Archives: Topolo Menus

“Puebla can be breathtaking. Slipping past the town’s industrial outskirts, perhaps past some of the congested downtown streets around the market, you easily arrive at the 17th century Capilla del Rosario, the richest expression of gold-leafed Mexican baroque—shimmering, vibrating, an indescribable visual symphony of thousands.

Why introduce a menu of Puebla inspirations with architecture? Because as that baroque chapel was being carved and gold-leafed, Mexico’s famous mole was being invented just blocks away at Santa Rosa Convent. While the blackish-brown sauce may look simple, a single taste reveals it to be as baroquely ornamented as the Capilla del Rosario: a host of dried chiles thickened with nuts and seeds (and bread and tortillas), sweetened with dried and fresh fruit, enriched with tomatoes and tomatillos, gilded with chocolate and a collection of spices from far-off lands. Puebla, one of Mexico’s most deeply rooted Spanish settlements, lives its baroque soul daily in the churches, in the ornamented sweets, in the Talavera pottery, in the moles.”

“It’s not what you look at that matters,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, “it’s what you see.”

Or to state that from a kitchen vantage point, “It’s not what you eat that matters, it’s what you taste.”

For Topolobampo’s Art Menu, we’re hoping you’ll do both a little seeing and a little tasting. As you gaze upon six works of art from our mostly Oaxacan collection (and then dig into the six dishes inspired by those pieces), perhaps you’ll notice how the artists’ colors evoke unexpected bursts of flora and flavor that are part of their everyday life, part of tradition. You can pick up stories about tightly bound families. And about how spiritual and profane walk hand in hand. Perhaps some of the stories will lead you down magical paths that, upon later reflection, won’t seem so magical after all. Mexican art has a tendency to open doors like that. It certainly has for us here at Topolobampo.

The works of art in our collection were not chosen for their fame, but because each one told us its own story, a story that, almost without exception, could only be told in Mexico. If your eyes listen carefully, you, too, will hear those stories. And if you’re palate pays just as much attention, I’m pretty sure the stories will come alive in an even more personal way. Just maybe, you’ll find that both art and dish resonate for you, in a way that nourishes your spirit.