- Title: MEXICO: Mexico City celebrates famed sauce in Chili festival
- Date: 30th May 2014
- Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (MAY 29, 2014) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF CHILI FESTIVAL PEOPLE LOOKING AT CHILLIES AND CARRYING BOUGHT ITEMS YOUNGSTERS LOOKING AT LARGE MOLCAJETE, A STONE TOOL, THE TRADITIONAL MEXICAN VERSION OF THE MORTAR AND PESTLE, USED FOR GRINDING CHILLIES VARIOUS OF MOLCAJETES, CHILLIES AND ONIONS VARIOUS OF BASKETS HOLDING DIFFERENT CHILLIES MOLCAJETE WIT
- Embargoed: 14th June 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Mexico
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA7YWR6WXE7Q5TYC0VD8J8D6W34
- Story Text: The second five-day festival of Chillies will take place in Mexico City, to showcase the many varieties of chillies that grow in the country.
Chillies have become a key ingredient in Mexican cooking and are used to make different sauces that accompany and spice up nearly every Mexican dish.
Dozens of exhibitors will take part in the festival until June 1.
The festival will also feature molcajetes, a stone tool, the traditional Mexican version of mortar and pestle, used for grinding chillies and different types of "salsas" (sauces). The festival is held to disseminate the different varieties of chili in the country and teach visitors how they can put them into use in many different recipes.
The organizers intend to create a new culture of chili, in which the public recognizes its nutritional properties and realize its consumption is healthy even though many avoid eating chillies because they associate them with indigestion.
Stands selling chili plants, different varieties of chili, organic bottled sauces and molcajetes lined the exhibition.
Visitors touring the exhibition can learn how to make sauces, pick up recipes and try them at restaurants where sauces and used in various traditional dishes and snacks.
Gustavo Alvarez, is and expositor and owns a restaurant on the outskirts of Mexico City, which specializes in mole, a sauce used in Mexican cuisine. The sauce is most popular in the central and southern regions of the country with those from Puebla and Oaxaca the best known.
"That is what this forum is about. To see that sauce made in a molcajete tastes different and has other properties and of course is natural and that is what really enriches our culture, our gastronomy and of course our health. A sauce made in a molcajete is different to one made days before," Alvarez said.
It is also intended that visitors recognize the cultural and traditional value of chili, sauces and mortars and their contribution to recognized Mexican cuisine, encouraging visitors to eat a healthier diet which includes hot peppers and fresh vegetables instead of processed food.
Visitors are also able to buy quesadillas, a flour or corn tortilla filled with mixture containing cheese or other ingredients and folded in half. They are made on a comal - a smooth flat griddle typically used in mexico to cook tortillas, toast spices and generally prepare food. These ones are being made with "flor de calabaza" (squash - blossoms), cheese, tortillas and mushrooms.
"We have all kinds of weather (in Mexico). That is why we have different chillies and different dishes. The chili is fundamental and it's also part of our identity. They say that if you don't eat chillies, then you're not Mexican and it's part of our pride," said festival organizer, Jaime Ortega.
The festival is held in the community centre at the former convent of Culhuacan, an old monastery built between the XVI and XVII century by Franciscan missionaries and Augustinians.
They were assigned to the area to evangelize the indigenous people who lived there and had inhabited the area since the seventh century, which makes it one of the oldest settlements in the valley of Mexico.
Today the neighbourhood of Culhuacan, has been swallowed up chaotic Mexico City but maintains its history and traditions. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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