Mogo Mogo Veracruzano

Veracruz, the Sotavento, the river country around Tlacotalpan, Alvarado, Cosamaloapan, and the lower Papaloapan. That is where mogo mogo lives, not in restaurant menus trying to explain Veracruz with one plate of huachinango.

This is Afro-Veracruz cooking at home: ripe macho plantains, salt, a little sugar, and manteca de cerdo. No chile. No salsa needed. Not every Mexican snack has to bite you back. The plantain brings the sweetness, the lard brings the roundness, and the hand shaping gives you the texture, soft in the center, browned at the edges.

I learned this from a woman near Tlacotalpan who made them for children in the afternoon, setting the balls on a clay plate while the oil mark from the lard still shone on the surface. She told me, 'No los hagas bonitos, hazlos parejos.' Don't make them pretty, make them even. That is the instruction. Even balls fry evenly. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

Use plátano macho very ripe, with blackened skin and flesh that smells sweet before it touches the pan. Green plantain is for tostones and other work. Here you need sweetness. Cada estado, su propia cocina.