2026 Earth Corn & Fire Tasting the Roots of Oaxacan Cuisine

On this tour in Oaxaca, we’ll get an edible crash course on the elements that are a bedrock of traditional Oaxacan cooking, as well as on how they are being safeguarded. We’ll go through neighborhood markets and visit home-based restaurants and the stalls of streets vendors, stopping to taste some of Oaxaca’s most iconic dishes and street snacks, from memelas to eggs cooked on the comal. We’ll taste local corn in various forms and see how it’s transformed from kernel to tortilla, in the process learning about the key role it still plays in Oaxacan cuisine and culture. Along the way we’ll meet market vendors who have been holding steady for decades and even visit the gallery of a group of young artists. We’ll end our journey with a meal in a family-run market restaurant, sampling several different types of the city’s most famous creations, mole,a dish that much like Oaxaca’s rich culinary heritage itself, is the result of numerous ingredients being lovingly and carefully mixed together.