Whether you're looking to sample fried grasshoppers or just make tamales, we've got the lowdown on the flavors of Oaxaca.
Chapulines - Grasshoppers. Brave samplers report that these fried critters are nutty and delicious. Available at some Oaxacan restaurants in Los Angeles, chapulines are often sprinkled with dried chiles and lime and served as an appetizer. It's also worth getting over the freak-out factor to try gusanitos de maguey, maguey worms. The larvae of an insect that lives on the maguey plant, gusanitos are smoked and used as a flavoring in salsas and other dishes. Famously, they also turn up in bottles of tequila and mezcal.
Cacao/Chocolate - The cacao bean, the dried, cured seed of the cacao fruit, holds a special place in the history of Mexico. Cacao was offered to the Gods by the Aztecs and Mayans, and was so valuable that it was used as currency. In Oaxaca, some people still toast their own beans on a comal (see below) and grind them on a metate (see also below) with Mexican cinnamon and sugar to make chocolate. The chocolate is used in hot and cold drinks, traditionally hand-foamed with a special wooden whisk called a molinillo. It's also one of the many ingredients in Oaxaca's famous mole negro.
Comal - Oaxacan griddle traditionally made of clay, used for dry-roasting ingredients such as tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, onions, and chiles to bring out their natural sugars and deepen their flavors. You don't need a clay one, but some sort of griddle or large cast-iron skillet is essential for preparing Oaxacan cuisine. Other traditional Oaxacan tools are the molcajete, a bowl-shaped volcanic stone mortar, and the mano, a pestle, used together to grind and purée spices, chiles, and other ingredients. Many cooks now substitute a combination of a blender and sieve to achieve similar results. A metate, also used with a mano, is a table-shaped implement traditionally used to grind corn and chocolate.
Corn - According to Zarela Martinez, Oaxaca is one of Mexico's greatest centers of corn-based cuisine. Masa is made by treating corn with an alkali such as slaked lime and then grinding it into a moist dough. Coarsely ground masa is beaten with lard and steamed with flavorings in corn husks to make tamales, a popular fiesta food. More finely ground masa is used for tortillas, of which there are a great variety, including gordas (small and thick), blandas (thick and soft), empanadas (large, stuffed tortilla pies), and clayudas (huge, dense, and flat). Clayudas, spread with asiento (a grainy, delicious lard residue), refried beans, cheese, and salsa, are one of the category of corn-based street snacks called antojitos (whims), which are sold in stalls in the markets. Masa is also used to thicken atole, a corn gruel that's a popular Oaxacan breakfast.
Mezcal - This liquor, made from the agave plant, tends to be smokier than most tequila, although tequila is technically a type of mezcal. Mezcal has an unfair reputation in the U.S. as a cheap, low-quality intoxicant, but premium mezcals make delicious, and authentic, accompaniments to Oaxacan meals. Martinez recommends Del Maguay Single Village Mezcal, produced in New Mexico in collaboration with Zapotec farmers. Another important Oaxacan drink is agua fresca, a refreshing combination of water, fruit, and sugar.
Mole - A general term for a sauce that usually has dried, ground chiles, is enriched with seeds or nuts, and contains a wide range of herbs and spices. There are seven moles in Oaxaca: Amarillo (yellow and usually spicy-hot); Negro (black mole, known for the inclusion of cacao among its many ingredients, though it gets its color from blackened chiles); Coloradito (spicy and reddish); Verde (fresh, green, and herbaceous); Rojo (red and usually sweet); Chichilo (dark and smokey, but not as rich as mole negro); and Manchamantel (a fruit-based sweet-and-sour mole). According to Martinez, Oaxacan cuisine, unlike many others, values the sauce, rather than what it goes on, as the "pièce de résistance." Even today, Oaxacan cooks will gather their own special spice and seed mixtures at the market, take them to mills where they're ground into pastes, and then painstakingly assemble the sauces, which can involve more than a dozen steps.