12 collections / 267 recipes
The peninsula's kitchen turns sour orange, achiote, allspice, habanero, and recado into a language of its own. These collections move from pib-cooked mains and panuchos to chaya drinks, black beans, convent sweets, and the breads of Mérida's market mornings.
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18 recipes
The botana table of the Peninsula. Sikil p'aak ground from toasted pumpkin seeds, codzitos rolled and flooded with chiltomate, brazo de reina sliced for picking, kibis remade from Lebanese kibbeh, and the cazón empanadas of Campeche. Mayan, Gulf, and cantina-Lebanese botanas eaten with sour orange, habanero, and the first cold beer.
32 recipes
The drinks of Yucatán: aguas frescas built on chaya, lima agria, and pimienta gorda; the Maya ceremonial saká and tan-chucuá; Mérida's flamed Café Maya and the champolas of Sorbetería El Colón since 1907; and the cantina cocktails that taught the Peninsula how to drink in the heat.
19 recipes
The bread shelf of the Peninsula. Pan francés yucateco for sopping huevos motuleños, pan de pueblo from the wood-fired hornos, masa tortillas of native Nal-Tel and Dzit-Bacal corn, the enriched specialty breads that mark Hanal Pixán and Día de Reyes, the quick breads of the merienda, and the pizza yucateca that Mérida invented for itself.
9 recipes
The mid-morning table of Yucatán. Huevos motuleños stacked over crispy tortilla and frijol colado, chaya scrambled with eggs, papadzules bathed in pumpkin seed sauce, and the smoky longaniza of Valladolid that fills the comedor by ten in the morning. This is the Peninsula's almuerzo, the meal that bridges market hours and lunch.
31 recipes
The dulces de convento and home-table sweets of the Peninsula. Caballero pobre soaked in cinnamon-clove syrup, dulce de papaya verde crystallized in piloncillo and crowned with queso de bola, mazapán de pepita molded into miniature fruit, marquesitas crisped on cast iron, the sorbetes and champolas of Sorbetería Colón since 1907, and the coconut multiverse of the Yucatecan coast.
30 recipes
The plato fuerte of the Yucatán Peninsula, from the pib-cooked pork and poultry of Mérida to the Gulf seafood of Campeche, the Caribbean catch of Quintana Roo, the Hanal Pixán mukbilpollo, and the queso relleno that married Dutch cheese to Mayan recados.
35 recipes
The distinctive pan dulce of Yucatán. Polvorones de naranja, bizcochos twice-baked in the Mérida style, hojaldra dulce, and the small sweet breads of the panaderías yucatecas that fill the tin-roof shops at sundown.
26 recipes
The handheld grammar of the Peninsula. Pan francés tortas piled with cochinita, lechón, or castacán, trancas full-length from Campeche, panuchos of refried black beans and shredded turkey, salbutes puffed in lard, tacos of poc chuc and longaniza de Valladolid, tostadas of pavo en escabeche, and the enchiladas dulces of the eastern Yucatán.
16 recipes
The Peninsula's flavor architecture: the four canonical recados (rojo, negro, blanco, escabeche), the k'óol gravies of Maya cooking, the habanero table salsas, the sour orange vinaigrette, and the curtidos that finish every Yucatecan plate.
15 recipes
Xec for Hanal Pixán, dzik shredded over tostadas, repollo curtido and cebollas moradas on every plato fuerte, the pink rusa beside cochinita, and the fiesta-plate ensalada de pollo with apple, raisins, and walnut. Jícama, naranja agria, and habanero do the work that lettuce never could.
20 recipes
The everyday accompaniments to the Peninsula's plato fuerte. Frijol negro cooked with chaya and epazote, ibes guisados in chiltomate, arroz blanco folded with sweet corn, plátano macho fried in lard until caramelized, papas pickled in recado blanco and naranja agria. The sides that ride alongside cochinita, poc chuc, and pollo pibil in every comedor from Mérida to Campeche to Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
16 recipes
Sopa de lima sharpened with lima agria, chocolomo from a fresh slaughter, puchero yucateco with three meats and root vegetables, relleno negro and blanco, and the slow pots that anchor the Peninsula's weekly home table from Mérida to Valladolid to Campeche.
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