Oaxaca: Mole 2 – Negro and Chocolate

June 25, 2019 by sleepyfreak 2 Comments

The story goes that in the state of Puebla (Oaxaqueños will tell you it was in Oaxaca and will literally fight you on this), an archbishop was coming to visit a convent unexpectedly, and the nuns had no food to serve him. In a hasty attempt to welcome him, they killed and cooked an old turkey and made a sauce out of the only things they had on hand: spices, chili peppers, nuts, bits of bread, and chocolate. The archbishop loved it, and a national dish was born: mole.

As I’ve mentioned, I grew up with only one type of mole and it was this one: mole negro. As far as I know, there isn’t another savory dish as well known as mole negro that so effectively incorporates chocolate as a main player. In the US they’ve discovered that chocolate’s bitterness complements red meat nicely; chocolate and espresso rubs on steaks are becoming more common in higher end dining establishments. But it’s still a distant second to mole, both in flavor in accessibility.

Oaxaca is particularly known for its chocolate – a friend of mine claims that Oaxacan chocolate is so distinct that he can recognize it on the street by smell alone. Even without the ingredients added to mole sauce, the chocolate here is spicy and aromatic. Mayordomo, the big chocolatiers in Oaxaca, has chocolate houses all over the city which offer raw cacao, jars of mole sauce, and chocolate paste for making chocolate drinks. The cafes they run are whimisical eateries that serve fluffy and moist pan dulce next to warm, frothy mugs of hot chocolate that they mix and pour in front of you. You can order smooth, silky mole over chicken with rice, or in fluffy tamales (yes, there are tamales of chicken mole here!). It’s a charming place to have a quaint breakfast or lunch.

Stolen from Google, hope they die mad about it

Theobroma cacao, the scientific name for chocolate, translates to “food of the Gods”; accordingly, these folks serve it up in their own little patch of heaven ❤

Anyway, that mole I had was pretty good. It wasn’t at Mayordomo, but I was still v into it.