Huevos Poblanos con Rajas y Elote

This is a Puebla breakfast. The poblano grows in the volcanic soil of the Valle de Puebla, the same soil that produces the chiles for chiles en nogada and the corn that goes into the city's tamales. When you eat huevos poblanos at a fonda in the centro histórico, you are eating the geography of the state on a plate.

Three ingredients carry this dish, and they are not negotiable. The chile poblano, roasted over open flame until the skin blackens and the smoky oils develop. Fresh elote, the white-kernel corn from the central highlands, cut from the cob the morning you cook. And Mexican crema, the slightly tangy, pourable cream that is closer to French crème fraîche than to American sour cream. Use sour cream and the eggs turn gluey. Use heavy cream and you lose the tang that cuts the richness. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado, they will all tell you the same thing.

My mother was from Jalisco, not Puebla, but she had a friend, doña Carmen, who ran a fonda on Calle Regina in the centro and made these eggs every Tuesday. I would go on my way to UNAM and she would set the plate down with a stack of tortillas hechas a mano and tell me to eat before they cooled. The crema gives you a window of maybe two minutes before the texture starts to seize. Eat them hot, eat them fast, and use the tortilla as the spoon. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.