A Mexican Living In The San Francisco Bay Area
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for 12 years I realized that many of my friends loved Mexican food, but they thought it was an unhealthy treat they could enjoy only once in a while because it made them feel bloated and it contributed to unwanted weight gain. In their experience, Mexican food was heavy on meat, cheese, rice, beans, spicy salsas, tortillas and nothing more. I had to prove them wrong!
During the COVID-19 pandemic I embarked on a journey of researching the health properties of herbs, seeds, nuts, animal proteins, fruits and vegetables. On my way I bumped into the origins and history of ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques widely used today in the cuisines of Mexico throughout 5000 years of world history: traders, gourmand rulers, whimsy cooks, enslaved peoples, religious dietary guidelines and restrictions, nuns, monks and botanists, creatives, people who make do with whatever foods they can find, smugglers, adventurers, etc.
I understood fascinating health principles in most of the cooking philosophies I encountered: the importance of bitter herbs in Chinese cooking, the healing and strengthening properties of bone broth for the nomadic Mongols, the wide use of protein-rich and drought-resistent millet in arid North African and so much more.
Once the pandemic isolation restriction orders were removed, my kitchen and dining table once again became places of connection, love and joy.