The conversations overlap around the table. The clinking of glasses, the sound of spoons scraping the dishes, and the crust of bread breaking under the eager hands of diners trying to pull apart a piece can also be heard. If we were observed from a bird's eye view, it would be evident how much we are enjoying the feast: there’s a soup of beans and corn, a tomato carpaccio with ricotta and sesame, roasted sweet potatoes and carrots, and the fish drenched in a menieur sauce with capers that Aquiles Chávez has just served us. We are not in a Netflix scene, but our food looks cinematic. Hidalgo, “The beautiful and airy,” is not only famous for its wind but also for the lush greenery of its prairies, its six magical towns, and the basalt prisms. The gastronomy here, featuring barbacoa, pulque, and pastes, triggers a road pilgrimage that includes several hours of coming and going to Mexico City, much like a story by Cortázar. But there is more. Simply for a restaurant like Sotero, where we are located, to make daily use of local ingredients, the supply of inputs must be excellent. And it is. After a year, I returned to these coordinates because Chef Aquiles inaugurated “Experiences in Hidalgo,” a gastrotourism program aimed at showcasing the culinary greatness of the state, as well as its best inputs and products. Over the weekend, I have been able to taste a good portion of them during a breakfast in Huasca de Ocampo with products from Nuevos Horizontes, a lunch featuring barbacoa made in the Anfora factory's oven, and at the feast I am currently enjoying, which began a couple of hours ago as a cooking class taught by the renowned chef. The experiences are tailored to the taste of each traveler and their individual palates. What’s delicious? First, the greens, although in reality, in Flavio Fernández's Nuevos Horizontes garden, there exists a rainbow of colors: almost one hundred thirty species of tomatoes, various types of lettuce, bright beets, giant celery, perfect carrots, squashes, and onions. Just an hour from Pachuca, in his mixed cropping land and clean fertilizers, the vegetables grow in every season. Flavio says he doesn’t have “organic” certification, but he doesn’t need it. He doesn’t use chemical pesticides and dedicates the fruits of his daily labor to maintaining the soil with the necessary nutrients alongside the rain season – the holy time for all agricultural cycles. The result is unexpectedly flavorful vegetables. The good news is that you can try them at Mercado el Cien in Roma. There are also dairy products. Nucana is a brand that doesn’t sell mirrors or medals; it sells good cheese made from good cows. Their recipes are healthy, carefully crafted, made with precision. There are countless varieties: fresh feta cheese, cacciotta, goat Santa Maura, mozzarella, and burrata. The aged varieties include gouda and asiago. We can’t forget the bread. The one we tasted from the hands of Aquiles Chávez is sourdough and homemade. Now, because it’s night, but this morning we also had conchas, which the chef calls Concepciones, croissants, and rolls with guava jam baked daily at the Sotero bakery. The butter is also made here and is crafted with pulque. According to the chef, pigs, sheep, and goats are raised in the fields to prepare the best
barbacoa de hoyo in Mexico and its inseparable trio: the consommé and the pancita. As Aquiles’ father tells me, the barbacoa from this part of the country is famous for its almost kosher system in the slaughter of animals and for the temperature that the ovens reach, which are covered with volcanic stone endemic to the state. And since there’s no barbacoa without pulque, I tasted that of producer Mario Islas Palacios (a.k.a. Mario Maguey), which is exceptional. This experienced and wise man produces aguamiel and pulque in the municipality of Epazoyucan following the traditional method, taking care of the plant from planting. He and his family maintain an agroecological awareness that makes the experience of drinking the elixir of the gods more emotional: for every maguey that is harvested and fully consumed – piña, quiote, leaves used to wrap the barbacoa, aguamiel, and even thorns – ten more are planted. There are more Hidalgo drinks than just pulque and aguamiel. There are also requintada, tachuela, acachul, and achocote. Although it is not traditional but rather a product of the heritage of English migrants in the region during the mining boom, the novelty is the local gin, Jäpi Gin. The gin is made with indigenous corns harvested in the Mezquital Valley and has a slightly herbaceous flavor, ideal for gin and tonics, rather than martinis. My journey also included a visit to the Anfora factory, another local pride that celebrated its centenary during the pandemic. The additional commercial is that our associate editor, Fernanda Balmaceda, helped in the editing of the book, which is excellent. Hidalgo has too much to see and much to enjoy. I confirm this during this dinner I am enjoying while seated in an interior nook of
Sotero. Strawberries with Irish cream and Swiss meringues are arriving at the table, and I begin to eat them with my eyes. My experience in Hidalgo continues as my perception of its gastronomy changes forever.