One of Mexico’s smallest and least populated states, Colima still has plenty to crow about in terms of cuisine, including one of the country’s more fascinating signature dishes: pozole seco.
Of course, pozole is one of Mexico’s ancestral dishes. The origins of the pork and hominy stew date back to ancient Mesoamerica. However, since pork was a Spanish innovation, game meats like turkey, deer or rabbit are thought to have been the original protein source.
Over the years, three main pozole variations have arisen — rojo, blanco and verde — mimicking the colors of the Mexican flag. Some states or regions have evolved a preference for a particular favorite. Jalisco and Michoacán, for example are famed for their pozole rojo, while Guerrero is expert in pozole blanco and pozole verde.
Colima, by contrast, chose none of these variations as its favorite and instead invented its own.
The creation of pozole seco
Like many ingenious culinary creations, pozole seco was born in a happy accident. According to legend, a woman from Manzanillo left her broth sitting over coals she believed to be extinguished. They weren’t, which evaporated the broth until what little was left had a thick, sauce-like texture. This reduction seemed to especially concentrate the flavors of the corn kernels.
Thus, pozole seco in Colima isn’t typically served in a bowl but on a plate with tostadas. The other ingredients are mostly the same: pork and hominy with the later addition of lettuce, radish, onion, oregano, dried chilies and a squeeze of lime. Colima, it bears noting, is one of the largest lime-producing states in the nation, and the city of Tecomán was long famed as the “lime capital of Mexico” due to its out-sized production.
Ceviche and tostadas in Colima
Just as you can now find pozole seco in homes and restaurants around Colima — and indeed, other pozole varieties too — you can also find regional specialties such as sopitos, tatemado and Colima-style ceviche. The latter too benefits from Colima’s freshly grown limes, not to mention its regionally caught fish.
Colima makes the most of its only 87 miles of coastline, sourcing seafood favorites such as tuna and dorado. The latter is particularly prized for ceviche, although here, too, the state’s penchant for dryness in its food is apparent.
Not only is fish more finely minced for ceviche in Colima than in other states but after the lime juice marinade typical with the dish, the liquid is drained for a drier texture before inevitably the ceviche is served on tostadas. This method ensures the fish is perfectly cured and optimizes flavor when served with carrots — a Colima favorite — cucumber, tomatoes and onion.
Yes, tostadas are very popular in Colima. Although the state is not the nation’s largest producer its residents again have specific preferences. To this end, Colima has pioneered what are known as tostadas raspadas, featuring a thinner, “scraped” style of fried or baked corn tortilla.
Dominga Rodríguez López and Colima’s iconic sopitos
Sopes in Mexico are small fried corn cakes thicker than tortillas used as a base for toppings. The specific style of sopitos associated with Colima is indelibly associated with Dominga Rodríguez López, better known as Minga, a woman born during the Mexican Revolution in Villa de Álvarez, the state’s second most populated city.
Minga famously learned the art of sope making from her mother, Remigia, but put her own stamp on the sopitos she sold on a corner of the town square for over half a century. The local style is her legacy and is defined by toppings such as ground beef, cabbage, onion, radish and Comala cheese, with a spicy sauce featuring árbol chilis.
Traditional drinks from Colima
Colima’s traditional drinks like tuba, tejuino and tuxca score high for alliteration. Tuba, not named for the musical instrument but from a word for fermented wine made from the sap of palm trees in Tagalog, a language native to the Philippines, dates to the famous Manila–Acapulco Galleon Trade that for over two centuries was one of the world’s first global trade routes. An estimated 75,000 Filipinos settled in Colima and elsewhere in Western Mexico because of this trade.
In Mexico, tuba is often better known as vino de cocos after the coconut palms from which the sap is sourced by tree scalers known as tuberos. Although nowadays the drink is as likely as not non-fermented and without alcohol. That version, tuba fresca, is frequently served with fresh fruit and peanuts. Tejuino, by contrast, is typically fermented but has a very low alcohol level: no more than 2 percent. It is made from corn masa, piloncillo, lime, water and salt, similar to Mexican atole.
Tuxca, meanwhile, is an agave distillate. It doesn’t qualify as tequila or mezcal since it is not made within the denominations of origin parameters for those spirits. Made in the vicinity of the Nevado de Colima volcano, in both Colima and neighboring Jalisco, this spirit too showcases a Filipino influence, notably in the still: what’s called the Filipino still in Mexico often uses hollowed-out tree trunks with copper as a condenser.
Tatemado, Colima style
Colima’s tatemado also owes a debt to Filipino settlers, since it was their idea to turn tuba sap into coconut vinegar for culinary purposes, of which tatemado is a particularly delicious example. Of course, the name tatemada comes from the verb tatemar and the traditional practice in Mexico of roasting ingredients to give them a smoky, charred flavor.
However, in Colima, tatemado — short for tatemado de puerco — refers to a pork dish similar to chamorro and indeed pork shank is often used along with other cuts like ribs and loin. After marinating the pork in vinegar, salt, garlic and spices like a specific variety of local Colima laurel, an adobo-style sauce featuring guajillo chili is paired with additional spices and applied to the pork cuts before cooking them low and slow for several hours.
The finished product has a bit of broth and is memorably tender, particularly when accompanied by pickled chiles, lettuce leaves, white onions and radishes.
Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.
