Josefina Howard - Rosa Mexicana

ROSA MEXICANO

A CULINARY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

WITH 60 RECIPES

BY JOSEFINA HOWARD

WITH LILA LOMELI

TRANSLATED BY ESTHERALLEN

All Rights reserved by the estateof Josefina Howard Library Of Congress registration number:TX0004872698 (1998-12-22)

Any information regarding therights of this book or for film or documentary reasons pleasecontact the estate of Josefina Howard at ahoward524@gmail.com orvisit the website at www.josefinahoward.com

A very special thanks to Don atwww.blueleaf-book-scanning.com for bringing this book to digitallife.

First published in 1998 by VikingPenguin, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.

10 987654 3 21

Copyright Josefina Howard, 1998All rights reserved

Translation by EstherAllen

Grateful acknowledgment is madefor permission to use the following copyrighted works:Leave-taking from Collected Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca, translated byChristopher Maurer. Translation copyright 1991 by ChristopherMaurer. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus& Giroux, Inc.

Cartoon by Barney Tobey. 1978from The New Yorker Collection. All rights reserved. Brevediccionario de los chiles y otros picantes from El chiley otros picantes by Arturo Lomeli Escalante, published by Coleccion Bibliotecadel Consumidor. By permission of the author.

ISBN 0-670-87947-9

CIP data available

DESIGNED BY JAYE ZIMET

Without limiting the rights undercopyright reserved above, no part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, ortransmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior writtenpermission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher ofthis book.

TO RUPER TO CANTOR, MY HEADCHEF,

WHO FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS HAS SUPPORTEDME

IN MY OBSESSION TO BRING MEXICANFOOD

TO WHERE IT BELONGS

-J.H.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my son Anthony, withlove.

I have so many people to thank Idont know where to start. But let me begin with my three partnersbecause, after all, without them there would be no Rosa Mexicano. Ithank them for their patience with my tenacity. Thank you, DanHickey, Doug Grible, and Nicos Pharasles. Next, Leonard Lopate andTheresa Thompson for their constant sharing and exchanging of ideasand opinions. And to Gloria La-jous for the same reasons. Thanks tothe staff of Aeromexico for helping me plan many, many trips and tothe great pilots who helped take away my fear of flying. Andspecial thanks to Canirac (Mexican Association of Restaurants) andRoberto Gonzales for recognizing my efforts to acquaint people withMexican cuisine. Thanks also to the Mexican Consulate and theMexican Cultural Institute for their support, and to the MexicoCity Museum of Anthropology for letting me photograph theTlatelolco market.

The first time I was on MarthaStewarts television program, I received a call from therestaurant: Come over quickly, were having Martha Stewartmadness. There was a line halfway around the block. You canimagine what that does for business. Thank you, Martha.

And of course to Laura Esquivel,who grasped so well the way I feel that I was moved to tears bywhat she wrote. To Lila Lomeli, my friend, collaborator, andpartner in this venture, and to Arturo Lomeli, her husband, forlending Lila to me and for his wonderful chile dictionary. ToEsther Allen for her excellent translation.

To Barbara and Justin Kerr forreading and correcting the anthropological facts, and CharlesGoirand for the beautiful furniture at the restaurant. To AmeliaDurand, Myra Dalland, and Rory Rodner for their constant supportand encouragement. To Michele Gilardi for testing and writing therecipes.

And now the best of all. To thestaff at Rosa Mexicano who have followed my vision with love anddedication. My gratitude to them for helping me have the type ofrestaurant where the kitchen and the dining room dontfight.

And of course without whose effortthis book would not be, to Dawn Drzal, Barbara Grossman, PattiKelly, Theodora Rosenbaum, Roseanne Serra, Jariya Wanapun, JayeZimet, and all of the people who helped me at Viking.

For all the customers of RosaMexicano and, above all, the people of Mexico.

CONTENTS

Tortillas, Tamales, Quesadillas

INTRODUCTION

In addition to being good friends,Josefina Howard and I share a nationality. You might wonder howsuch a thing can be, since Josefina is not Mexican and I am, butthat doesnt matter in the least. You are what you eat, who you eatit with, and how you eat it. Nationality isnt determined by whereyou are born, but by the tastes and smells that stay with you fromchildhood. Nationality has to do with land-not some petty idea ofterritorial borders and boundaries, but something deeper. It has todo with the foods the land bestows on us, their chemistry, andtheir effects on our bodies. The biological compounds in foods weeat penetrate our cells and impregnate them with their innermostflavors. They slip into the deepest corners of our unconscious,there where the events of the past make their nests and curl upforever in our memories.

Is it true that only someone whowas born in Mexico and grew up eating tortillas can be Mexican? No,of course not. There are certain exceptional beings who are capableof arriving in an unknown city and, like children, lettingthemselves be suckled by cultures that are not theirs from birth.Josefina is such a being. Her vocation for universality allowed herto open herself up to the world of smells and flavors of a Mexicoshe made her own, and Mexico reciprocated by adopting her as itsown legitimate daughter.

The fraternity of the hearth is oneof the strongest bonds. When you walk into a place and immediatelyrecognize the fragrances wafting from a pot of beans, some freshlymade tortillas, or even just a simple guacamole, you know you areon a tiny patch of Mexican soil. This was my experience the firsttime I visited Josefinas restaurant, Rosa Mexicano. I wasimmediately transported back to Mexico, to food cooked withpassion, food Josefina has dedicated her life to praising andcelebrating. Like any self-respecting Mexican woman, Josefina leftMexico carrying her little trove of chiles and homemade tortillasfor her nostalgia to feed on. And not only that; driven by herdesire to share our cuisines wealth of flavors with others, shewas brave enough to start a restaurant in the very heart ofManhattan. At Rosa Mexicano, you can regale yourself with dishesthat run the gamut from sophisticated to simple, from traditionalto innovative.

In this book, Josefina not onlyshares her recipes and her past with us in the most delicious way;she also invites us along on a joyful journey through the infinitepossibilities and combinations offered by Mexican culinaryculture.

Josefina has a lesson for us, alesson of solidarity and understanding among peoples. Only thissolidarity can allow us to share hearths, meals, joys, andsorrowsthe joys of festive gatherings and daily life, and thesorrows of lifes most difficult and painful moments: death andloss. With this solidarity, we can ultimately make the whole worldsit down at the table with us and share what makes us human andwhat gives us a homeland and a nationality, an unending legacy ofpast flavors and smells: the nationality of food, which is both anationality and a universal heritage. So, beloved friends, letsclink our shots of tequila together and drink to Mexican food, toRosa Mexicano, and to Josefina, the Mexican.

Laura Esquivel

PROLOGUE

The guests at my restaurant, RosaMexicano, have often come over to the booth where I have spent mostevenings for the past fifteen years to congratulate and thank mefor the good food they enjoyed. Sometimes, though, I wonder if theyrealize that in addition to serving them wonderful food I also wantto offer them an educational experience. When youve lived inMexico you can learn a lot about people and their ways of doing andlooking at things. One of the things that fascinated me most aboutMexico was the food. And Im far from being the only person to haveexperienced that fascination.