We recently spoke with Mexican chef Pati Jinich about her new cookbook, Treasures of the Mexican Table: Classic Recipes, Local Secrets (Mariner Books; November, 2021). Pati is host of the James Beard Award winning and Emmy nominated public television series Pati's Mexican Table and has published two other cookbooks on Mexican cuisine – the first also called Pati's Mexican Table (Mariner Books; March 2013) and the second, Mexican Today (Mariner Books; April 2016). She is also the host of the new PBS Primetime special La Frontera, where she travels along the Texas-Mexico border to explore its food and culture.

We know that spring has arrived in Mexico City when street carts crowned with whole mangoes begin to roll into town. While wandering the Centro Histórico’s bustling streets just last week, we bumped into Maria, a seasonal worker whose cart is currently laden with this favorite springtime fruit. Intrigued, we stopped to watch as she deftly skewered the mango in her hand with a stick, peeled off the skin, made decorative cuts to transform the bright orange flesh into a beautiful flower, which she then brushed with chamoy, a classic Mexican sauce, and dipped in one of the brightly colored powders stored in plastic boxes: salsa tajín, chamoy, salt, chile or everything mixed together.

For a case of the morning-afters, Mexicans believe that the best cure is a bowl of hot and spicy broth. On Sundays you’ll find the bleary-eyed, hard-partying denizens of Mexico City seeking out restorative traditional soups like the tripe-based menudo, also known as pancita; caldo tlalpeño, made with chicken; and birria. Birria, which means “mess,” is a typical rustic dish from the western state of Jalisco, where it’s made with goat. In Mexico City, however, birria is most commonly made with beef, mutton or pork. And many birria lovers in this town swear by Birria Santa Bárbara in Colonia Verónica Anzures.