One of Mexico’s iconic dishes will be celebrated with a free festival that will turn a downtown Los Angeles park into a vibrant culinary and cultural experience.
“It’s a big Mexican food party. It’s the kind of fiesta you picture in a party at a pueblo in Mexico, and here we’re celebrating mole,” said Vanessa Motolinia, a spokesperson for La Feria de Los Moles.
The free food festival will be held from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11 at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, where more than 80 local mole vendors and invited guests chefs from Mexico will serve numerous versions of the thick sauce that can include up to 30 ingredients and takes days to make.
“You’ll be getting a real taste of Mexico. These are recipes passed down for generations. These are recipes they got form their grandmas,” Motolinia said.
Mole’s roots go back to Oaxaca and Puebla in Mexico where the sauces blend indigenous ingredients like tomato, cocoa, vanilla, and spices, traditionally ground in a metate. Ingredients such as cinnamon, cloves and almonds were later added during colonial times. The result is a thick sauce that adds a savory and slightly sweet taste when poured over other dishes.
Those who attend the Feria will get to try all sorts of moles, from green Pipián mole made with pumpkin seeds to black, red and Poblano mole, which offers a good hint of chocolate. Other varieties will include shrimp, almond and vegan moles. Some of the moles will be poured over taquitos, steaks, chilaquiles and tortas.
While mole primarily comes from Oaxaca and Puebla, the State of Michoacán will be recognized with the participation of traditional cooks from the city of Uruapan who will make regional specialties like Corundas de Mole, Mole de Carne (beef), and Agua de Aguacate.
And there will even be mole ice cream created by Benito Rios, co-owner of Nieves Xochi Oax, a Los Angeles-based ice cream shop and restaurant known for Nieve de Mole.
“We decided to turn this traditional dish into ice cream. The base, the main taste of the ice cream is mole. It has a little bit of spice at the beginning and at the end it has a little bit of sweetness,” said Rios, who hails from Oaxaca and came up with the cool blend of flavors which he will whip up just a couple of days before the festival to ensure its freshness.
And while it’s a cool dessert, for Rios, his ice cream, and moles in general, go beyond taste in their significance to his culture.
“We get to share our culture and especially in these times we get to show that we’re stronger than ever,” he said.
La Feria de los Moles
When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11
Where: Grand Park, 200 N Grand Ave, Los Angeles
Cost: Free to enter; food is for sale
Information: feriadelosmoles.com/