Three Kings Day Treats

Weeks of holiday parties in Mexico reach a peak on Jan. 6 with Rosca de Reyes and frothy cocoa.

| Tuesday, 05 January 2010 | 21:32

Mexican hot chocolate

My memories of Mexico are sometimes dreamlike and vague -- the memories of a child. But one remains very vivid: Three Kings Day or El Dia de Los Reyes Magos. I remember this celebration because it came after the best time of the year -- only a week after Christmas -- after we had gorged on food and presents and stayed up late running wild with our cousins as the adults sang and drank into the morning. It seemed to me that the parties, the fun and the food never ended.

Indeed, according to my parents, the fun never did end in Mexico City circa 1976. Mexicans could be viewed as fatalists. Instead of brooding about life's finality and unpredictability, why not party? Mexicans celebrate everything and anything -- a birth, a death, a wedding, a divorce, a religious apparition, a national holiday or a Saint's day. There is no busier time on the social calendar than Dec. 12 to Jan. 6 when there are nine days of Posada parties, and then the preparations for Christmas dinner, followed by New Year's Eve and finally, The Day of Epiphany, when the Three Wise Men descended upon the land to offer their gifts to the baby Jesus.

On the night of Jan. 5, my brother and I were told to each leave a shoe -- why a shoe I don't know -- under the Christmas tree. Miraculously, Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar always managed to leave us a small present to find the next morning. Then, that night our extended family would meet at a dear hangout, Cafe de Tacuba in downtown Mexico. This tradition dated to my great-grandparents' day.

As a child, I was oblivious to the beauty and history of Cafe de Tacuba. But now I realize how fortunate I was to have eaten below the restaurant's vaulted ceilings with walls decorated with tile from Talavera, Puebla; to have sat in those magnificent handmade wicker chairs where Diego Rivera or Dolores del Rio might have been years earlier; to have made a call from the ancient wooden telephone booth; to have learned about the history of mole on the mural painted by Carlos Gonzalez; or to have had some of Mexico's foremost poets -- including the intimidatingly brilliant 17th century nun Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz -- gaze down on us as we ate enchiladas, tamales, Rosca de Reyes and drank a giant, frothy cup of Mexican hot chocolate.

I do remember seeing the adults chatting happily after ordering dinner as we, the children, went from table to table playing games. At Cafe de Tacuba, the food takes time. They did not use electronic appliances to make any of the meals, instead they used molcajetes, metates, molinillos, to grind and mix and blend the food.

Rosca My family's Cafe de Tacuba tradition ended, sadly, after we moved to the United States. But my mother still tried to continue the celebration here by inviting friends to a dinner of green enchiladas or tamales followed by the Rosca de Reyes and the hot chocolate.

The rosca (pictured right) is a ring made of sweet pastry and egg and its circular shape symbolizes the sky in its perfection and eternity. The size of the rosca depends on the size of your party. Its crust is adorned with colorful powdered sugars and crystallized fruit chunks of fig, orange or lemon. The tradition calls for a tiny plastic (or porcelain in the old days) baby to be placed inside the rosca -- the reason? Whoever finds the baby must throw another party on Feb. 2. If you wish to have more reasons to party, then simply add more baby dolls to your rosca. Roscas also may be bought at any Mexican specialty market.

Considering the uncertainty of our times, perhaps 2010 should be the year we all take a page from the Mexican tradition of partying. Or as Peggy Lee sang, If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing ... Let's break out the booze and have a ball ... If that's all there is ...

Green Enchiladas in the Oven

Ingedients:

12 tortillas
2 cups cooked shredded chicken

2 cups grated Monterey cheese

2 cans of Herdes spicy green salsa

4 serrano chiles

½ onion

1 bunch of cilantro

salt to taste

⅔ cup Mexican cream

Directions:

Blend the salsa, chiles, onion and cilantro in the food processor. Heat in a skillet with a dash of olive oil.
Dip each tortilla into the salsa quickly, take it out carefully and place on a plate.
Fill with the chicken and fold over like a taco. Repeat until tortillas and chicken are finished and place in an oven-proof dish.
Cover with more salsa, cream and cheese. Cook at 345 F for 20 to 30 minutes until the cheese is golden. Serves 6.

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

6 cups of milk
2 tablets of Mexican Chocolate (Abuelita, Morelia or Carlos V), broken into pieces

Directions:

Heat the milk, and as it boils place the chocolate in the liquid until it melts.
Let it boil at low flame for about 5 minutes.
Beat it until frothy before serving.

Lorenza Munoz teaches Mexican cooking clases in Los Angeles and travels frequently to her native Mexico to write about its food culture. She covered news and entertainment for 14 years as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times.

Photos: Hot Chocolate by S.M. Bata, with art design by J. Vazquez Gomez. Rosca photo by courtesy of Antequera Bakery in Santa Monica.

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