el molé de caderas

March 14, 2013 9:43 PM

The Goat Slaughter

When the first goat was killed, it took me by surprise. My husband Jorge and I had been invited by one of Jorge’s photojournalist friends to this nondescript compound in La Mixteca, the most impoverished region of Oaxaca, Mexico’s most impoverished state, to watch the annual slaughter of thousands of goats.

Mole de caderas en la Ruta del Sabor
Savoring Mole de Caderas (and More) in Tehuacán - "It is not, however, food for reluctant carnivores or the faint of heart: Enjoying this dish to its fullest requires using your hands and teeth to pick and suck the flesh off cracked goat vertebrae and broken leg bones."

posted by the man of twists and turns (12 comments total)

Saveur: The Seven Wonders Of Oaxaca
Food Republic: The 7 Moles Of Oaxaca - "It's not all chiles & chocolate in the land of mole"
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:48 PM on March 14, 2013

Once upon a time, Oaxaca was known for some good buds. Such a shame they didn't get to capitalize that.
posted by Goofyy at 10:51 PM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

An excellent, even suspenseful, piece of writing. I don't eat meat, but have been around slaughter enough to know that this experience is, as she says, a primal one.
posted by honey-barbara at 1:31 AM on March 15, 2013

Mexico's most impoverished state eh? No love for Chiapas...
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 4:02 AM on March 15, 2013

That's a good bit of writing.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:21 AM on March 15, 2013

Man I'm so hungry after reading that. Is there anything better than mole? I submit not. And the tamales wrapped in plantain leaves.

Eating a dozen of those and staring out at the endless Pacific all afternoon. I wish I had more vacation days.
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 6:21 AM on March 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

I guess if you're going to insist that other living, conscious beings be violently terminated so you can enjoy tasting their various body parts, this is a good way to do it.
posted by Mooseli at 6:42 AM on March 15, 2013

> Man I'm so hungry after reading that.

Me too, even though I know that wasn't the intended effect. By the time the cumbia started listing off the spices though, I was reading whole article with a bit of drool.
posted by Panjandrum at 7:22 AM on March 15, 2013

One wonder show they fed thosenewbaby goats. What a sad way to enter the world.

Well written.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 9:21 AM on March 15, 2013

.
posted by Stoatfarm at 12:38 PM on March 15, 2013

I would have liked to see the photographs.
posted by glasseyes at 3:31 PM on March 15, 2013

Roads and Kingdoms: The Real Mongolian Barbecue

In the way of intensity, Mongolia doesn’t disappoint. The country is double the size of Turkey, yet there are only two highways, making transport a frontiersman’s undertaking. Temperatures bottomed out at minus -42 degrees when I was there, yet many Mongolians are content to live in circular enclosures made of fabric. These people ambulate nomadically around the country along some of the remotest land in the world, their camps set against lonely winter tableaux, not a soul in sight. It raises some questions: how do they survive? What do they eat? If Mongolian barbecue wasn’t Mongolian, then what dish was Mongolian? I made some effort to answer these questions, and what I discovered is not for the weakly constituted. It is Mongolian, and it is intense.

This one contains similarly graphic depictions of goat slaughter and preparation. It seemed thematically appropriate.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:27 PM on April 2, 2013