Category: Uncategorized

88 Years Ago…

September 5, 2020

Today would be my co-founder and boss, Marilyn Tausend’s 88th birthday.

Thinking of her today and reflecting on the unexpected, unplanned, giant network she helped create within the culinary world.

Thanks to an unprecedented and triumphant lawsuit against an American institution, won by Marilyn’s husband Fredric C. Tausend for my parents; they brought Fred to Mexico, Fred brought Marilyn and, here we are today. In memoriam, a tu salud Marilyn.

Zoom Classes with Raquel Torres!

August 10, 2020

 

Raquel Torres, cook, anthropologist and one of our beloved culinary stars whom many of you know from our trips, is offering 3 fabulous classes via the now famous Zoom. The first, tomorrow August 11th, is in Spanish, followed by two in English on August 18th and August 25th. 

Her daughter, Metzli López Torres, is the person to direct message (DM) via Instagram here:  https://www.instagram.com/p/CDte3LblII7

An excellent way to get back to our New Culinary Adventures world, with more to come as we re-organize re-direct and re-do.

If you need any help connecting with Metzli for the info, please text or email me. I am happy as always to connect our worlds.

Hoping each and everyone of you is well, un abrazo,

Carmen 

 

Trip Dates…!

March 10, 2020

We are Happy to Announce Trip Dates!

Some for those who can leave on a whim… and some for those who must to plan ahead:

July 9-16, 2020   Xalapa-Tlaxcala: Contrasting & Intertwining Cuisines, Profound Ties

$3750   7 nights (final night in Mexico City), min# 6 people, max 10.

For more info: click here

July 17-21, 2020  Gourmet Weekend in San Miguel de Allende- Rainy Season Abundance

  • The rainy season fills our markets with ingredients and our chefs… with inspiration.
  • In beautiful San Miguel de Allende learn and revel with the foods of Chefs Kirsten West and Paco Cárdenas along with meals at both traditional and innovative restaurants. (Trip repeats with variations, in 2021!)

$2900   4 nights, RT ground airport transfer, min# 6 people, max 8.

For more info: click here

September 24-October 1, 2020    Querétaro From Comal to Convent

  • A close look at the fascinating array of Querétaro foods: traditional kitchens, convent cuisine, French imposition (or acquisition?)…colonial Mexico has much to share from its complex history and Querétaro is the place to be.
  • Anthropologist Raquel Torres Cerdán, Chef Olivia González Mendoza along with local Cooks will open the doors to this little visited region.

$3750   7 nights, min# people TBD, max 10. For more info: click here

October 29- November 2, 2020   Long Mexico City Weekend With Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita

  • A unique opportunity to hang out for the weekend of Día de los Muertos with our very own -and Mexico’s- leading chef and ‘anthropologist’ of Mexican cuisines. Ricardo will bombard you with local culture, cooking and insight regarding the foods and flowers for our celebration of our dead- not only out and about, but in his home as well. 

$4000   4 nights, min# people 6, max 8-10.  For more info:  click here

⇒⇒⇒JANUARY 17-23, 2021   YUCATÁN IN A NEW LIGHT⇐⇐⇐

Join us as we re-visit the beloved State of Yucatán, with a completely new perspective gastronomically. Ricardo is sharing his most recent investigations into to this region delving into both the traditional and new views on their regional cuisine foods. This trip will truly reflect our new focus and findings!

$ TBD (coming soon) 7 nights, min# people TBD, max 12. For more info: click here

⇒⇒⇒⇒JANUARY 28 – FEBRUARY 4,2021    OAXACA-REVISITED⇐⇐⇐⇐

As in our Yucatán revival, we will be taking you to a completely different side of Oaxaca, un-tapped by others. Again, all based on Chef Ricardo’s latest investigations into the region.  Culinary Adventures continues to  trail blaze and evolve with our country’s cultural changes!

$ TBD (coming soon)  7 nights, min# people 8, max TBD.  For more info: click here

We look forward to again sharing our world though food and people, making a mark upon your soul as only Mexico -unwittingly- knows how.

¡Hasta pronto!

Carmen Barnard Baca

 

Ricardo Muñoz- latest news…

March 7, 2020

New Year News With 20/20 Vision!

January 17, 2020

 

Emerging from a hiatus dedicated to finishing an exciting project (more on that later), we

are working on our new trips!

→Tabasco         →Yucatán          →Veracruz         →Oaxaca

    →Tlaxcala      →Querétaro      →Michoacán      →San Miguel de Allende

 → Ciudad de México

are in the works for:

JUNE,  JULY/AUGUST,  SEPTEMBER– 2020 

JANUARY (CHEFS EXCLUSIVE), FEBRUARY, MAY/JUNE,  JULY/AUGUST, SEPTEMBER –2021 

 Culinary Adventures continues its tradition of trailblazing culinary travel in Mexico, leaving behind worn-out styles and evolving with the naturally occurring cultural changes and new visions in both traditional and contemporary food.

We will post dates, destinations and skill levels soon…

Contact us at office@culinaryadventuresinc.com   or (760) 577-2810

¡Hasta pronto! -Carmen

Cooking Class with Anthropologist Raquel Torres Cerdán
Traditional Querétaro food with Anthropologist Raquel Torres Cerdán, September 2019

The joy of setting up a trip…

June 27, 2019

I just finished a conversation with a friend in Querétaro. We will be going there soon to do the set up for our September 21-28 trip.

Each segment of theses trip is such a privilege and blessing to work on. From the initial brainstorm, mundane budgeting, tracking down contacts, promoting and sale, planning and plotting, recipe translation- all is just like a small tile in the mosaic of the big work, the actual trip. It is like painting a mural, etching a woodblock, or cooking a grand meal for friends. Each person is vital to the outcome: the trip itself is the coming together of many factors– all driven by the desire to get you hooked on Mexico– our foods and therefore, our people.

Just a few spots left now. Email to sign up now on our trip to Querétaro, San Miguel de Allende & Mexico City: September 21-28, 2019!

Querétaro Flavors

June 3, 2019

My food memories of Querétaro are of contrasting flavors. When someone made a dish from there, it was definitely not our Morelia food, nor even Michoacán. ¿De dónde es?– I would ask. “It’s from Querétaro.” Querétaro evoked an exotic place in my mind because of those flavors, and never matched up visually once I went there. It too was a colonial city like Morelia- they even had an aqueduct like us! But the flavors were theirs alone.

queretaro quadratin.com.mx

A contrast of flavors: fresh with spicy, sweet with savory, rough with delicate. Cumin, oregano, cinnamon, clove, mixed into sauces and dishes unlike my region’s; near yet so far taste wise.

A gordita (little fat corn dough cake) is made in Querétaro with just a sauce of ancho and guajillo chiles, mixed into roughly ground corn masa, along with crumbled queso fresco, and some pork lard.  It is an example of that “contrast” style. Here is a recipe instead of just talking about it:

26oz roughly ground corn masa

4 ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded, deveined, soaked in hot water, drained

2 guajillo chiles, prepared as the anchos above

8oz good pork lard

12oz queso fresco, crumbled

salt to taste

Blend the chiles together in a blender until smooth. Mix into the corn dough with 3 tablespoons of the lard, 3.5oz of the cheese and salt to taste.  Form into little cakes about 3.5 inches in diameter, closing in a little of the remaining cheese into each one; flatten to about 3/8″ thick. Fry in the [remaining] hot lard until golden. Drain on recycled paper bag and serve. Re-heat on a comal or griddle.

Simply, flavorful and can be accompanied with a lime and olive oil dressed salad or jicama, carrots and cucumbers with lime juice and salt. This is soul food.

Join us on our upcoming trip to Mexico City-Querétaro-San Miguel de Allende, September 21-28, 2019, where we will delve into the local foods with chefs and cooks to guide us on another culinary adventure!

30+ plus years with the best of the best. True regional cooks, chefs– and always fairly paid. Our ethos since 1989.

Contact us at: office@culinaryadventuresinc.com

A couple of updates…

February 6, 2019

Happy February from Culinary Adventures Inc!

As countdown to our upcoming March 10-18th trip to Mexico City, Puebla and Tlaxcala begins, (last places available) we wanted to share a couple of things:

-1st of all, we have added PayPal to our payment options- for upcoming and/or future trips, yay!

-Secondly, we are happy to announce that we were mentioned in El Restaurante Magazine– thank you El Restaurante!!

 Here is the link to the magazine; we are on page 4.

This week, come snow or rain, with the help of my revered San Pascual Bailón, patron saint of cooks- we will announce and open the formal signing up for our trip to San Miguel de Allende (and environs!) for this coming September! It too promises to be, well, yet another culinary adventure!

Hasta pronto,

Carmen Barnard Baca

New Trips, Renewed Vision, Going Back to Our Origins

December 6, 2018

On our upcoming trips in 2019, you will receive the incisive teachings of Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita. Going back to the origins of our culinary adventures, I am re-integrating the fundamental presence of local cooks on all of our trips. These are the people Ricardo –and other chefs– learn from. And the dynamics between cook and chef are marvelous to behold. It reflects a cultural trait most beloved: the respect and appreciation for our elders and those with deep knowledge of their culture.

Join us. My aim is that you fully enjoy and witness our country’s rich, warm, profound cultures. Through food, of course!

office@culinaryadventuresinc.com                 (760) 577-2810 (PST)

nopales-en-comal-Cardiff-CA20181203-125945_instagram-.jpg
Nopales/cactus paddles: a delicious millenary food, consumed throughout Mexico. And by those of us living abroad!

Next Stop: Yucatán

October 22, 2018

Yucatán State–  January 13-21, 2019                          

From the serene, colonial state capital of Mérida, to majestic Uxmal on the Puuc loop of archeological sites, we will soak up Yucatán via regional food –of course– music, and history.

Join us and visit Mexico through our unusual perspective! Email for information at: office@culinaryadventuresinc.com

    –Since 1988– Pioneers in Mexico Culinary Travel   

 

Puebla/Tlaxcala Late Winter

The Plaza -or Zócalo- in Mexico: a Place to Reflect.

June 21, 2018
I keep thinking of the plazas- or zócalos- in Mexico.
The plaza de armas in my hometown Morelia; with Magnolia trees and roses, pink cantera stone fountains, our exquisite cathedral, and surrounding archways with cafés full of all the regional political, universities, art and music gossip imaginable.
The Port of Veracruz’s tiled square, with its rare moments of silence and long hours of vibrancy filled with music, dance and food.
Oaxaca’s majestic zócalo is filled people from every region of the state, mixed in are international visitors. In the rainy season women float by with flat baskets carrying gardenias, as in a dream.
Each plaza in each town or city is like a stage set with different casts, lighting, sounds and sets.
After learning local cuisines all day, those plaza benches are a place to reaffirm, reassess what these regional foods are all about–“take the pulse of the culture,” my father would call it.
You find yourself surrounded by the people who make these cuisines what they are. Without the Mexican people– the humble, average people– there is no Mexican food.
No matter where you are in the world, Mexican eateries cannot taste even slightly like Mexico without its people in the back or front of store or in the mind of the cook(s).
Even in home cooking, when preparing something as “simple” as a pot of beans, one’s mother, grandmother, grandfather, godmother, neighbor, friend, teacher, mentor – a real person- will be perched on your shoulder, accompanying you as you prepare what you have learned by osmosis or intentionally, tutting, encouraging, correcting, scolding.
One of the pleasures of learning through our trips is having these plazas to reflect and ponder and savor what you are absorbing daily.
Join us soon on a Culinary Adventure: Ricardo, Ana Elena, and yours truly are happy to share our country’s many foods and many cultures and bring you in touch with our people in each region- not as a tourist but as a guest!
information at: office@culinaryadventuresinc.com or (760) 577-2810

Tlacotalpan.Veracruz.CBB
Puerto.de.Veracruz.CBB
Morelia.Michoacán.CBB