{"id":7429,"date":"2015-04-29T07:17:38","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T14:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tillthemoneyrunsout.com\/?p=7429"},"modified":"2015-05-04T10:09:43","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T17:09:43","slug":"el-sabor-zapoteco-traditional-oaxaca-cooking-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tillthemoneyrunsout.com\/el-sabor-zapoteco-traditional-oaxaca-cooking-classes\/","title":{"rendered":"El Sabor Zapoteco, Traditional Oaxaca Cooking Classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experiencing the world through food is one of our favorite parts of travel. I was raised in San Diego, on the border of US and Mexico, and consider Mexican food, or at least the Baja California version of it, my home cuisine. <\/p>\n

Long live the fish taco!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before now, our travels hadn’t taken us through Mexico and we usually spend a fair bit of time bemoaning the lack of black beans and tacos in every other country in the world, and try to cook Mexican food no matter where in the world our current kitchen can be found. The lady at the market in Vietnam never dreamed what we would be doing with the cilantro we bought from her when we got back to our rented apartment!<\/p>\n

Now that we’ve finally made it to Mexico, cuisine has been playing an especially central role, we have been excitedly sampling the foods of every different region. It feels as though we are visiting the extended family of beloved life-long friends, noting the similarities and differences with glee. <\/p>\n

The food of Oaxaca is largely considered to be the darling of Mexican cuisine, and to learn more about it we started researching the many Oaxaca cooking classes on offer. When we found El Sabor Zapoteco<\/a> I was immediately drawn in by the fact that the class takes place in a family home outside of the city. <\/p>\n

See, this is not my first time to the rodeo. I was lucky enough to be invited into the homes of some amazing Mexican cooks back in San Diego and I always loved how personal it felt. Sitting around a table with other women, chatting away while we all wrapped tamales, chopped vegetables or formed tortillas was almost as nice as eating the fruits of our labors. It seemed a shame to trade these experiences for anything less personal than what I was used to, so we booked Reyna’s class. <\/p>\n

Reyna’s Family Home in Teotitl\u00e1n del Valle<\/h3>\n

We met the taxi that was to take us the 30 or so minutes to Teotitl\u00e1n del Valle at the corner of Reforma and Constituci\u00f3n, in front of the Jard\u00edn Etnobot\u00e1nico at 8:30 am. The rest of the group was there and we all introduced ourselves before splitting up into two taxis and heading out of the city. <\/p>\n

The village is set in the foothills of the Sierra Juarez mountains, and is usually visited by Oaxacan locals and visitors for the famous textiles and rugs that are woven there. Reyna’s family makes these beautiful tapestries as well and she explained how every family comes up with their own patterns, and how the intricacy of pattern, and weight of the thread used affect how long it takes to make each rug. Her brother had been working on this piece for 8 hours a day for the past several weeks and was just halfway done. <\/p>\n

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