Avocado Taco from Molino El Pujol
A country where corn is the key to your food pyramid is a country with history . One that was born between mills and comales that make up a choir that sings for and for this grain but that is currently losing the battle against nixtamalized corn flour.
This is where the hand of chefs come in who devise ways to update the tradition so as not to let it die, such as Henry Oliver oh, what's new El Pujol Mill , a new way of understanding corn adapted to a new era.
Olvera's reverence for Mexican cuisine was born with his own review of the country's cuisine at Pujol **(number 13 on the 50 Best list)**, at the Mexico City , the same one that led him to conceptualize a spin off in New York called cosimo and current plans to create a merger of the two into The Angels , followed by the recent opening of Casa Teo in CDMX , a residence designed to host cooking workshops (or was it the other way around?).
Beans in the pot of Molino El Pujol
Now, with the intention of not giving up, Olvera has opened in the neighborhood of La Condesa this place with a traditional mill that prepares nixtamal and masa with corn from native creole varieties of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Chinantec and Chontal ethnic groups.
They try to keep them in constant rotation, so the tortillas change color, size and flavor with each visit. The same with the price, which is not fixed and depends on the costs dictated by the market that week , always in favor of the economic stability of the producers.
corn varieties
Their menu is short and designed to snack while waiting for the order of dough or tortillas : rajas tamale, elote (corn on the cob) bathed in coffee mayonnaise and chicatan ant or an avocado taco with a holy leaf tortilla, serrano sauce and cheese.
Whether for breakfast, accompanied by a coffee or an atole and pot beans, or to eat with a corn water or a Brü beer, made with blue corn from Michoacán.
Taking a quick look around the premises, you can see illustrations by Hilda Palafox , a crockery that is the result of the imaginary of South Ceramics and an atmosphere typical of a hipster cafeteria, so it is intuited that the message of recovering passion and rituals related to the country is designed to reach new generations and foreign audiences.
A return to the roots
All rounded off with a monthly publication on the paper that wraps the tortillas, a fanzine edited under the name of totomoxtle –name of the cob leaves that, curiously, you will also find as an alternative to toilet paper in bathrooms – to communicate the benefits of the product that has given so much to the Olvera empire.
Great ideas drawn from the most deeply rooted culinary memories in the roots of a civilization and further proof of Olvera's ability to extrapolate, without losing respect for any recipe book, dishes from the Mexican tradition to haute cuisine through a conceptual and purely modern package.
Facade
***** _This report was published in **number 120 of Condé Nast Traveler Magazine (September)**. Subscribe to the printed edition (11 printed issues and a digital version for €24.75, by calling 902 53 55 57 or from our website). The September issue of Condé Nast Traveler is available in its digital version to enjoy on your preferred device. _