What I eat for Breakfast

I spend plenty of my mornings in the biggest market in Oaxaca. Whether, it’s bright and early to buy produce for the cooking school or a tour of the market on Wednesdays with guests. And out of all the food options in the market, nothing hits home like memelas.

A corn dish that begins exactly like the process of a tortilla; pressing a ball of fresh blue masa and cooking it on the comal. Once it’s close to cooked, it is pinched on its edges to create a barrier for the asiento -which means literally speaking seat or settling- as it will be the first layer of this dish.

Asiento is the residue of fat, or lard, that was been rendered after cooking pork. It is added to the memelas as it finishes its cooking on the comal to add some flavor to the warm masa.

The simple version of a memela is with salsa de chile morita. I order mine with two tender eggs and one piece of tasajo.

Nothing is more Oaxaca than memelas for breakfast at Doña Vale in the Central de Abastos market. She has been featured on plenty TV shows as Phil Rosenthal and Gordon Ramsey have eaten memelas with her and at times the queue can be long. The say the early bird catches the worm, and only time I go is before 8:00am.

She is a hard-working woman and she is there everyday between the comal, pressing corn and catering to those who come eat on her 20-seat internationally acclaimed establishment.

We often cook memelas with our guests at the cooking school, as it is one of the corn dishes, like tetelas (Here’s the recipe) that represents Oaxaca and it’s not so commonly found out of the state. It is the ultimate example of how just three, four heirloom ingredients create a world-class flavor.