Lars, I also like her show, because she makes what appears to be authentic Mexican food even though I've never been there and don't really have a clue. I also like that she shows a lot of different locales there and she has a very lyrical and pleasant way of speaking.

I watch her too, have made.many of her recipes. I like her tours of Mexico and her interactions with her family. She's good!

Here is a great article to read... https://jewishfoodexperience.com/in-a-salsa-bowl-mexican-and-jewish-history/

I do consider Pati's food to be authentically Mexican (from my experiences in Mexico), but I never thought of it as Jewish, although I had a feeling she was Jewish from the beginning, partly because she grew up in Polanco, which has the best Jewish delis in Mexico. Also, she really does not look very Mexican, but you will find a lot of people in Mexico City who look similar to her, and the way she dresses makes her look Mexican.

When my friend Michelle drove from Mexico City to Kerrville, Texas to visit her grandmother, the border patrol in Laredo asked her her nationality, and she told them she was Mexican. They then said to her, "But you don't look like a wetback." She replied, "I'm not. I'm a tourist." That may give you an idea of why I do not like to cross the border in Laredo. I mostly fly to Mexico, but I used to go to Texas from Mexico via land transportation because it was so close. Today I will not drive to Tijuana, and it costs as much to fly there from LAX as it does to fly to Cabo, which I might go back to. I think there are plenty of places to fly to in Mexico that are safe enough, and we felt safe in Cabo, where the food was very good. I'd like to take Kevin to Oaxaca, and there are direct flights from LAX, so that we would not have to go through customs in Mexico City.

If you want to get an idea of what Mexico City (especially Polanco) is like today, catch an episode of Mexican Dynasty on Bravo.

For a very short time, we had a very small Mexican restaurant that said it made traditional food from Oaxaca. They had a fish dish that I really liked. It was two fish fillets (a white fish) (not fried) served with a semi spicy green sauce over the fish. They had a green rice on the side. It was very good and no one else has served anything like it. Any ideas as to what it might be?

ETA: I have googled and nothing comes up that seems to be it.

I would guess that the spicy green sauce had tomatillos in it and probably some green chilies, which could be Poblano and Serrano. It probably also had cilantro, epazote (which is extremely easy to grow), garlic, and onion - most like green onion. Pati made a similar sauce, but she used hers on tamales. When you make a sauce with tomatillos, it is best to boil them for a few minutes first - not more than five. You can boil the chilies and garlic with them, but I've generally used raw onion in this type of sauce.

I did not like Oaxacan food when I first went to Oaxaca in the mid 1970s, but they were going through guerilla warfare at the time (without my knowing it), and most tourists stayed away. When I went back in 2002, Oaxaca City reminded me very much of Santa Fe and it was full of tourists. The food had improved greatly as well, and everything was much more expensive than in the 1970s. It's a very beautiful place to visit and easy to get to. I used to take the overnight train from Mexico City and get a dormitorio, leaving at 7:00 PM and arriving at 7:00 AM - thus eliminating the need for one night in a hotel. I also took the train to Palenque, but Mexico has discontinued all passenger trains and replaced them with luxury buses, which are nice (and faster), but I miss the trains. The trains in the 1970s were the ones that Amtrak sold to Mexico when it took over US passenger train service, and they were mostly stainless steel and were made in the 1940s. I thought they were much nicer than the cheap aluminum trains that Amtrak replaced them with.

I have no idea what the green rice would be, but it may also have been made with tomatillos. We have lots of Oaxacan restaurants here in Los Angeles, and when I last went to Oaxaca, everyone there told me that they had relatives in L.A. or knew someone there. Oaxacans are some of the nicest people you could ever meet. When I arrived in 2002, several people helped me with the telephone (as I did not know how to use it), and they were nothing but friendly and helpful - very different from the people at the airport in Cabo. Oaxacans (especially the Zapotec) tend to be very short and very dark - the Zapotecs are the darkest and the Mixtec are the shortest, but they have blended over the centuries, although you can still find people speaking both Zapotec and Mixtec in Oaxaca.

I like her show with José Andrés. They both seemed to be having a really good time

I hope he wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Pati is adorable. I always learn a little even though I'm comfortable with all Mexican dishes. I have a tiny tv in my pantry wall across/behind the breakfast table that is often on, sound way down or off...when kitchen multi-tasking. No clue when any cooking show is on but turn the sound up for a few like Pati.

Visited dozens of times over the years and have friends/family all over...good friend in Antiqua Guatemala. For a dozen years we rented a house waterfront in Troncones outside Zihuatenejo so we could shop the market and cook at home. Pretty remote, ....piglets running the beach. Dirt road. Good casual restaurants via a beach walk.

We always spent a couple days in Mexico City to visit friends and favorite meals..

Pati cooks a more modern Mexican meal with deep roots. I like that something interesting is immediately available on-line.

Pati's Mexican Table marathon all morning. Cinco de Mayo tomorrow. I'm going to make her mole. I can't believe I have all the ingredients. Even a dozen chicken thighs in the freezer.

recipe HERE

I'll have to look for that marathon. I record all her new shows so that I do not miss them, but there might be some old ones I want to see again.

Cinco de Mayo is not a huge holiday in Mexico but 16 de septiembre is. Also, Semana Santa is huge, as is Christmas, and so those are not good times to try to travel in Mexico.

I checked, and we are not have a Pati marathon here. We are having a marathon of Crossing South, which will be mostly about Tijuana, Ensenada, Mexicali, and northern Baja California Norte in general. Although it is a drivable distance from here, we never go there, partly because crossing the border can take hours. I have no idea what Tijuana is like these days - I went there once in 1968, and I'm sure it's not the same or even close. I went through Mexicali in 1976, but that is still a long time ago.

I noticed that we are getting the Pati marathon on Create TV, but that is channel 58.3, which we do not get with DirectTV, and so I cannot record it. I can watch it with the antenna, however, and there are quite a few channels that we do watch with the antenna. Not sure why DirectTV does not include them, as they are local channels.

I've been watching the marathon on channel 58.3 with antenna, and so of course I could not record any of it. I just watched an episode where she went to Todos Santos, and I wish I had seen it before we went there (although Kevin says we can go back). She went to Jazamango Restaurante, just outside town, which looks like a place I would like to go to, but we had already had lunch at Playa Tecolote,

I've been watching the Pati marathon on Create, which we get here via antenna, since we do not have satellite/cable television. she was making "sweaty" tacos, which looked much more appetizing than they sounded, LOL.

Annie

Excellent recipe. I did not do many substitutions. Though Mole is full of variations. I just had more roasted tomatillos than red tomatoes in the freezer. Roasted with garlic, onion, hatch chilis etc. And another 'flavor bomb' that uses all the Mexican dried chilis. Those two packets that I prep every early Fall gave me a head start. (I prep at least a dozen each to use all winter)

I doubt would have made it if I had to shop and start from scratch.

What I like and so rare these days is that she answers questions in the comment section. (most bloggers ignore it all and just want advertising 'hits'.) She listed favorite restaurants in MexicoCity and Oaxaca.

(I should take a note of those)

You made the chicken mole, sleevendog? Looks delicious!

Annie

We are still talking about it. It was so good. You do as much Fall harvest prep for the winter months as I do. It really pays off!!

I just used my usual braised thigh recipe, stovetop, then the thighs into the oven with the Korean chili/sesame oil. The remaining broth/veg became the base liquid. I added some roasted tom packets and a couple 'flavor bombs' ...from the freezer.

I just put it on the plate rather than smothered on top. The Korean 'bbq' is so good with it, flavor wise.

Next Fall I'll just go ahead and make a batch of Mole for the winter while I'm roasting and prepping everything else. Nice winter addition to the rotation.

The Fall prep that went in...

All that Fall prep makes the holiday tamale party easier. Thaw some 'roasted' and a 'bomb' to mix with shredded pork. Having mole as a side/topping sauce will be even better.

I buy mole sauce at Grand Central Market downtown and store it in the freezer. I do make my own chili sauce, however. For me, most mole is too sweet, and so I should probably make that myself also so that I can cut down on the sweetness. When I do use the mole sauce that I buy, I dilute it with my own chili sauce.

Pati answered my email yesterday, and I think it was really Pati, since that is how she signed her name. It was brief but very nice and makes me like her even more.

I received her book last week, and it will be a good reference for me, especially for salsa because I like the way she makes it, and I have not written down any of my recipes that are similar.