.
This is where mezcal takes the smoky qualities
and flavors and aromas. - Mm-hmm.
- And this is
what differentiates mezcal from tequila,
because tequila is not using
an earth oven to cook the agave.
It's using machinery to cook it.
- Mezcal maestra doña Berta's earth oven
is lined with rocks and heated by firewood.
The agave hearts roast slowly,
releasing their natural sugars
and develop that distinctive smoky flavor.
And how old is the technique?
- The earth oven is pre-Hispanic.
Actually, in many pre-Hispanic cities around Mexico,
we find earth ovens.
And the word "mezcal" comes from the pre-Hispanic language
from the Aztecs.
And mexcallimeans cooked agave in an earth oven.
- Wow.
[laughter]
She doesn't trust me to put in a bigger one.
- [chuckles]
- Sí.
- To close up the holes, I'm gonna put it there.
- Mm-hmm. - [speaking Spanish]
- [laughs] - [speaking Spanish]
- Yay!
- The hearts are then covered with crushed agave husk
for the cooking process,
which can take up to five days.
- Then you're gonna put some soil on top.
- I love seeing her boss everybody around.
- Sí.
- She's like, "You're doing it wrong."
- [laughing] Sí.
I feel like I've slipped back in time.
Oaxacan families have been making alcohol
from roasted agave for centuries,
but the Spanish brought copper stills,
which took it to another level
and helped create the smooth mezcal we know today.
The Aztec goddess of fertility and agave, Mayahuel,
watches over the family's production.
And then to cover all religious bases...
Oh, wow. And this is all her mezcal?
- Yes.
- So she keeps all the mezcal in the altar?
The precious stash is stored under the watchful eyes
of Jesus.
- [chuckles]
- Oh, wow.
- Because she worked harder and longer and faster...
- Yes. - They didn't like that.
- [laughs]
Oh, sí.
Ooh.
- And remember that cuishe is endemic to Oaxaca.
- Okay.
- Gracias, doña Berta.
♪ ♪
- The mezcal has a light, floral, almost herbal taste.
Doña Berta has worked her magic,
and I'm converted.
Mmm. That's really good.
[laughter]
- Orale. Salud.
[light rock music]
♪ ♪
Hola.
Bien. Gracias.
Mucho gusto.
- Sí.
- God, look at the color.
Mm-hmm.
Oaxaca's varied altitude and climate
means even simple produce is extraordinary.
Rising star chef Thalía Barrios García
has made the ingredients of her hometown
the main draw of her hipster restaurants.
Oh.
Okay.
These juicy rastrojo and bola tomatoes
are grown among oak trees,
which conserve water and enrich the black soil
of mountains near Thalía's remote village.
So tomatoes are from South America,
but it was the Mexicans
that decided to eat them... [laughs]
and plant them, grow them, put them in the kitchen.
- Sí.
- I think a lot of people assume--
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Wow.
- Sí.
- [gasps] Wow.
Lots and lots of tomatoes.
Oh, my God, these are beautiful.
- Sí.
- Oh.
Okay.
These tomatoes are grown from seeds
passed down from generation to generation
over thousands of years.
The sweeter ones grow in the valleys,
where they soak up sun and water,
while the mountain ones get less light
and are slightly bitter.
Mmm. I use probably, like, 20 of these a day,
'cause my husband loves tomatillo salsa.
Sí.
We're making Thalía's iconic dish--
a simple tomato salad, Oaxacan style.
Have you seen a more perfect tomato?
A warning, though--
once discovered, you will never go
back to the ordinary supermarket tomato.
Look at this.
Oh, gosh, this is so beautiful, I don't want to mess it up.
I don't even want to cut it, he's so pretty.
The sweetness of this bright-purple beet puree
balances the tomato's acidity.
There's barely any seeds in this purple one.
- Sí.
[light music]
Is this a vinaigrette? - Sí.
- Mm-hmm.
Okay. Mm-hmm. Pero...
Mmm, very refreshing.
Oh, look at that.
♪ ♪
Look at this.
Is that not the most beautiful combination of tomatoes
you've ever seen?
Mmm.
Not only the taste--
I think my favorite is this red one.
This is my favorite. - [chuckles]
- Ah, el morado. - Sí.
- A ver.
Let's have the purple one.
♪ ♪
[gasps] Oh, no, I think that's my favorite.
- [laughs] - Wow.
You know what?
It has the texture of a radish.
Mmm.
That herbal dressing with this beet puree,
with the texture of the tomato, with the salt--oh, my God.
I think this is, like, the perfect dish.
Mm-hmm. Exactamente. - Sí.
♪ ♪
- Oaxaca has been a culinary explosion
in my head and in my mouth.
It is on another level gastronomically.
One of the best places I've been to in the world.
Oaxaca's full of so many Indigenous cultures
holding on to their traditions.
They honor their past techniques and ingredients,
but they don't live in the past.
They have called the world to Oaxaca
'cause they want to share everything with the world.
And they're doing it beautifully.
♪ ♪