The smoke kitchen: A gateway in time

For the new generations it is strange to see this kind of kitchen. There where my nana from Totonacapan puts her tomatoes and chilis to roast to make her salsa or puts her tamales to cook, the smoke she calls the "spirit of fire" gets up to his old tricks painting each wall black until it flees through the gaps between the tiles.  

There where the ingredients for each recipe are prepared stand out in vibrant colors; where modern tupperware, canned goods containers, and toys forgotten by my cousin adorn the surrounding darkness leaving us with the subtle evidence of the year we're living in.

The area where the tortillas are prepared is completely impregnated with ash that paints the black wall. The apples we have picked this season are everywhere.

The only reason to get out of the house now is to buy the food items, which are always served with tortilla, so every two days you have to go out to the street with masks to buy the nixtamalized corn to make them by hand.

Most of the kitchen furniture is made improvised with planks of wood and wooden boxes where documents, notebooks and papers that are no longer needed are kept for lighting the fire. Sometimes, when the kitchen is not busy, my cousin plays there and forgets his toys. Chicks also take over the kitchen when no one is there, they feel safe there.

My cousin spies from the outside to Comelón, her favorite chicken, to know if he is behaving inside the kitchen. Ingredients such as dried chilis, tomatoes, salt and pepper are stored well in yogurt or cream containers.

To make a raw salsa in the kitchen, the tomatoes and the chili are first roasted in the comal (griddle). Care must be taken while the chilis are being roasted, as it is almost impossible to avoid a tickling in the throat and a cough.

There is no place within the house that shows the history of my historical heritage better than this; even the leaves used to start the fire give clear clues to the context in which I grew up. A space filled with old books for studying, notepads, letters, annotations … a context built by generations of teachers who right from the beginning came to the city to capture knowledge and evolve with the new.

My nana grinds tomatoes in the metate (mealing stone) to make green mole. Green mole includes tomato, cilantro, lettuce, garlic, salt and cumin.

The smoke kitchen, a perfect mirror of the contrast that my family has experienced since its inception. The constant dance of old and new customs. Respect the legacy and traditions through the kitchen, and the desires to explore other cultures and see beyond what the ancestors saw for us.

The blender is not ready with the necessary utensils to make the salsas. Now, certain things like garlic with onion and tomato to prepare certain stews are stirred in the blender, while the molcajete (mortar) is busy grinding the chilis for the salsa that accompanies the smoked flavor of the tortillas.

After a pinch, the grains of elote (street corn) are separated by hand from the cob (cob trunk) which will be nixtamalized to make tortillas. The cobs are used to stoke the fire of the barbecue, while the leaves are allowed to dry for later.

The kitchen is not used at night, but there is always a flashlight within reach in case the light of the fire and poor light are not enough to find any necessary condiment when using the other kitchen.

It is true that there are more sophisticated and more practical lighters, but to light the fire, only matches are used.

After a good time, everything old and forgotten was removed. My nana wanted to keep these pictures and decorate the smoke kitchen with them. She likes them, she says, because they look like portraits of old and important characters. She does not know John Lennon or the Beatles.