Oaxacan Breakfast Every Day, Please.

The wonderful chef, Alex Ruiz, a man with a big smile and a bigger heart, invited a group of us to have breakfast at his restaurant, Guzina Oaxaca (he's taken over the space in Polanco once occupied by chef Patricia Quintana.

It was, I think, the best breakfast I've ever eaten.

It started with hot chocolate- not too sweet, not too rich, tasting mostly of cocoa beans and extraordinarily refreshing.

And this plate of fresh vegetables

which soon became a fresh salsa, pounded in a molcajete.

We spooned it onto quesadillas, cheese and squash blossoms folded into hand-patted, just made tortillas. 

and onto these spectacular black beans, which were unlike any I've had before.  The beans were cooked with avocado leaf, which left behind a whisper of anise-like flavor, and epazote (the fiercest green I know), and then refried in lard with smashed plantain. The resulting flavor is sweet and vegetal, with the slightest hint of pork, as if a little pig had just passed through on his way to play.

That salsa also went onto chilaquiles

and huevos rancheros

These pork ribs, cooked with chiles and purslane, were irresistible (and especially good scooped into a bit of black bean and wrapped in warm tortillas).

Hungry yet?  There was more to come. 

And finally, the densest, darkest, most devilish version of huevos rancheros - blanketed in a richly flavorful mole.  

I'll improve this post - but right now I'm running out to my next meal.  But I was so enchanted by this meal I wanted to put it up while it was still fresh in my mind - and mouth.