Chef Lupita
Aporreado Costeño Guerrerense
Guerrero's Costa Chica cooks dry their cattle into cecina, pound it to fibers on a stone, and stew it slow in chile costeño and epazote. The Afro-Mexican noon meal, built on lard, no eggs in this one.
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Chef Lupita
Mojarra Frita Costeña con Plátano y Arroz
The everyday plate of the Costa Chica, the Afro-Mexican coast of Guerrero and Oaxaca: a whole lagoon mojarra fried until the skin cracks, fanned with caramelized plátano macho, white rice, and salsa de chile costeño.
Chef Lupita
Pollo en Chilate Guerrerense
Guerrero's Costa Chica builds chilate from chile costeño, guajillo, and pasilla oaxaqueño, thickened with corn masa and ladled over poached chicken. The savory plate of Cuajinicuilapa's Afro-Mexican kitchens, the third root cooking Mexico only began to count in 2020.
Chef Lupita
Tamales de Tichinda Afromestizos
From the mangrove lagoons of Oaxaca's Costa Chica, the Afro-Mexican tamale that wraps tiny tichinda mussels whole in their shells inside chile costeño masa, steamed in banana leaf until the briny liquor soaks the corn.
Chef Lupita
Res en Chileajo de la Costa Chica
The Costa Chica's beef braised in a fierce paste of chile costeño, guajillo, and pasilla oaxaqueño with two whole heads of charred garlic. The chileajo of the Afro-Mexican coast, foundational and unapologetic.
Chef Lupita
Pollo en Mole Costeño Afromestizo
From the Costa Chica, the Afro-Mexican coast of Guerrero and Oaxaca, a brick-red mole built on chile costeño, toasted sesame, almond, and fried plátano macho, ladled over chicken the way the women of Cuajinicuilapa have always made it.
Chef Lupita
Carne Oreada al Carbón Costeña
The Costa Chica's salt-cured, air-dried beef, grilled over coconut-wood coals and folded into hot memelas with salsa verde and lime. The Afro-Mexican weekend ritual of Cuajinicuilapa, where the sea breeze does half the cooking.
Chef Lupita
Frijoles Negros Costeños con Plátano Frito
The everyday plate of the Costa Chica and jarocho Veracruz: black beans simmered with epazote and chile costeño in an olla de barro, served beside sweet fried plátano macho and white rice. The third root, on a plate.
Chef Lupita
Pescado a la Talla Afromestizo
Guerrero and Oaxaca's Costa Chica opens a whole snapper like a book, paints it with an adobo of chile costeño, guajillo, and achiote, and grills it over coconut wood. The Afromestizo beach fire's centerpiece.
Chef Lupita
Plátano Macho Relleno de Queso Costeño
The Costa Chica's meatless home plate: ripe plátano macho boiled soft, mashed, and wrapped around salty queso costeño, then fried dark in manteca until the sugars caramelize. Sweet and salt in one bite, from Mexico's Afro-Pacific coast.
Chef Lupita
Pollo Encacahuatado Afromestizo Jarocho
Jarocho Veracruz's encacahuatado: chicken drowned in a glossy sauce of toasted ground peanut, ripe tomato, and chile guajillo, fried down in pork lard. The third root of Mexican cooking, on the plate where it belongs.
Chef Lupita
Plátanos Rellenos de Picadillo Jarocho
From the Sotavento coast of Veracruz, ripe plátano macho pounded into a sweet dough, wrapped around a sweet-savory beef picadillo of raisins, almonds, olives, and capers, then fried in lard until the shell turns deep gold.
Chef Lupita
Mariscos al Ajillo Jarocho
Shrimp, octopus, and squid seared hard in pork lard with a fistful of sliced garlic and guajillo cut into rings. This is the seafood of the jarocho cantinas, where the Afro-Veracruz coast cooks the Gulf the way it always has.
Chef Lupita
Tortitas de Yuca con Caldillo Afromestizo
From the Costa Chica de Oaxaca, where Mexico's Black communities have cooked for four centuries: grated cassava and queso fresco patties fried in pork lard, then bathed in a brick-red caldillo built on fruity chile costeño.
Chef Lupita
Tamales de Yuca Afromestizos
The Costa Chica's Afro-Mexican tamal, where the masa is grated yuca instead of corn, the filling is a peanut-thickened salsa of chile costeño and pasilla oaxaqueño, and the banana leaf does half the cooking.
Chef Lupita
Lengua en Encacahuatado Jarocho
Veracruz beef tongue simmered tender and napped in a glossy sauce of ground peanut, guajillo, and tomato. This is encacahuatado the jarocho way: the cooking of the Sotavento, of la tercera raíz.
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