Tatemado de Puerco Colimote

Colima, in Mexico's Occidente, sits between the Volcan de Fuego, the coconut groves, and the Pacific road to Manzanillo. Tatemado de puerco lives there, in the city of Colima, in Villa de Alvarez, in the market pots at Pancho Villa, and on family tables when there is a baptism, a birthday, or a wedding. This is a 32-state cuisine. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

The adobo is the map: chile guajillo for the red body, a little chile pico de pajaro for the bite, vinagre de tuba from coconut palm sap for the sour edge, laurel Colima if you can get it, oregano orejon, cumin, clove, ginger, and black pepper. This is sometimes called Colima's answer to mole poblano, not because it tastes like Puebla, but because it holds that same ceremonial weight. Mole is not chocolate sauce, and tatemado is not pulled pork in red salsa. Learn the difference before you touch the pot.

The women who perfected this dish understood patience better than any restaurant cook. Toast the chiles, soften them, blend the adobo smooth, strain it, and let the pork sleep in it overnight. No me vengas con atajos. The vinegar needs time to enter the shoulder and the chamorro, and the barro needs time to cook the meat until it loosens from the bone.

My mother did not cook Colima tatemado in our Roma kitchen. She was from Jalisco and she knew her borders. I learned this one by listening in Colima, from senoras who corrected the pot before they corrected the words. Enough sauce. Clay if you have it. Corn tortillas, never flour here. Frijoles refritos at the side. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.