Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico has been on the list of Mexican cities I’ve wanted to visit for years. It is a beautiful colonial city with fantastic cuisine, and the gateway to the Monarch butterfly reserves.
For the third time in my life (after Sicily and Queretaro, Mexico) I signed up for a cooking class. However, this was different from the other two in that it was under a renowned chef: Cynthia Martinez. She is the owner/chef of La Conspiración de 1809, and travels worldwide promoting the cuisine of Michoacán.
Here you can see the ingredients for all the dishes.
Also note the fresh, local peppers.
The first dish to make was corundas, essentially masa wrapped in a corn leaf in a triangular fashion.
Corundas
After wrapping, the corundas were placed for steaming.
While waiting for the corundas to steam, we made the other dish, bean soup.
That looked a bit plain, so we garnished it with more cheese and tortilla strips.
We then made fresh salsa the old fashioned way, by grinding.
We also made a dessert.
Finally, the corundas were ready, so we unwrapped them.
Here is the complete plate.
After eating, I sauntered around during the remaining daylight hours. Here is a plaza, similar to others in Mexican colonial cities. Note all the people out and about.
As the sun went down, the cathedral lit up.
On Saturday nights, the city does a fireworks show, likely to keep the public happy. However, it didn’t start for another hour or so, I walked some more about the town.
It was finally time for the fireworks show. It was as good as any I’ve ever seen, and amazing that it is a weekly occurrence. The residents are fortunate to be able to experience this so often.
Now it was off to bed, as the next day was something I’d been waiting to see my entire life: Monarch butterflies.