Dia de Los Muertos Dinner with Hand Made Mexico

I love pop up restaurants because it allows chefs to have a life without the grind and debt of a brick and mortar restaurants with set daily hours, and these more intimate dinners always present an opportunity for a chef to come in front of the guests and talk about what inspired the food or how they made the food. The recent Dia de los Muertos Dinner with Hand Made Mexico series is a perfect example of how going to a pop up, even solo (you are sitting usually at communal tables and meeting people anyway!) is worth it for those backstories.

The dinner was a family affair, with references to food memories of meals by or with Chef Cynthia Vigil’s  mom or with her sister, and hearing the techniques (some time consuming, some causing blisters!) passed down through generations being used to make our dishes. Here’s a look at the dinner, which also served as a fundraiser – 10% of the total sales were donated to Pintando Esperanza (Painting Hope) to help build houses for those who lost everything on the 9/19 earthquake in Mexico City and Morelos.

The annual celebration this year occurred from Tuesday October 31 (All Hallow’s Eve) through Wednesday (Day of the Children and Babies) to the final Day of the Dead, The All Saints Day of Thursday November 2 (today!). Dia de Los Muertos is very celebratory Mexican holiday, and honors the dead with bright colors and flowers and candles and art pieces from sugar (often in the form of skulls) bring brought to gravestones to visit those who have passed and tell stories. Since this is the day spirits of the dead may visit, favorite food and drink of ancestors may be part of the celebration and left at the altar to nourish them for their trip back to the spirit world.

 

More recently it seems to have become very popular during Halloween, though it has a totally different tone between candy and trick or treating vs recognizing the circle of life and not fearing death. Maybe that’s a mixed blessing, because while yes commercialization is happening , but I hope it’s a way to defy the current American atmosphere which seems to be currently divisive into celebrating Mexican culture, and give people a positive glimpse of the Mexican culture and community.

To start at least, Cynthia is kindly letting us into her world, and her family as she offers us techniques passed from her grandmother and works with her mom on dishes presented to you at the Hand Made Mexico meals. She even hand made all the paper flowers for every table. Nearby her fiance (Chef Patrick McKee of Southfork) is helping in the kitchen, while her father minds her two boys. Here’s a look at the dishes we enjoyed at the Day of the Dead Dinner with Hand Made Mexico

 

Course 1: Mushroom and Corn empanada
The mushroom filling is infused with tequila and epazote, and served with really smoky tasty toasted cascabel and tomatilla salsa, crema, radish and cotija.

Course 2: Queso panela frito (fried panela cheese)
Golden brown crusted mild panela cheese (Chef Cynthia loves this fresh Mexican cheese and how it has great texture and absorbs the flavor of anything), charred Poblano cream sauce, warm Mexican zucchini and cumin salad and fried chocoyotes. Chocoytes are small hand shaped masa dumplings used regularly on soups, but Chef Cynthia threw them in here because it’s just texture fun!

Course 3: Grilled Shrimp and Tamarind Sauce or Stuffed Chayote (vegetarian version)
The omnivore dish was 2 Tiger prawns, Arbol chili and tamarind sauce, with a grilled scallion. Meanwhile, the vegetarian version was a Stuffed Chayote, which is a kind of squash that is as big as a large avocado but has more of a melon like texture. Chayote is native to Mexico and I was a bit jealous of this dish! In the background of his dish you see a photo- that’s a photo of Chef Cynthia’s mom (the child) kissing her grandmother, who passed last year.

 

Course 4: Chamorro Adobado and Frijoles Charros or Cheese Enchiladas (vegetarian option)
Chile and spices marinated pork shank, wrapped and cooked in banana leaf and slow cooked for a long, long time until the meat is falling off the bone. Served with a pinto bean soup in a tomato, onion, garlic, beer and bacon base. On the side garnishes included cilantro, onion, Mom’s salsa de molcajete or fried jalapeno garlic salsa along with Mom’s flour tortillas or corn tortillas.

    

Course 5: Bunuelos de Viento
A thin fried treat dusted with sugar and cinnamon that is meant to bring luck, served with Mexican hot chocolate. These were light as air but so crunchy, and wonderful dipped in the hot chocolate or with a big sip of chocolate after taking a bite. Cynthia and I loved the pitcher she was using for serving the hot chocolate – its so sensible and functional, and she found it at Ikea – and yes it’s totally a watering can. You find this as charming and funny as we do right?

 

I have always had super fond memories of Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos. My family when I was growing up tended to eat Asian foods or super American like Old Country Buffet, so it was when I joined a high school Gourmet Club that I began to get exposed to a larger base of food. The first excursion every year for the club (led by the social studies teacher) was always to Pilsen neighborhood, a primarily Mexican community, for Dia de Los Muertos. The experience included live music, art exhibits, and of course, food and especially Pan de Muerto (bread of the dead) and a huge parade.

If you would like that same experience (or at least some of it), check out Portland Mercado which is holding a Dia de Los Muertos event today! For me, it was wonderful to get those same feelings of sharing with the other guests of the Dia de los Muertos dinner. I think this was the second best soundtrack to a meal I’ve ever had (first place still being Farm Spirit, but they also dance a little to the music as they plate).

I encourage you to follow Cynthia on Feastly PDX to be in the loop of when her next pop up is. If you haven’t joined Feastly yet, here is a link (disclosure, I do get a referral bonus if you join with that link – you get a $10 credit and I get one after your first meal).

And until then, I’ll leave you with this nugget from the animated movie Book of Life, which I thought did a wonderful job of capturing the spirit and explaining Dia de Los Muertos:

“As long as you remember those who came before you, and as long as you tell their stories, cook their dishes, and sing their songs … they’re with you. They live inside your heart.”

 

Are you familiar with Dia de los Muertos? Which of these dishes is something you would like to try?