[Aztlan] pozol(e)

[Martha Gottlieb]

I just called my friend in Campeche - Adiel Balam y Chan - for some indigenous 
posole info.  He remembers his father leaving home on Monday morning (from 
Ticul) to go to the milpa with 4 or 5 kilos of posole to last till Saturday.  
It had been made thus; boil dry corn with lye, rinse off the seed coats and 
drain, boil again until the kernels split, drain and grind.
After about three days the mass gets sticky and begins to sour.  In dry 
season, he says  it gets black with Rhizopus nigricans (Adiel has botanical 
training).  "It doesn't taste very good but it won't kill you." 
In wet season it turns red with a species of Penicillin which is useful to 
apply to a cut if it is infected.
Posole was eaten about 9am with coffee and thick tortillas ~ 1cm thick!?  Many 
people like the slightly sour taste better than fresher newer mix.

Adiel made us atole for breakfast and also balche made from Longicarpus 
violaceus bark and honey, which he served in traditional Jicara cups (jica).  
We took a little bottle of it with us. It perked along for a few days then 
was still and delicious.  Sweet, sour and astringent.

Our most memorable food event involved three black zapotes which sat atop his 
refrigerator like toads.  Tauch, he called them, from ta, excrement and 
uchben, old or ancient.  They went through a progression of additives from 
ice to sugar to orange juice to Fundador.

Halcyon Days I'll tell you.

 		Martha Gottlieb