Oaxaca — the southern Mexican state with the highest concentration of indigenous cultures and culinary traditions — is considered the epicentre of Mexican culinary complexity. Beyond its seven moles, Oaxacan cooking is defined by specific ingredients (Oaxacan cheese, memelitas, tlayudas, tasajo, chapulines) and techniques that exist nowhere else. Diana Kennedy spent years documenting Oaxacan cooking before the diaspora of these techniques began; her documentation is the primary English-language source.
The defining techniques and ingredients of Oaxacan cooking.
MEXICAN CULINARY TRADITION — DEEP EXTRACTION