Chilies Rellenos

Mexico
3/8/2010

For the third time in my life, I was covered from head to toe in mud. The first was in Hawaii, during my first semester, and then again while we were in Cartegena, Colombia, at the mud volcano. This time we were in a traditional native American (Aztec/Mayan/Zapotec) sweat lodge with many of our Oaxaqueño friends.
We met up with our friend Kaitlyn at the Italian Coffee Company in the Zocaló, and quickly our other friend, Paco met up with us and took us down the street to his friends house. From the street we saw him yell down at us from a few floors up, "¡Ahorita!" (in a second!). When he came down to meet us, I was surprised, he looked like me! Well, at least for long hair and a beard. Introducing himself as "Spartaco". We learned that he was from Italy. His roommate, Alibaba, who was an American fro Iran, also came with us. We waited at the corner for Spartaco's friend, Vasco, who is also from italy. While we were waiting four others showed up, three Argentineans: Carolina, Mayra and a friend, and also Carolina from greece. Vasco showed up in a big pickup truck, the kind with double tires on the back wheels. The licence plate read, "Texas, the lone star state". How an Italian who didn't speak English is driving a truck in Mexico with Texan licence plates, I will never know. We all piled in to the back and took off. We are headed for a little country town called Xoxo (pronounced gHo-gHo) to meet some friends on a small ranch for the afternoon. The ride was slightly dangerous because we had 7 people in the bed and there was no tailgate. I felt slightly safe until we hit a big bump at speed, but thankful for momentum, I did not fly off the back, however I did hold onto the sides a little bit harder for the rest of the ride. Arriving at the ranch, we pulled in and jumped off the back of the truck. We walked to the back part of the ranch, and I got a whiff of a familiar smell, "GOATS!" there were two pens with about 10 goats. I was very excited. In the middle of this small backyard, was a big traditional sweat lodge, a Temescal. Temescal is the Nahuatl (Aztec language) word for teme, to bathe, and calli, house, and together the are the traditional sweat lodge. People were busy all around, chopping up logs, building up the fire, sealing the top of the temescal and putting the lava rocks into the fire.After about 1 1/2 hours, the stones were hot and we were ready to enter the sweat lodge, First we asked permission from the earth gods and then we crawled through the very small opening one by one. We fit 15 people into the lodge and it was quite full. Once everyone was in, Paco brought the red-hot lava rocks in from the fire and put them in the pit in the middle of our circle. As each rock was added the temperature in the room rose. It was very dark in the lodge, the roof was only 3 feet high. When the rocks were brought in, the glowed a deep red since it was so dark. Once 10 rocks were added Paco came back in and closed the small door. Many songs were played with drums, shakers, and a small clay ocarina. During the songs the main leader splashed abalone shell after abalone shell full of water onto the red-hot rocks. The water vapor was significant, and billowed up to the low roof, and spread around. The temperature spiked. After a few more songs, we introduced ourselves, and said a few words. Once the second set of hot rocks were added, and more water vapor made, I was absolutely covered in sweat and hot steam. So much so that water was dripping off my nose at a constant interval. My legs and hands were caked with mud and sweat. However, it was after a half hour later during the third addition of hot rocks and vapor, when I was overwhelmed by heat and sweat, and I laid down and got covered in mud. After a few more songs, it was time for the fourth and final addition of stones and vapor and by this point the leader was throwing cool water on everyone to keep them from overheating. Everyone was laying down, since the dirt floor was slightly cooler then the hot air above and offered a little comfort. It must have been over 120 degrees in there. When the last set of water was poured over the stones, and the last song was over, people started to crawl out of the lodge, and I was covered in mud. Upon exiting, I had a immediate shiver, even though it was 75 out, the temperature change was so great, it felt cold. Everyone lined up next to the huge pottery bowls full of water to wash themselves off. I had a 5 minutes of feeling really sick, but once it passed, and I washed off, I felt much better. We spent 2 1/2 hours in the temescal. After about an hour of cooling off and washing up, we all piled in to the back of the pickup truck for the ride home. After all the goodbyes, a small group of us went out to get tlayudas at the street corner. Tlayudas are a giant tortilla with refried beans, tomatoes, guacamole, onions, a large thin slice of steak, and tons of cheese. We sat on the curb of the street, eating while talking about Italy, Greek food and the temescal.

Walking down the side street, as we have for the last 7 weeks when going to Casa Hogar, we saw Chino and a friend right outside the door to Casa Hogar de Hijos de la Luna. They were both holding guitars, and as we got close, Chino handed me his, and bullied me into playing "Para Siempre" by Vincente Fernandez, a song I learned before heading down to Mexico. I am no expert at the song, and since I forgot most of the words, I handed the guitar back to Chino and talked him in to playing it. He has been playing guitar for 5 years and has quite a skill at playing Mexican music. He did not know how to play the song, but after a quick demonstration, we was playing it very well. Chino showed me the proper technique for strumming the strings to mariachi music, a vital part to making the music sound right. After this both chino and his friend played many songs for us, I was grinning from ear to ear because of how well they played and how good Chino's voice was. They played "Sabor a mí", "Mariachi loco" and a bunch more great traditional Mexican songs. Chino is a big fan of Mexican "Bolero" and older style of Mexican music, and is trying to combine it with modern lyrics and rhythms to make his own "Bolero". I swore that when I returned, I would bring my guitar and start to fulfill one of my life goals of becoming a mariachi. When we entered the kitchen, it was a frenzy of chilies, cheese, eggs and picadillo ( a type of shredded chicken w/ tomatoes, onions, basil, and more). Alejandra, America and Lupita were making us Chilies Rellenos for our last day working at Casa Hogar. Chilies Rellenos is a very important and traditional dish in Mexico. Translated, it means "Stuffed Chilies" and it is absolutely delicious. On wednesday, they asked us what kind of chilies we wanted for the meal. We picked 3 different types, Chile Passila, Chile de Agua, and Chile Poblano. Chile de Agua and Chile Passila are specialty chilies, only grown in the state of Oaxaca. The Chile de Agua, the spiciest of the three, is a long green chile with great flavor, and you buy it fresh. The Chile Passila is a dried red chile, the second spiciest of the three, and I have only seen it dried. The third chile is the Chile Poblano, which has great flavor but is not spicy at all, and is similar (in look but not taste) to our bell pepper. Chile Poblano is often bought fresh, and when it is dried, it is called Chile Ancho (the main ingredient in most chile powders in the US). Once you have all the all the chilies together and are ready to cook, you first need to "Asado" or roast the chilies. You do this by placing the chilies straight on the burner flame, and turning them slowly until the whole outside has been burned and then place them in a plastic bag to peel all the skin, so all you have is the soft flesh of the chile. After peeling, you need to remove the seeds and veins. Slice the side of the chile carefully and cut out the veins, and remove the seed carefully, leaving the stem intact. You should use caution while doing these steps with spicy chilies because you can damage your skin, even on a poblano because of the capsaicin levels in these parts of the chile. In the kitchen, Laina was put in charge of stuffing the chiles and I was in charge of whipping the egg whites in to meringue with a large fork. After the chiles were stuffed with cheese or picadillo, they were then battered in the meringue (which Alejandra finished, her technuque was much better) and then dropped into very hot oil and fried on either side until they were a beautiful golden-brown. Once all the chilies were fried, and after spending time playing ball with the kids and cradleing the baby, we all sat down outside around the table and had a delicious meal. Doña Coco, Andres, José Maria, Maestra, America, Kaitlyn, Laina, Chino, myself and even Joff showed up to see us off. 4 chilies later with delicious refried beans, we headed in to wash up all the dishes. Chino took out his guitar with Andres, sat underneath the pomegranate tree in the beginning of a beautiful Oaxacan sunset and sung different Bolero songs while some kids played on the playground. Giving our goodbyes all around, big hugs and kisses, as well as promises to return, we left on the side street we walked in on, with a warm crisp breeze at our backs. We sure will miss them.