Tableau Vivante

Mole. Moh-leh. Ai, Mexico. Gracias for this wonderful sauce.

I grew up with mole, that spicy, chocolaty sauce often reserved for birthdays, first communions, and weddings. Mi Tia Gloria served it at my engagement party. I order it at La Fiesta Grande as a side for carnitas. I put it on rice. I mix it into frijoles. I scoop it onto chips and couple it will some cooling guacamole.

Mole is right up there with Christmas tamales, New Years Day menudo, and my grandmother’s fideo as one of the foods that reattach me to one half of my cultural heritage. When I lived back east, I would try to carefully smuggle back a jar of Doña Maria and a carton of Ibarra chocolate after each family visit. Now that I’m back in L.A. again, I’ve got plenty of mole within arms reach.

Also within reach are the plethora of local Spanish radio stations that pepper the dial with accordion-laced cumbias. So for this food-minded Latina, mashing a cumbia up with lyrics about mole is a pretty fun prospect. For this, I thank Lila Downs. The song came out a while ago, but I haven’t shared it nearly enough. I loves me some Lila (her Agua de Rosas is also one of my favorites). Maybe you will too.

EDIT: hmmm the embedding isn’t working…so follow the link instead.