Photo by Robert Billington
I wrote in last week’s CookbookCorner about being bad at holidays — which you could argue is a saving grace these days, when the idea of embarking on one seems hazardous — but I do actually, if perversely, miss travelling, and am full of regret at not visiting countries and places when I had the chance. Oh, how I berate myself for not visiting Mexico City in all those pre-Covid years, but I do now have Edson Diaz-Fuentes’ wonderful Ciudad de Mexico. To some degree, this book makes me all the more annoyed with myself, and yet Diaz-Fuentes writes so vibrantly and evocatively of his home town, I feel almost transplanted there as I read.
I must confess, I have always felt a little hesitant about cooking Mexican food, as I felt my palate didn’t have a deep enough understanding of the complexity of its language, so to speak, and yet this book conveys its flavours and range in a way that makes me impatient to get in the kitchen. I hadn’t known, either, that the author has a restaurant — Santo Remedio, or Holy Remedy — in East London, which I feel I have to visit soonest to prime my unschooled palate, but in the meantime Ciudad de Mexico provides a Holy Remedy of its own.
The recipes are manifold and joyous, and it helps that Diaz-Fuentes is partly based here, as so many books in English on Mexican cooking are written with the American reader in mind. This makes a real difference, for me at least. True, many of the ingredients are not exactly available on the high street, but souschef.co.uk has a good Mexican food section, and for those after deeper immersion, there is also mexgrocer.co.uk.
I can’t list all the recipes I want my life to be filled with in the coming months, but they include Huevos Divorciados or Divorced Eggs, which are fried eggs on a toasted tortilla, with black beans separating them, and two salsas on opposing sides of the plate; Tacos de Canasta, which comprise potatoes fried with chorizo, black beans, cheese, and chillified pork crackling; Crab Tostadas; Squid in Creamy Chipotle Sauce; Oxtail Mole; Queso Fresco; and all manner of tortillas, salsas and spice rubs. The recipe I wanted to share with you here, though, is the Heirloom Tomato Salad with Cacao and Agave Dressing which, right now, seemed the perfect place to start.
Ciudad de México: Recipes and stories from the heart of Mexico City by Edson Diaz-Fuentes (Hardie Grant, £26).
Photography: Robert Billington
