The Mija Chronicles

Mexican food and culture, on both sides of the border

Making mole and touring the Etla market with Seasons of My Heart in Oaxaca

by

Chile de Agua

Chiles de agua at the Wednesday market in Etla, Oaxaca

I met Susana Trilling in New York a few years ago, at a culinary event given by Zarela Martinez. I was from Mexico (or visiting anyway), and so was she, so I boldly approached her and introduced myself. She was gracious and warm, and we ended up keeping in touch once I got back to Mexico.

A few months ago Susana invited me to visit Seasons of My Heart, the cooking school she runs in San Lorenzo Cacaotepec about 45 minutes from Oaxaca City. She gives an open cooking class on Wednesdays for $75 USD, which includes a visit to the Wednesday Market in the nearby town of Etla.

I finally took the tour a few weeks ago and I’m so glad I did. The market itself was worth the price of admission.

The Etla Market: A must-visit

We met Yolanda, one of Susana’s market guides for the past several years and a Oaxaca native, at a central meeting point. She spent the next 2 1/2 hours pointing out the ceramics and herbs, and giving us tastes of nicuatole, homemade smoky requesón, sesame-topped pan amarillo, nieves, tamales and more.

Pan dulce at one of the Etla market stands

Bags of nicuatole, a corn-and-sugar dessert

The tamales, sold from a stand near the back entrance, nearly swore me off of Mexico City streetside tamales forever. The squash flower-chepil variety (there was a squash-flower chepil variety!) tasted like the ingredients had been plucked from a garden somewhere nearby. And the coloradito amarillo. Oh god. These were the tamales to end all tamales.

The amarillo tamal

A black bean tamal wrapped in hoja santa

Returning to the Cooking School

Back at Seasons of My Heart — the school is tucked off a dirt road, nestled in the Etla hills — I volunteered for team tasked with making chichilo mole. My partner and I gathered at the outdoor wood-fired kitchen stove and toasted our chiles and tomatoes. We lit a tortilla on fire with a few spoonfuls of chile seeds and watched it burn.

It started to rain, and I finally had a chance to think about where I was and what I was actually doing — standing in front of the wood fire and a comal de barro, blackening a tortilla until it smoked, in the same way who knows how many women had done before me.

The tortilla started out like this...

... And then turned into this...

... And finally, once the flamed petered out, became this. This is what we'd crumble, soak in cold water and eventually stir into our mole.

Chichilo mole and rice at Seasons of My Heart in Oaxaca

Then, finally, it was lunch time. The food kept coming: nopales salad, pumpkin seed dip, corn soup, corn antojitos called tetelas, chichilo mole, rice. We stuffed ourselves and talked.

By the time the class ended and the van arrived to pick everyone up, the rain had started again, and thick swaths of dark clouds covered the mountains in the distance. I wanted to curl up in a chair with a blanket and a cup of tea and stay until the stars came out.

I’d highly recommend Susana’s class if you’re visiting Oaxaca. (You can reserve directly through the Seasons of My Heart website.) I’ll leave you with more photos of the Wednesday Market in Etla.

Tasajo, anyone?

It was all I could do to resist buying from these ladies.

Dishing up chocolate atole, a thick, warm drink made with chocolate and corn

Gorgeous avocado criollo

More criollo avocados (you eat the skin!)

The seed vendor, for growing your garden or farm

Yolanda poses with poleo, a Oaxacan herb used to treat an upset stomach

Agua de chilacayota, a piloncillo-squash drink

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Thanks. We’ve been to Oaxaca once before, but I was really blown away on this visit. Really looking forward to going back and exploring some more.

  3. Lovely. I have known Zarela for over 20 years and her family. She is kind, warm and generous….Her son, Aaron Sanchez is also a wonderful Chef.

    • Norma: Yes, I don’t know Zarela personally, but she threw a great party and was a wonderful host. I’ve seen Aaron’s cookbooks as well. Un saludo!

  4. This looks like so much fun! One of these days we are going to show to show up on your front porch for a week’s worth of your food/cooking tours. Actually, I promise to plan a bit more ahead than that.

    • Anytime Peggy! I’m sure Crayton would agree with me que cuando quieran, ya tienen su casa en DF. 🙂

  5. Enjoyed this read and also the photos, I’m a new fan of your blog. This was the second time I have visited this market and I have been so involved in the eating of the tamales that I have failed to photograph them appropriately. They are my personal favorites and were the deciding factor on our return to Oaxaca. I guess I’ll just have to return to Etla soon.

    • Thanks Jonathan. I’d actually eaten a tamal that morning before the tour started, otherwise I would’ve had my nose pressed into the masa like everyone else. Appreciate your comment!

  6. Hey Lesley, thanks for posting this piece on SOMH cooking school and our market tour. I love the pics, especially the “burning of the tortilla and seeds for chichilo” trio! Awesome! The picture of the tamal in the corn husk is mole amarillo, not coloradito(they are always made in banana leaves!)but you really caught the flavor of our Etla market! It was so nice having you come to Oaxaca to visit, por fin! Hope all is well in your world. Un abrazo desde San Agustin!

    • Thanks Susana! I just fixed the error. Thanks again for having me in the class, it was a blast. Un abrazo a ti!

  7. Wow, I will again have some squash blossoms begging for a recipe right in my garden by the Mindanao Sea here in Dauin, Negros Oriental, Philippines. I wish I had access to those seeds in the marketplace. It’s the rainy season here,our first crop of avocados are providing us with a growing bounty with the ever present epazote,chillies,and much more. Perhaps, 50,000 or more Mexicans settled in the north just across from Bacolod, at IloIlo City a few hundred years ago. Unfortunately after 100 years or so, the knowledge of nixtamalization, and Mexican cuisine has been all but wiped out. We have the chocolate drink(no corn & rice beverage), no re-fried beans, tortillas, and all the amazing and tasty foods that were brought here from Mexico during the Galleon trade days. We are trying to do in our small way at our Duchess de Dauin in Dauin, a renewal of sorts. Thanks to you all.

  8. Hi, I´m interesting about taking some lesons, so I thought that meabe you could teach me, I’ve heard really good references about you, I live in Oaxaca, I would be really happy if you copuld contact me 🙂

  9. I have been to Oaxaca many times. I love to visit the markets and smell the food. Every time I go, I always bring a new recipe back with me that I get from my mother-in-law. There is just no other place in the world like Oaxaca, the food, markets, clothes. Nothing else like it.

  10. Lesley! I just ran across this blog while looking up different salsa recipes online. It’s so fun to see your beautiful pictures of that adventure in the market and our cooking class. I don’t know if you remember, but I was excited about acquiring a comal. You recommended starting with a metal one, which I did, and we use it all the time! Anyway, I’m looking forward to someday coming to explore the culinary world of Mexico City, with your guidance of course. all the best to you!