We, at the Americas Program in Mexico City, are aficianados of huitlacoche. Just last weekend, we enjoyed ravioli in huitlacoche sauce at a restaurant on a colonial plaza near our headquarters in southern Mexico City.
MiamiHerald.com: "At this time of year, when corn grows high, some farmers go into their fields hoping that a disease has infected their crops. They inspect for swollen husks, a telltale sign that a parasitic fungus has spread into a spongy iridescent mass inside the ears. The farmers are pleased, for the fungus is one of the greatest delicacies of the Mexican kitchen. It's been called the Mexican truffle, and a 'food of the gods.' The unique, earthy taste has been part of local cuisine since Aztec times.
The name of the fungus in the indigenous Nahuatl language is huitlacoche (pronounced weet-la-KOH-chay, sort of rhyming with Don Quixote). As hard as that may be to say, it's infinitely sweeter sounding than the English name: corn smut. That moniker is a slur to huitlacoche's complex flavors and defamation of its culinary properties."
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
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