tejate

[scullion]

this was bought to my notice a couple of weeks ago during a conversation about chilli flavoured drinking chocolate.
it's a drink from mexico made from chocolate, maize and a flower (known as a cocoa flower but from a totally different tree, really) amongst, maybe, other things.
i have done a quick internet search and it seems totally unavailable over here.
has anyone tried it (i am assuming kk may have done so) or know if it's available anywhere? i'd like to try it!

that's two mexican things i'd like to try now (huitlacoche - corn smut - being the other).

[StokeySue]

I know Cool Chile company sell the corn smuts, but as they don't sell tejate, I can't think where else you'd get it

https://www.coolchile.co.uk/shop-mexican-food/huitlacoche-endotzi

[Badger's mate]

I believe Wahaca have produced dishes based on huitlacoche. Rather like the puds made with insect flour, they ain't doing them currently

[Herbidacious]

I have had huitlacoche at Wahaca in a quesadilla and also bought a jar (not tin) of it when we were doing the Food book (at work) as I wrote a page on it. It wasn't particularly exciting, but worth a try if photos of it growing don't put you off

https://www.foodrepublic.com/2016/05/04 ... u-cook-it/

(I've seen worse.)

[scullion]

it doesn't put me off, i'm happy with ripe stilton and truffles, they're just fungus, too - and then there's monbazillac wine!
- a bug or a toe in spirit would put me off far more - and we looked at, rather than sucked, the 'booze' lollypops containing ants, scorpions and maggots we were given one christmas.

[wargarden]

i grow corn; one of ears had huitlacoche - corn smut on it a few years ago
Looking at it;you would wonder how hungry the first person to try it
was when they ate it. It looks quite vile.

[wargarden]

i grow corn; one of ears had huitlacoche - corn smut on it a few years ago
Looking at it;you would wonder how hungry the first person to try it
was when they ate it. It looks quite vile.

[earthmaiden]

It is interesting to consider that with quite a few foods!

[Herbidacious]

I did come across some really gross pictures of it when I researched it. The stuff in a jar was palatable in both looks and taste. There are quite a few names/euphemisms for it!

[Rainbow]

It is interesting to consider that with quite a few foods!

I wonder what made someone realise that rhubarb cooked with lots of sugar would be a good idea!! Or how to make raw olives edible - and delicious

[scullion]

or how to stop cassava being poisonous.

[Seatallan]

Oddly enough, we were having that conversation just yesterday. The other one that fascinates me is how we discovered bread (as in proper yeast bread). So many steps involved- it's hard to picture how it could have happened by accident.

[karadekoolaid]

I haven´t tried tejate - my favourite drink in Mexico was Mezcal. - usually served with slices of orange dipped in "sal de gusano (Agave Worm Salt). apparently it is very popular in Oaxaca ( pronounced " Wahaca" ) where the Mayan cuisine is very pronounced.
There are some very popular, but rather bland ingredients in Mexico; cactus paddles, for example, or amaranth seeds, or sacred leaves.
as for huitlacoche - not particularly exciting, but ok.
We went to a restaurant in Coyoacán a few weeks ago, and the first thing to appear on the table was a plateful of chapulines (fried grasshoppers), with a hot salsa and some limes. everyone tried them; but to be honest, once you´ve got over the trauma of eating an insect, they didn´t really taste of anything. They were just crispy snacks, like potato crisps. I did draw the line at eating deep-fried scorpions, however.
And yet there are so many exciting dishes: the salsas, the creative use of chiles, the many different moles, the use of chile/lemon/salt with fresh fruit.

As for cassava, Scullion - there are two distinct varieties: the edible version ( which is gleaming white when cut open) and the venomous variety - slightly pinkish/orangy inside. The latter is really nasty, which is why, when you buy cassava (yuca) here, the seller will always split a root open for you, so you can be sure.