Why is Michoacán cuisine one of the best?

The imposing coniferous forest flirts with stealing my attention; however, my senses focus on something else: there, climbing the steps of the cobblestone streets of Tlalpujahua, are the food stalls of the market. There are pots exhaling the smoke of their tamales and corundas, preserves and ates cornered by bees, bread piled in bags. Oh, with the pulque bread. Oh, with the pucha bread. In Michoacán, nature is what calls but it is the food that obsessively draws you back. Those who have not eaten in this state have missed one of the three best regional cuisines in the country. Couldn’t be clearer. Michoacán is a conglomerate of michoacanos. The lakeside area, the sea, the milpa, the forest harbor a tradition, a collection of flavors framed by ancestral techniques and endemic ingredients. To that cultural sum, to those geographical coordinates, we owe more than culinary ecstasy. Thanks to them, we appear on the only list that matters: the UNESCO World Heritage list. “Michoacán cuisine is unique due to the alignment of a fertile landscape with many types of terrain and lakes rich in fish, as well as a pre-Hispanic culture that has passed its traditions through generations,” says architect Fernando Vela, president of the Morelia en Boca gastronomic festival. From its heterogeneous corners, a collage of images and climates, exceptional products emerge such as charales, white fish, and trout. In the Purépecha plateau, products like the beloved avocado are found; in Zamora del Valle, strawberries; in Valle de Apatzingán, lemons and blackberries; in the milpa, those red, black, blue, and yellow corns with minerality in their entrails; from Cotija, its cheese. Although they are not the only ones known for cheese, they are the most prestigious. Others less known are the cheeses from La Ruana, from Tierra Caliente, fresh or dried.The hands behind the kitchen complement this sort of spell. Lucero Soto, one of the most representative chefs of the region, believes that the true treasure lies in traditional cooks. Names like Esperanza Galván resonate in embassies around the world doing what they know best: being guardians of recipes and techniques, exporters of culture; she, particularly, of the Purépecha tradition. There is also Blanca Villagómez, in Tzintzuntzan, who according to architect Fernando prepares a fish roe in guajillo sauce like no other. Lucero Soto, for her part, is not a traditional cook but brings the Michoacán folklore from the streets to the emblematic tables of the country from the Restaurant Lu Cocina Michoacana. One cannot fail to mention Mariana Valencia from Cocina M, in Uruapan.In Morelia, one must embark on a pilgrimage for carnitas Don Raúl, or head over to Quiroga to try them confit in a copper pot. In front of a lady with a bucket of charales, one must stop for a taco made of corn tortilla, a handful of fried charales, and a few drops of lime – just a little, because we don’t want criticism. In the morning, one should be by the cathedral or the market and sit in one of those places with women's names to be provided with red plastic plates and some uchepos with the flavors of corn, some corundas with the Mexican trinity of garnacha – cream, salsa, and cheese – and a sweet atolito.I never miss the sopa tarasca for lunch or the Purépecha atapakuas, similar to mole; they are prepared with seeds like peanuts or pumpkin seeds and are accompanied by vegetables and meat. At Lu, I like to try the Morelian duck enchiladas that eliminate any type of dissatisfaction. Architect Fernando prefers the xanducata (a type of pipián also made with pumpkin seed), the jahuácatas (a corunda prepared in layers and containing beans), and of course, the aporreadillo from Tierra Caliente. As a great connoisseur of the cuisine from that state, he speaks of the Purépecha churipo (a spoon dish), cheese mole, and the stretched rabbit, traditional for Corpus Christi.At dessert time, Michoacán cuisine offers variety. The chongos zamoranos, fruit preserves, and ates can be found in shops guarded by women dressed in viceroyal dresses. Lucero Soto says that when cravings call in the middle of the streets, one should resort to gazpacho moreliano.I do not leave the state without eating some Morelian cajeta, walnut, and papel estrella or without searching high and low for the best ice cream shop, the one that sells a good vanilla-flavored paste ice cream, traditional from Pátzcuaro. When the time comes, I order a double. And it is that Michoacán is anything but simple. Never.