With the rains come crops: corn, beans, and squash—the seed of which is used to prepare delicious pipián sauce. There are also purslane, amaranth, and nopales. This variety of products, combined and cooked well, produce good country food.

 

Helena knows all this because she inherited a talent for cooking from her mother, also named Helena. She makes scrambled eggs with green sauce, amaranth with garlic, and purslane in tomato sauce. Her ranch chickens make a rich broth.

 

Helena prepares these meals in the backyard of her house. The space is surrounded by magueys, from which she extracts the mead that she serves as an accompaniment to the food. Also on the menu there may be beans, ranchero cheese, jocoque, corn, pumpkin flowers, and whatever else is at hand that day. The food is complemented by the pulque Don Manuel prepares. Visitors are invited to extract the mead themselves. You can also go horseback riding through the magueyeras—the fields of maguey.

 

Helena’s Kitchen is located in Puerta del Aire (past Jalpa). It may seem crazy to go all that way looking for it, but in the end, the natural setting makes the trip worthwhile. You will see the red mountain in front of La Joyita, the fields with maturing produce, cattle grazing, and even crystal clear water. 

 

If you want to book a meal at Helena’s Kitchen, there must be at least ten people in your group.