• MARTA GONZÁLEZ-HONTORIA

    Madrid

Friday, March 19, 2021 - 02:03

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First lesson: "The agave is not a cactus."

Lesson number two: "You have to take the mezcal with little kisses. Do not take it in one gulp."

From the glass comes a deep earthy smoky aroma, but this

is not an agave valley in the state of Oaxaca

.

It is Alberto Aguilera.

For two years, a little piece of the Aztec country that Chamberí residents already know well has stood in this central Madrid street: the Casa de México, a place where many things happen every day at the same time.

In general, all very tasty.

Today is a gastronomic journey to the cradle of mezcal, the ancestral brother of tequila.

"There is a

lot of magic and a lot of tradition

behind mezcal and the families that produce it," says Wilmer Yajamín, the expert who directs the tasting.

It soon clears the first doubt.

Tequila is produced solely from blue agave, while mezcal can be made from almost any other variety of maguey.

And while one has become an entire industry, the other is born from the work of small producers and

very artisanal techniques.

To prove it, Yajamín has brought a venencia to the tasting.

"The mezcal master does not use a breathalyzer. To measure the graduation of the mezcal, he pours it with this tool and contemplates its pearlization. Depending on the size of these bubbles and the time they take to disappear, they know how to calculate the alcoholic wealth.

Wilmer Yajamín during the mezcal tasting.JAVIER BARBANCHO

Lots of Tequila and a Guinness record

s The class is dumbfounded and eager to try it, but you have to go little by little.

After all, it takes eight or ten years for the agave plant to grow.

"You throw it away if you take it all at once."

It is the advice of José Torres, of the Tequila regulatory council.

One of the 'culprits' that the Casa de México has a collection of more than a thousand bottles.

"Exactly 1,201"

.

The display served to win a Guinness record a few years ago.

They are bottles from the five regions of Mexico where tequila is produced.

Many do not look like bottles, but sculptures.

"The exhibition also shows the creativity of the Mexican artisan."

Tacos de carnitas.JB

Right in front of this visual feast of tequila is the entrance to the

Puntarena restaurant

.

Many people come and go because at the Casa, if it is not a tasting, it is an exhibition (or several), a mariachi performance or a gastronomic workshop with Mexican chefs as guests.

Many of these culinary events are now online because of the pandemic.

Luckily, the workshop is given today by

Marcela Zamudio, the cook from La Tomata

, who is already at work.

On the menu: some carnitas that have been boiling in lard for almost two hours.

In the traditional molcajete the avocados are falling.

"We are in season," says the chef.

While tomatoes and chili peppers are roasted for the tatemada sauce, they chat around the table and there is a bustling back and forth of margaritas.

"This cross talk is very Mexican."

Chef Marcela Zamudio.JB

Granddaughter and daughter of chefs in her native Mazatlán, she cooked as a hobby until she arrived in Spain in 2012 to help her husband Roberto Ruiz start Punto MX.

He liked the experience so much that he decided to open La Tomata.

The Mexican gastronomic culture has grown a lot in recent years in Spain, "he assures." When I opened the restaurant there were those who told you 'don't put cilantro on me'.

Today I see that they are experts

. "

This task of publicizing and exploring its gastronomic wealth drives the Casa de México engine.

In fact, many of the ingredients that we have seen in Marcela's workshop are on display until April 21 at

La mesa novohispana

.

We have already traveled to the agave fields, known the carnitas tacos ritual and it is time to get lost in the food markets that draw

the fusion and culinary diversity

of the country.

This is what this exhibition intends with

2,400 pieces including utensils and ingredients

of a viceregal kitchen that we could well see in the estates of Querétaro, Puebla or Hidalgo.

Exhibition La mesa novohispana.

"The moment of the viceroyalty is that of ethnic and culinary miscegenation, especially as a result of the routes of the Manila Galleon", explains Raquel Calaso, cultural mediator.

He says that few dishes represent this mixture as well as the mole that we see in this immersive sample.

"It has pre-Hispanic, Asian, Arab, Spanish ingredients ...

In mole you have everything. It is the milestone of miscegenation."

What will have happened in the meantime at the mezcal tasting?

The master class continues (and is held once a month).

It seems that the expected moment has come.

Participants are putting a few drops on the back of their hands, "as if it were a perfume," following the instructions of Fernando Sosa, a mezcal producer from Oaxaca.

"They will smell and feel

the earth, the fire and the plant

."

Immediately, the distillate is breathed in, tasted and, finally, swallowed ... The exclamations arrive: "Brutal", says one of the students.

"Smells like Friday night," another resolves.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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