On Zarela’s Mind
Tributes, remembrances, family stories, journeys, and more
My Mother, Aida Gabilondo
Today would have been my mother’s 100th birthday.
She was an exceptional woman and, every year, I like to share a little bit from a book I’ve been working on about the lessons I learned from different people that got me to this point in my life. I would absolutely do it differently today but the message would be the same.
Mother’s Day – El Dia de las Madres
My mother passed away almost ten years ago and I have felt her loss deeply. I used to call her two or three times a day. We were extremely close -- she was my guiding light, my confidant, my teacher and, in some ways, my role model. Soon after she died, I...
La Candelaria (Candlemas Day)
When I was doing research for my book, “Food from my Heart,” I uncharacteristically made a trip to Oaxaca in the winter. On every visit to this magical place that is my spiritual home, my first stop is the Benito Juarez market and a stall that sells all types of...
El Pedimento – New Year’s Eve in Mitla and Juquila, Oaxaca
Curiously of all the items I posted in the last year, this piece on El Pedimento, got the most hits . I imagine that its popularity is rooted in magic or wishful thinking. It would be wonderful if our wishes became our realities though there's that famous...
Mi Papi -José Martínez Solano
Up until the time of her death my mother was complaining about my dedication in my first book, Food from my Heart. I wrote: " To my mother who gave me my spirit, my father who gave me my soul, and my children who let me be."...
Barney Rosset Another Giant Is Gone
When Jamie Gillis, my long-time companion met Barney Rosset it was as if he had met God and he would always sit at his hero's feet. As founder and editor of Grove Press, Barney almost single-highhandedly did away with censorship in the United States by publishing...
My Mother’s Pantry
My Mother's Pantry Glistening by the light of a single bare bulb are jars of canned snails from France, saffron and baby eels from Spain, bamboo shoots and plum sauce from China, and grape leaves in brine from the Middle East. Picture these delicacies in the pantry of...
The many lives of Zarela Martínez
Culinary legend Zarela Martínez introduced finely tuned, highly researched regional Mexican cuisine to a national stage, and has continued to blaze trails for more than three decades.