A Taste of Independence
13 September 2005
September. The crescendo of patriotic festivities gathers force.
Fire works shatter the dawn, explode in the midnight sky.
School drum-and-bugle bands trudge noisily down the calles.
Drunken youths stumble through the night streets singing and shouting “Viva Mexico!”
The toy sellers in the jardin have doubled in number, adding Mexican flags to their inventory, flags that now festoon nearly every building in town.
Restaurants offer the seasonal delicacy chiles en nogada, with its colours of the national flag: whole green chile peppers smothered in a white-cream sauce of meats and fruits and spices and nuts, topped with red pomegranate seeds.
Excerpted from On Mexican Time by Tony Cohan. Published with permission from the author.
16 September is Independence Day and a national holiday.
Filed in: Events & Festivals, Gastronomy
