Charales Fritos de Pátzcuaro

Michoacán, the lake region of Pátzcuaro, is where these charales live. The lake sits between Pátzcuaro, Janitzio, Tzintzuntzan, Erongarícuaro, and the Purépecha villages that learned long ago how to eat what the water gave them. The fishermen bring in the little silver fish. The women at the market know how to rinse, dry, and fry them so every head, tail, and bone turns crisp enough to eat.

Do not confuse this with a seafood fry from the coast. This is inland Michoacán: lake fish, chile de árbol, sal de grano, lime, warm corn tortillas, and a molcajete salsa that bites clean. The charal is the ingredient. If it isn't from Pátzcuaro, ask what lake it came from. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.

I first ate them from a green-glazed barro plate near the muelle in Pátzcuaro, the kind of plate a Tzintzuntzan potter would recognize. The señora who served them did not drown them in sauce. She told me, 'se fríen secos,' fry them dry. That is the technique. Wet fish gives you leathery fish. Dry fish in hot manteca gives you a botana that cracks under your teeth. Así se hace y punto.