Chef Lupita
Tabla Jarocha de Queso de Hebra y Salsa Macha
Veracruz's jarocho table snack pairs pulled queso de hebra from Tlapacoyan with oil-fried salsa macha from the Orizaba cordillera, served plain, bold, and ready for warm totopos.
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Chef Lupita
Sotavento Plantain Mash (Machuca de Plátano)
Veracruz's Sotavento botana from Afro-Mexican kitchens, green plátano macho boiled and pounded with manteca de cerdo, garlic, and chile jalapeño, then served warm with nixtamal totopos.
Chef Lupita
Orizaba Salsa Macha Veracruzana
Central Veracruz's jarred chile oil, sharp with fried chile de arbol, garlic, peanuts, and ajonjoli, made in batches because one spoonful turns eggs, beans, and tortillas into a meal.
Chef Lupita
Veracruz Seafood Cocktail (Vuelve a la Vida)
Veracruz's Gulf coast seafood cocktail, cold, briny, sharp with lime and chile jalapeño, served in tall glasses with tostadas when the body needs to come back to life.
Chef Lupita
Xalapa Garnachas Veracruzanas
Veracruz's Xalapa garnachas are small corn tortillas semi-fried in manteca, dragged through chile jalapeño seco salsa, then covered with shredded beef, diced potato, and sharp pickled red onion.
Chef Lupita
Mogo Mogo Veracruzano
Veracruz's Sotavento snack of ripe plantain mashed with manteca, touched with salt and sugar, shaped by hand, and fried in lard until the edges turn deep gold.
Chef Lupita
Pellizcadas Jarochas
Veracruz's jarocho pellizcadas are thick masa cakes pinched at the edge, kissed with lard, and built to hold black beans, salsa roja, and salty queso fresco.
Chef Lupita
Picadas Veracruzanas
Veracruz's masa antojito, thick from the comal, pinched by hand while hot, brushed with manteca, and finished with salsa, queso fresco, and chopped white onion.
Chef Lupita
Molotes de Plátano Macho Veracruzanos
Sotavento Veracruz's ripe plantain molotes, sweet dough folded around black beans with epazote and queso fresco, then fried until the edges turn dark, glossy, and serious.
Chef Lupita
Empanadas de Cazón de Tamiahua
Veracruz Huasteca corn masa empanadas filled with shredded cazon cooked in jitomate, chile serrano, onion, and epazote, fried until crisp at the edges and served with lime and salsa.
Chef Lupita
Huasteca Stuffed Corn Cakes (Bocoles Huastecos Rellenos)
Veracruz's Huasteca bocoles are thick corn masa cakes enriched with manteca, cooked on a dark comal, then split and filled with black beans, queso fresco, or chicharron prensado.
Chef Lupita
Gorditas Infladas Veracruzanas
Veracruz's Gulf-coast gorditas, fried in manteca until the masa inflates into a pocket, then split and filled with black beans, picadillo, jalapeno-tomato salsa, crema, and queso fresco.
Chef Lupita
Shrimp Empanadas, Veracruz Style (Empanadas de Camarón)
Veracruz's Gulf coast empanadas fold corn masa around shrimp guisado stained red with guajillo and jitomate, then fry in lard until the edges turn crisp and golden.
Chef Lupita
Papantla Bean and Squash Tamalitos (Pulacles)
Veracruz's Totonacapan tamalitos, small banana leaf packets of soft corn masa wrapped around black beans, tender squash, epazote, and toasted pepita, made for fiesta tables beside a tray of zacahuil.
Chef Lupita
Veracruz Chipilin Tamalitos
Southern Veracruz tamalitos folded in banana leaf, with fresh nixtamal masa, chipilin leaves, and manteca de cerdo. Small enough for the hand, serious enough for Candelaria.
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