Sign up with email

or

Already a member? Log in.

Trouble logging in?

Not a member? Sign up!

On my way out of Oaxaca center and on to the city of Santa Catarina Minas, a good friend suggested I make a pit stop to visit “Frida.”

Me: “Wait! Frida? Frida Kahlo the Mexican art icon? But she died in 1954!”

Him: “You’d better go and try her chile encuerado.”

So here I am, having stopped in Ocotlán, only 32 kilometers south of Oaxaca city, to sample Frida’s “naked” chiles. I find my way to Mercado Morelos in Ocotlán’s main square, and immediately head for the many eateries in the medium-sized market’s food aisle. A sign is painted with flowers, roots, hummingbirds, butterflies and other insects – with these tell-tale motifs of the tormented artist, there can be no mistaking La Cocina de Frida. A molcajete, a traditional Mexican version of the mortar and pestle and a cornerstone of our local cuisine, is mixed into the artwork above me.

And here is Frida. Wearing a colorfully embroidered frock and fresh flowers in her hair, this Frida sports a sweet smile beneath her bold brows. While Frida Kahlo the painter was born in Coyoacán, México City in 1907, our Frida is from here in Oaxaca (like Kahlo’s mother), and was baptized Beatriz Vázquez Gómez.

Frida/Beatriz brings breakfast over to the table: pan de yema (egg yolk bread) and chocolate de agua (Mexican hot chocolate). The drink is aromatic and delicate, the best I have tried on this latest trip to Oaxaca. As I sit contemplating the chocolate, a tasting plate of moles and salsas arrives. One taste, and I realize why my friend insisted I come to Frida’s. The delicate, velvet textures and flavors of each mole are total knockouts. There is salsa verde with habanero, mole estofado (made with almonds, yolk, garlic, onion, clove, pepper, oregano and cinnamon), salsa with beans and more.

I feel I should leave the rest of my meal in Frida/Beatriz’s hands. She sends out carne de puerco con verdolagas (pork with purslane). Here is a green that evokes my childhood. Like now, purslane season would mean my mom cooking up batches of the succulent weed. The pork chops are lightly fried, giving them an al dente exterior and a suavecito (tender) center.

Beatriz, the second-youngest of 12 siblings, has been working in a kitchen for 26 years, and it’s clear she knows what she is doing. “I first learned how to cook thanks to my father, when I was 11 years old,” she tells me. Her customers are regulars who come for the mole estofado, chiles rellenos and chiles encuerados. The latter are prepared using a Oaxacan chile known as chile de agua. It is stuffed with almond-roasted chicken and served inside a tortilla plated over a stew of the customer’s choosing. This is not food intended to please tourists. La Cocina de Frida is honest and natural. The homage to the famous artist is no gimmick or millennial marketing.

So I shoot the question directly to Beatriz: “Frida, why are you Frida?” She smiles at me and says: “Several years ago, people started saying I look like Frida Kahlo. … so I started to dress more like her. Frida has brought us good luck.” That luck carried them through the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic – La Cocina de Frida is a survivor. “We had to close for five months because we couldn’t operate with just two customers a day. The expenses were getting higher and higher,” she says. Now they are back to serving their regulars at Mercado Morelos. Ocotlán is well known for its historic tianguis (open-air markets), fine craftsmanship (like the bespoke hats at Alberly Sombrero), handmade pottery and the Rodolfo Morales museum. A city patron, Morales was one of the most important Mexican painters of the 20th century, much like Frida Kahlo, whose legacy lives on in its own way at Ocotlán’s La Cocina de Frida.

I finish my enchiladas verdes with carne adobada (marinated pork), knowing both La Cocina de Frida and Frida Kahlo’s name are in the loving hands of a true cook from Oaxaca. I remember an essay of Octavio Paz, our most notable Nobel-winning poet: Mexicans are beings who like to wear masks.

  • Best Bites 2021December 31, 2021 Best Bites 2021 (0)
    The year is almost gone and, though many expected it to be free from the waves of chaos […] Posted in Oaxaca
  • El PositoAugust 20, 2021 El Posito (0)
    Back in our college days, in the mid 2000s in Mexico City, we spent hours talking with […] Posted in Oaxaca
  • LazduáJuly 9, 2021 Lazduá (0)
    Gathered in the parks of Oaxaca during the early 2000s, groups of high school friends, […] Posted in Oaxaca

Published on September 08, 2021

Related stories

December 31, 2021

Best Bites 2021: Oaxaca

Oaxaca | By María Ítaka
OaxacaThe year is almost gone and, though many expected it to be free from the waves of chaos and change that the Coronavirus brought us in 2020, 2021 has proved to be just as challenging. But, at the same time, it has been more interesting than ever. It’s been a year of transition, with everyone…
August 20, 2021

El Posito: Rock Solid

Oaxaca | By María Ítaka
OaxacaBack in our college days, in the mid 2000s in Mexico City, we spent hours talking with our fellow students about the foods we missed the most from home. When we, the “Oaxacan delegation,” brought up piedrazos, everyone in the room laughed. They could not fathom something with such a name – piedrazo literally means…
July 9, 2021

Lazduá: Ices that Warm the Soul

Oaxaca | By María Ítaka
OaxacaGathered in the parks of Oaxaca during the early 2000s, groups of high school friends, including our dear Roberto, would herald in the end of another school year and the start of a summer of easy living with refreshing nieves in hand. A cup of icy, colorful nieve marked the beginning of carefree afternoons and…
Select your currency
USD United States (US) dollar
EUR Euro