State by Plate: Three cheers for Puebla!

The legends of Mexican food run deep in the highlands, and in Puebla especially. I don’t think it’s that important whether Dominican nun Andrea de la Asunción prepared the first mole poblano circa 1681 at the Convento Santa Rosa, or that it was served to viceroy Tomás Antonio de la Cerda y Aragón. Nor do I think it matters whether she invented it after acquiring her complicated recipe via divine inspiration. Likely, she didn’t invent it at all. Nor did Fray Pascual, who legend has it stumbled at just the right time while preparing a dish for viceroy and bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, and thus accidentally spilled chile peppers and chocolate into a pot filled with turkey.

What’s important is that there are so many of these legends because they highlight just how central mole poblano is to Mexican cuisine and cultural history. It’s a crown jewel of a dish; one that has stood the test of time and deserves mention among the great achievements in worldwide gastronomy.

Puebla, the ancestral home of mole poblano, is not short on iconic dishes either. Like Oaxaca, it’s one of Mexico’s gastronomic capitals and boasts a lengthy list of mouthwatering achievements. However, in the interests of space, let’s focus on just three.

The birth of mole poblano, Mexico’s culinary masterpiece

Mole as a dish originated during Mexico’s pre-Hispanic past. It was a complex sauce even then, 500-plus years ago, prepared as it was ceremonially by the Mexica with ingredients such as chile peppers and pumpkin seeds. Those ingredients are still used in today’s moles. Chocolate was a later addition, as were ingredients brought by the Spanish colonizers, such as cinnamon, cloves and anise. Thus, rather than being invented in a burst of creativity, most modern culinary historians think that mole experienced a long and gradual evolution.

However, since the first mole poblano recipes weren’t written down until the 19th century, the steps of its particular evolution can only be guessed at. Over time, its ingredient list has shortened, decreasing from over 100 to around 20. These typically include multiple varieties of chile (ancho, chipotle, mulato and pasilla, notably), nuts and seeds (peanuts and almonds for the former, sesame and pumpkin seeds for the latter), plus fruits and culinary staples such as tomatoes, tomatillos, onions and garlic. Turkey or chicken is typically the protein of choice.

Individual ingredients are prepared multiple ways, from grinding and toasting to frying and straining. Given this complexity, mole poblano historically was known for being incredibly labor-intensive and taking days to prepare. As a result, it was often saved for special occasions. That tradition continues today, even as modern mole pastes and powders have generally made cooking the iconic sauce considerably easier and less time-consuming.

Mole poblano remains the most famous of Mexico’s more than 300 regional mole sauces. It’s a living testament to hundreds of years of culinary inventiveness in Puebla and fascinating even without its imaginative origin stories.

The patriotic origins of chiles en nogada

Nearly as delicious and more aesthetically pleasing — thanks to ingredients that mimic the Mexican flag’s colors — chiles en nogada dates back to the period of Mexican independence. As the story goes, and just as with mole poblano, there are several to choose from — the dish was created to honor Agustín de Iturbide, the ill-fated future emperor of Mexico (he would eventually face a firing squad), after he had signed the Treaty of Córdoba formalizing the end of the war with Spain and establishing Mexican independence in 1821.

Iturbide visited Puebla four days after signing the momentous treaty and was feted on his saint’s day — August 28th in the Catholic calendar celebrates Saint Augustine of Hippo —with a dish incorporating seasonal ingredients: chile poblano stuffed with pork, fruits and pine nuts and slathered in nogada — or walnut — sauce made from the selfsame nuts along with almonds, milk, cheese and sugar added. Topping the dish is a colorful mix of pomegranate seeds with a parsley garnish to ensure the proper red, white and green color scheme.

According to local lore, the feast for Iturbide was organized by the Bishop of Puebla, with the featured dish created by Augustinian nuns from the Convento de Santa Mónica. However, as the mole poblano legends indicate, nuns were in abundant supply in Puebla. Hence, an alternative theory exists crediting the dish to the Clarisas — Franciscan Poor Clares nuns — who had invented it well before Iturbide’s visit.

If this version is correct, the dish was created in the 18th century, with the recipe revived by a local society of ladies for the august (literally) occasion in 1821.

Interestingly, the dish is believed to have originally been conceived as a dessert. Today, of course, it’s an entrée.

The proto-pastor: tacos árabes 

Speaking of all these nuns, I have a confession to make. Despite loving mole poblano and chiles en nogada, I don’t eat those dishes with anywhere near the frequency of tacos árabes. Here’s another: If I had to list my favorite tacos, tacos árabes would be above tacos al pastor.

That’s perhaps not so controversial, given that tacos árabes were the progenitor of tacos al pastor: Meat cooked on vertical spits, shawarma style, was a cooking method brought to Mexico by Middle Eastern immigrants who settled in Puebla in the 1930s.

Two establishments, La Oriental and Tacos Bagdad, are credited with pioneering tacos árabes beginning as early as 1933. However, changes began to be made almost immediately. Due to being more readily available, the traditional lamb was replaced with pork loin on trompos, as the vertical spits are known in Mexico, and the pita bread that originally accompanied the tacos was soon improved with the flour tortilla.

Salsa, too, was soon added as the tacos were transformed from a Middle Eastern specialty to a Mexican one. That process would continue in Mexico City, where tacos árabes ultimately gave birth to tacos al pastor in the 1950s, thanks to achiote marinades and smaller corn tortillas. But the original tacos, born in Puebla, are still going strong and are delicious in their own right.

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.