Holy Molé

I think my decadent weekend caught up to me last night. I woke up only a couple of hours after falling asleep with a terrible stomach pain. I couldn't fall back to sleep & when my alarm rang I got ready for school despite having not slept in hours. Then I decided not to bother & went back to bed. Don't worry- it was a passing thing & by late morning I felt fine. But I decided to lay low today to rest just to make sure I'm recovered.

Being raised the way I was, when I'm ailing I yearn for chicken soup. And there's a restaurant right across the street from my apartment which I've been meaning to try and is always filled with people eating soup. So when I was feeling plucky I meandered across the street to check it out.



It's the kind of place you see all over the DF, the menu changes daily with a few staples that stick throughout the week. There's a set cycle so if you develop a fondness for a particular dish, you know which day they serve it. I was planning on just having a bowl of "sopa de pasta" or chicken noodle soup, but I saw plates of one of my favorites rolling out of the cooking area in the center of the joint & I was moved to order (I realize I frequently refer to foods I have here as "favorites" but I do truly love the cuisine). Today is "Molé Poblano" day at this little lonchería.

Molé is a word for a slow-cooked thick sauce. There are many types of molé and "molé poblano" means molé from the town of Puebla. Because most of the Mexican immigrants in NYC are from Puebla, when New Yorkers hear the word "molé" they think of this version. However, Mexicans usually associate molé with Oaxaca, home of molé negro (along with several other variants usually named for their color) which is made of 30 different ingredients and takes 2 - 3 days to cook. Many food writers put molé negro among the greatest culinary accomplishments in the world, and I would agree wholeheartedly.

But I digress. My molé today was the poblano kind. This dish involves 15 - 20 ingrediants & is usually cooked for an entire day, then served the next. One of the primary flavors is Mexican raw chocolate which is unsweetened and has no dairy so it gives a wonderful earthy richness to the sauce. I received a plate with a chicken leg & breast that had been slowly simmered in the molé until falling-off-the-bone tender with a stack of warm tortillas and a couple of slices of bread on the side. It might have been a little more than I was looking for considering my weakened state, but it was too good to deny & I enjoyed it thoroughly. As I still feel fine I'm going to say I made the right decision. ¡Besos!