Maybe I went too far with the title for this menu. Oaxacans don’t traditionally do a single holiday feast of the seven moles.  They leave that seven-dish extravaganza to the Italian-Americans and their fishy festivity.

But, still, serving mole at any time does spell festivity and Oaxaca does festivity better than anywhere else in Mexico.  So, since my family and I have spent over three decades celebrating the holidays in Oaxaca, I thought it was perfect to offer a menu at this special time of year that features Oaxaca’s famous seven moles—some in traditional presentations, some in ways that will be new to you.

We’re taking you beyond Oaxaca City’s renowned cuisine to the special preparations of towns—large and small— throughout the state.   From Puerto Escondido and their herby, light-green fish mole to the richly spiced black mole of the central valleys, from the Northern Sierra’s red mole studded with tender pozole to a coloradito I learned from a Zapotec cook in Juchitán in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.  Come taste the unparalleled diversity Oaxaca offers us!