Chef Lupita
Panuchos Yucatecos
Yucatan's signature antojito: a puffed corn tortilla split and stuffed with frijol colado, fried in lard, and crowned with cochinita pibil, cebolla morada en escabeche, and avocado.
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Chef Lupita
Salbutes Yucatecos
The Peninsula's puffy fried tortillas, masa with a touch of flour dropped into hot lard until they balloon, crowned with shredded turkey, avocado, and the fuchsia pickled onions that sit on every Yucatecan table.
Chef Lupita
Chiltomate Yucateco
Yucatan's daily tomato salsa. Tomatoes and habanero charred on the comal, ground rough in the molcajete, fried in manteca. The sauce that crowns codzitos, panuchos, and a fried egg on a quiet morning.
Chef Lupita
Sikil P'aak
Yucatan's Mayan pumpkin seed dip, built from toasted pepitas, comal-charred tomato, habanero, and sour orange. Older than the conquest, scooped with a hand-pressed tortilla.
Chef Lupita
Frijol Colado Yucateco
Yucatan's silky strained black bean spread, simmered with epazote, blended smooth, passed through a sieve, and fried in lard with a charred habanero. The base of panuchos and the quiet anchor of the Peninsula's table.
Chef Lupita
Xnipec (Dog's Nose Habanero Salsa)
Yucatan's hand-chopped habanero salsa, sour orange and red onion and cilantro, named for the sweat it pulls from your nose. The condiment that lives on every Peninsula table, never blended, never optional.
Chef Lupita
Empanadas de Cazón
Campeche's dogfish empanadas, shredded cazón stewed with charred tomato and epazote, folded into hand-pressed corn masa and fried crisp, served with chile xcatic curtido and naranja agria.
Chef Lupita
Chayitas (Tortitas Yucatecas de Chaya)
Yucatan's small fried masa cakes shot through with chopped chaya leaf, pan-fried in lard until the edges crisp, eaten with charred chiltomate and a spoonful of habanero xnipec on top.
Chef Lupita
Joroches Fritos Yucatecos
The Yucatan Peninsula's masa balls flecked with chaya and fried crisp in manteca, pulled apart by hand and dipped in chiltomate or sikil p'aak. Peninsular Easter-week comfort, made by the cooks of Merida and the small towns of the Mayab.
Chef Lupita
Empanadas de Chaya Yucatecas
Yucatan's chaya empanadas, with masa kneaded green from blanched chaya leaves, stuffed with refried black beans, fried until the jade shell crackles open over salsa xnipec and pink pickled onion.
Chef Lupita
Castacan Yucateco
Yucatan's pork belly chicharron, slow-rendered in lard until the meat surrenders and the skin cracks under the knife, folded into warm tortillas with xnipec and bright pink pickled onion.
Chef Lupita
Camarones al Coco Campechanos
Campeche's Gulf-port coconut shrimp, dipped in egg, rolled in grated dry coconut, fried to gold and served alongside a warm green-apple and naranja agria compote perfumed with habanero and canela.
Chef Lupita
Polcanes con Toksel
Yucatan's masa pockets shaped like a snake's head, stuffed with toksel of ibes beans, toasted pepita, and cebollin. Fried in lard and eaten with x'nipec and chile habanero, the way the senoras in Merida have always done it.
Chef Lupita
Kibis Yucatecos
Yucatan's Lebanese kibbeh, fried crisp at the cantinas of Merida and served with pickled cabbage, sliced habanero, and naranja agria. A century of immigration, one bite at a time.
Chef Lupita
Chiles X'catic Rellenos de Cazón
Campeche's yellow x'catic chile stuffed with cazón cooked in charred tomato, epazote, and the perfume of a whole habanero, dipped in capeado batter, fried gold, and served on a pool of chiltomate.
Chef Lupita
Vaporcitos Yucatecos
Yucatan's small banana-leaf tamales, masa stained orange with achiote, filled with pork in recado rojo and steamed in folded plantain leaf. Sold from baskets at the Merida panaderia at breakfast.
Chef Lupita
Codzitos con Chiltomate
Yucatan's rolled and fried corn tortillas, empty inside, flooded with smoky chiltomate of charred tomato and habanero and dusted with queso sopero. The first botana that arrives with every cold beer in Merida.
Chef Lupita
Brazo de Reina (Dzotobichay)
Yucatan's chaya tamal, masa kneaded green with the leaves of the Peninsula, stuffed with hard-boiled egg and ground pepita, wrapped in banana leaf and sliced into rounds for the Cuaresma table.
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