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With more than 7,000 visitors, the two-day Costa y Mixteca Mole Festival successfully achieved its goals of promoting the traditional Oaxaca dish and positioning Puerto Escondido as a diverse culinary destination.
While the spotlight of last weekend’s festival was on the many versions of the mole sauce prepared by traditional cooks from the Coast and Mixteca regions, the event was also a boon for the Zicatela Market, the chosen venue for the occasion.
The market houses more than 100 vendors who offer food, crafts, clothing and other regional products, along with fruits and vegetables. The venue offers visitors a spectacular view of the sea from its restaurant area.
“With this activity, it was possible to promote Puerto Escondido as a culinary paradise of diverse and extraordinary dishes, bringing the traditional moles to the seashore, where international food and seafood are generally offered,” said Julián Herrera López, regional delegate from Sectur, the state Tourism Ministry.
He deemed the festival a success, as it “raised great interest among tourists who came especially to taste the delicacies of moles of different varieties that are prepared in the state,” remarking also that the 10 cooks who represented the Puerto area came from nearby towns, and are traditionally responsible for preparing meals for patron saint and local festivities.
The cooks from the coast were joined by 10 others from the neighboring Mixteca region.
Cooks from the Coast prepared dishes such as tichinda yellow mole with pitiona, costeño black mole, pipián de chacales, pork mole with chicatana, nanacates yellow mole, coloradito and white beans with shrimp molito.
Those from the Mixteca offered their traditional mole de caderas – which Herrera said was a success among the festival’s attendees – along with chileajo, huaximole, party mole, chilate, shrimp torta and mixteco pozole, all made following recipes passed down from generation to generation, just like grandmothers prepared them for their families back in their time.
The festival was organized by the national restaurant association, Canirac, in Puerto Escondido and Huajuapan, led by chef Quetzalcóatl Zurita and Rita Lorena Ramírez Martínez, respectively, along with the Mercados de la Costa organization and the support of Sectur.
The success achieved by the first Costa y Mixteca Mole Festival has encouraged the organizers to start preparing next year’s edition.
With reports by Panorama del Pacífico
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