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Mexicali's cocina chicalense wonton soup, pork-filled wontons in a clear chicken broth with bok choy and green onion, finished at the table with chile oil de arbol and a hard squeeze of lime.
This is a Mexicali dish. Baja California, the border with Calexico, the Valle de Mexicali where the desert heat sits at 115 degrees in August and the cooks still ladle hot broth at lunchtime because that is how the Chinese-Mexican kitchens of La Chinesca have done it for over a hundred years.
Do not call this fusion. Cocina chicalense is its own tradition. Cantonese laborers came to Mexicali at the turn of the twentieth century to dig the irrigation canals of the Colorado River delta, and they stayed. They opened restaurants. They raised families. They cooked Cantonese food with what the Valle gave them and they put lime on the table because lime is what Mexicans put on the table. By the 1920s, La Chinesca, the underground neighborhood beneath downtown Mexicali, was the largest Chinatown in Mexico. The wonton soup at Cafe Nueva Asia and at La Misión and at the dozens of cafes chinos along Avenida Reforma is not a Cantonese soup that arrived in Mexico. It is a Mexicali soup that happens to be Cantonese in its bones.
The broth is the discipline. Clear, slow-simmered, skimmed, ginger-forward, never boiled hard. The wontons are pork shoulder, ground with the fat in, seasoned with green onion, ginger, garlic, soy, Maggi, and a hint of sesame oil. The Maggi is not a substitute for anything. Maggi is a Mexicali ingredient by now. Every cafe chino in the city has a bottle on the table next to the soy sauce and the chile oil.
The finish is what makes it Mexicalense: chile oil built from chile de arbol and chile japones toasted on a comal, sesame seeds, sometimes a pinch of chiltepin from Sonora across the gulf, and lime wedges so each diner can dress the bowl. My notebook from Mexicali is full of margin notes from the cooks at three different cafes chinos who all told me the same thing: the broth is Cantonese, the wonton is Cantonese, but the lime and the chile oil are ours. Cada estado, su propia cocina. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Mexicali's Chinese community arrived in waves between 1903 and the 1920s, drawn by the Colorado River Land Company's recruitment of Cantonese labor to clear and farm the Valle de Mexicali, and by the 1920s the city's Chinese population briefly outnumbered its Mexican one. La Chinesca, the network of underground tunnels and businesses beneath downtown Mexicali, became the largest Chinatown in Mexico and the cradle of cocina chicalense, a distinct Cantonese-Mexican cuisine that includes sopa wonton, chop suey estilo Mexicali, and arroz frito with chile japones. The 1937 federal expulsion campaigns drove many Chinese-Mexican families from Sonora and other northern states into Mexicali specifically because the Baja California government refused to enforce the orders, consolidating the community and its kitchen tradition in the city where it remains today.
Quantity
1 (about 4 pounds)
cut into pieces, or 3 pounds chicken backs and wings
Quantity
1 medium
halved
Quantity
1
halved crosswise
Quantity
1 (2-inch) piece
smashed
Quantity
2
white parts reserved for finishing
Quantity
1 tablespoon, plus more to taste
Quantity
12 cups
Quantity
1 pound
not lean
Quantity
3
white and light green parts only, finely minced
Quantity
1 (1-inch) piece
finely grated
Quantity
2
finely grated
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
Quantity
1
lightly beaten, divided
Quantity
40 to 45
Quantity
1 small head
leaves separated, larger leaves halved lengthwise
Quantity
4
sliced thin on the bias
Quantity
1/4 cup
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
8
stemmed
Quantity
4
stemmed
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 cup
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
1
smashed
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole chickencut into pieces, or 3 pounds chicken backs and wings | 1 (about 4 pounds) |
| white onionhalved | 1 medium |
| head of garlichalved crosswise | 1 |
| fresh gingersmashed | 1 (2-inch) piece |
| green onions (root ends, for broth)white parts reserved for finishing | 2 |
| kosher salt | 1 tablespoon, plus more to taste |
| cold water | 12 cups |
| ground pork shouldernot lean | 1 pound |
| green onions (for filling)white and light green parts only, finely minced | 3 |
| fresh ginger (for filling)finely grated | 1 (1-inch) piece |
| garlic cloves (for filling)finely grated | 2 |
| soy sauce | 1 tablespoon |
| Maggi sauce | 1 teaspoon |
| toasted sesame oil | 1 teaspoon |
| kosher salt (for filling) | 1/2 teaspoon |
| white pepper | 1/4 teaspoon |
| large egglightly beaten, divided | 1 |
| square wonton wrappers | 40 to 45 |
| bok choyleaves separated, larger leaves halved lengthwise | 1 small head |
| green onions (for finishing)sliced thin on the bias | 4 |
| chile oil de Mexicali | 1/4 cup |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| soy sauce (for the table) (optional) | for serving |
| Maggi sauce (for the table) (optional) | for serving |
| dried chile de arbolstemmed | 8 |
| dried chile japonesstemmed | 4 |
| chiltepin (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
| neutral oil | 1/2 cup |
| toasted sesame seeds | 1 tablespoon |
| garlic clove (for chile oil)smashed | 1 |
| kosher salt (for chile oil) | 1/2 teaspoon |
Place the chicken in a large stockpot. Cover with the cold water. Add the halved onion, halved garlic, smashed ginger, the root ends of the two green onions, and the salt. Bring slowly to a low simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first fifteen minutes. This is a clear broth, not a heavy one. The Cantonese cooks of La Chinesca taught Mexicali this technique a hundred years ago and the discipline is the same: cold water, slow heat, skim, never boil hard.
Reduce heat until the surface barely trembles. You should see one or two bubbles rise every few seconds, no more. Cook uncovered for one hour and fifteen minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot. Discard the solids or pull the chicken meat for tacos tomorrow. Taste the broth. It should taste of chicken and ginger, with the salt sitting just behind the flavor. Adjust if it tastes shy.
While the broth simmers, prepare the chile oil. Toast the chile de arbol and chile japones on a dry comal over medium heat for thirty seconds per side, until they puff and turn fragrant. Watch them. They are thin and they burn fast. Crumble the toasted chiles roughly with your hands and place them in a small heatproof jar with the chiltepin, sesame seeds, smashed garlic, and salt. Heat the oil in a small saucepan to about 300F, until it shimmers but does not smoke. Pour the hot oil over the chile mixture. It will sizzle violently. Let it cool. This is the chile oil that defines a Mexicali wonton bowl. Set it aside.
In a bowl, combine the ground pork, minced green onions, grated ginger, grated garlic, soy sauce, Maggi sauce, sesame oil, salt, white pepper, and half of the beaten egg. Reserve the other half for sealing. Stir vigorously in one direction with a wooden spoon for about two minutes, until the mixture turns slightly tacky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This is how the wonton holds together when it cooks. A loose filling falls apart in the broth.
Set up your station: a stack of wonton wrappers under a damp cloth so they do not dry out, the bowl of filling, the reserved beaten egg, and a sheet pan dusted with cornstarch. Place a wrapper in your palm with one corner pointing toward you. Spoon a teaspoon of filling into the center. Brush two adjacent edges with beaten egg. Fold the wrapper into a triangle and press the edges to seal, pushing out any air. Bring the two long corners of the triangle together below the filling, dab with egg, and pinch to seal into the classic wonton shape. Lay each finished wonton on the cornstarched pan. Repeat until the filling is gone. You should have around forty wontons.
Bring the strained broth back to a low simmer. Drop in the bok choy leaves and cook for two minutes, until the green parts wilt and the white stems turn translucent at the edges. Lift them out with a spider or slotted spoon and divide among six warm bowls. Keep the broth simmering.
Drop the wontons into the simmering broth in batches of fifteen or twenty. Do not crowd the pot. Stir gently once so they do not stick to the bottom. They cook fast. When they float to the surface and the wrappers turn translucent at the edges, about three to four minutes, they are ready. Lift them out with a spider and place them in the bowls on top of the bok choy.
Ladle the hot broth over the wontons until each bowl is generously filled. Scatter the sliced green onions across the top. Set the chile oil de Mexicali, the lime wedges, the soy sauce, and the Maggi at the table. Each diner builds their own bowl: a spoonful of chile oil for heat, a squeeze of lime for brightness, a few drops of soy or Maggi if they want more depth. The lime is the Mexicali signature. No Cantonese cook in Guangdong would put lime on wonton soup. In Mexicali they have for a hundred years. Asi se hace y punto.
1 serving (about 440g)
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