This Candlemas Day we visited Halachó, a magical town in Yucatán where the Ya’axché ethnogastronomic center is located, directed by Chef Wilson Alonzo, who took us to the market to learn about the ingredients with which we later prepare delicious espelón tamales. in the pure style of Yucatan.
The traditions and customs of Mexico They are, among many things, a faithful projection of the natural magic that their land and people possess. An example is the Candlemas daythe date on which families gather to celebrate the purification of the Virgin, Catholic rite of Hispanic origin which merged with the pre-Hispanic festivals of the beginning of sowingevent in which it was customary to eat the traditional tamales.
This time, we spent February 2 in flattered, a beautiful town west of Yucatan that adjoins the limit of Campeche.
At the heart of this picturesque community is its market, always colorful and full of the freshest produce from the countryside. There we meet him Chef Wilson Alonzowho prepared a special workshop for us to spend Candlemas Day in Ya’axché, Ethnogastronomic Center. Do you want to know what it is about?
Join us during our journey through the Halachó market until we meet Chef Wilson Alonzo, owner of Ya’axché, Ethnogastronomic Center; with whom we will carry out a culinary workshop to learn the essence of Yucatecan food and prepare a traditional dish for Candelaria Day with our own hands.
In the Halachó market
Between delicious aromas, fresh harvest and the cheerful bustle of the dealers, we find the Chef Wilson Alonzowho invited us to enjoy a special experience in Ya’axché, Ethnogastronomic Center of your property; where in addition to preparing the most exquisite dishes, it offers workshops to learn how to cook them and better understand the local gastronomy through a direct approach to recipes and food from the moment the ingredients are purchased until they are served as a delicacy.
To start the culinary experienceChef Wilson Alonzo took us through the halls of the Halachó market, where he explained that all the products that we were about to test were brought from the field that same morning.
He also told us about Halachó’s star products, such as Chile Habanero, sweet orange, tangerine, sour orange and lime.
In addition, he told us in detail about the origin of each product that was added to our purchase, all 100% originating from Halachó.
Between different species of chili, spices and other characteristic ingredients of the yucatecan cuisinethe Chef revealed to us that knowing the soul of the cymbals It was only the first part of our adventure, since we would be the ones who would prepare lunch.
Ya’axché, Ethnogastronomic Center
Leaving the Halachó market, we head towards the limits of the community, where the Yá’axché Ethnogastronomic Center, an extensive land filled in the middle of the vegetation and the cornfield that will transport you to a different time in the Yucatan of yesteryear; well here, Yucatecan gastronomy is lived and cooked in the traditional ways.
Upon arrival, your lungs are filled with fresh country air and an aroma that takes you to the most beautiful childhood memories, because the essence of a good seasoning in the air it is unmistakable.
Hammocks between the trees, a palapa restaurant with a small bar and a traditional Yucatecan kitchen with its dining room facing the fields, is a very simple way to describe the dazzling peace and beauty that greets you in Ya’axché.
Immediately the smiling team of Chef Alonzo gives us the warmest welcome with a delicious pot coffee served in jicamathe sacred container of our ancestors to eat or drink.
From very early they have prepared the stovesthe clay pots and the old kitchen utensils that belonged to their great-great-grandparents and that are now part of the Ya’axché universe.
The Chef invites us to share the table with him while we have a delicious breakfast egg with chaya and handmade tortillas, accompanied by freshly made orange juice and delicious natural cheese empanadas. As we eat, he tells us that for our special workshop for Candlemas Daywe would cook some delicious espelón tamales with red achiote, chicken meat al pibil with light touches of xcatic chile, epazote, mint and a sauce of tomato, onion, sweet chili and other typical ingredients of the region and its gastronomy.
Tamales of espelón and chicken pibil buried, a Day of the Candlemas to the Yucateca
Surrounded by nature we began to cut and chop all the ingredients that we use to start our exquisite Espelon and chicken pibil tamales; while Chef Wilson Alonzo prepared the stir-fry that would bathe the filling of the tamales, which were cooked at the gdp stylebone, in the typical yucatecan oven underground.
After seasoning it and adding everything necessary to make it pibil, we put the chicken to cook for 1 hour wrapped in banana leaves.
Once it was ready, we bathed the dough in red annatto to give it color and flavor, the espelónwhich are new bean grains.
Afterwards, we roast the dough that would give life to our tamales on banana leavesforming a large tortilla on which we add the pibil chicken and we bathed it in a sauce and then folded the leaf so that it became the mold for our tamale.
Once wrapped, the leaves were tied to finally put the tamales to cook underground, which took between 40 minutes to 1 hour. During the wait, we refresh ourselves with a lime water which was prepared in a special way, since honey was added that is cooked for 6 hours with other ingredients, resulting in a more than refreshing, revitalizing drink for a hot day in the fields of Yucatan.
Time to eat in Ya’axché, Ethnogastronomic Center
While we wait for the buried chicken pibil tamales were ready, we recap the more than 10 years of life of Ya’axché, Ethnogastronomic Center; which arose from a visit that gastronomy students made to Halachó. The Chef remembers that that time he was asked to organize a meal for young people and almost accidentally, that moment was the birth of the project and the first traditional food workshop what happened
Chef Wilson Alonzo is an expert in traditional, mestizo and Creole gastronomy, has been a professor for more than 10 years and has spent more than 5 years in constant research to classify, innovate and preserve his ancestral gastronomy, admitting that the deeper he goes into the universe of food, the more culinary paths open up to be explored. Also, he is a man proud of his culture and his beliefs; taking the Ya’axché, the sacred tree of the Mayansas the symbol of his kitchen.
He told us that due to the interest of tourism and the general public in his workshops and Yucatecan food, he has been able to build an opportunity for the local economy by promoting consumption by producers in the region. He also shared with us that Ya’axché has been a path of opportunities for other local businessessuch as the handmade tortillas made by a group of cooks from the Colonia de San Francisco, in Halachó.
Chef Alonzo told us that gas is not used in Ya’axché, only the ancient technique of a 3-stone stove, the buried one (Pib), drying with stones, drying in the sun, among other techniques of Mayan origin.
Between Ya’axché’s latest hits is the reception of the Delegation of Chefs and Sommeliers from America and Europe on October 29, 2022, with experts from Cuba, Venezuela, the United States, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile and Mexico; with representatives from Sinaloa, CDMX, Tabasco and Yucatán.
The Delegation of Chefs and Sommeliers took the same route as us in the market, where foreign experts had the opportunity to study and compare flavors, smells, and 100% Yucatecan products. In the workshop they cooked suckling pig, buried head of beef, barbecue, lime soup, among other typical Yucatan dishes.
During the time we wait for the chicken pibil tamales were ready, they served us an exquisite lime soup with tortilla and we share a sikilpak of supreme flavor that the Chef prepared in a few minutes, with some also handmade toast.
Our sense of taste could not be more pampered at the moment when the long-awaited chicken pibil and espelon tamales, whose seasoning was unique in each one, because each one made his own. By opening the banana leaf, he revealed himself to us one of the most exquisite dishes of Yucatanprepared in a unique and special way that does not exist anywhere else in the world, a delicious delicacy that is also a culinary metaphor for the living history of the state, whose soul teaches us the importance of preserve its roots and the characteristic seasoning of Yucatecan cuisine.
