Viva Veracruz

[Diego]

Shayla made a really good set of Mole Plantain Tacos last night. They were soo tasty. It was hard to stop eating them.

We've had locals who've eaten with us, and they love them. What's interesting is that all of the ingredients are local, obtainable here in Coatepec. The mole is from Castizo, a little manufacturer whose shop is a few blocks down the street from us.

One of the keys is to get plantains (plátanos machos) about half ripe for the baking. Everything else is available from the mercado or Chedraui.

IMHO, it's worth the effort to try making these once to see if you like them. Then, you can substitute a different mole is you have other mole preference.

http://coatepecooking.blogspot.com/2010/06/mexican-mole-plantain-tacos.html

[Calypso]

[Diego]

There's probably not a stall in the mercado that doesn't have the plantains hanging from the rafters in bunches. Look up. All the stands hang them on metal poles in bunches of anywhere as much as 25 down to 3 or 4. They are also sold on the street out of wheelbarrows (corner of Campillo and Hidalgo, just up from the Red Cross). They're grown locally, so large bunches are often in the back of pickups. They look like yellow bananas, but they're a little larger and sometimes flatter. As they mature, the outer peel turns from yellow to black. As I mentioned above, they're referred to as plátano macho, and they are plátanos, and they hang right next to the bananas.

In Chedraui, they are there about half the time. They are displayed individually, each plantain separated from the bunch and placed nicely one on top of the other, usually quite yellow and unripe. This is how I recall seeing them al norte.