Rachel Laudan

A very knowledgeable Indian correspondent, V. Gautam, sent me this comment.
“When an Indian looks at a mole, we see, deconstructed, the following parts to the gravy: 1) a garam masala, the sweet spice paste 2) the chile/chile seed paste + any chocolate 3) nut/bread/plantain paste thickener, raisin 4) fried onion base, thickener [optional] 5) any [...]

Mole’s on my mind again (find previous posts by clicking on the tag “mole”).
Last night I was lucky to attend a reception with Patricia Quintana prior to the mole festival here in Guanajuato. Not surprisingly in her eloquent history of mole, she affirmed that the basic techniques were  indigenous with some Islamic ingredients added later. [...]

Thanks to all who have brought mole poblano and the medieval Mediterranean up again and for the clarifying comments.
Here are my thoughts on what I take to be Tim’s three main worries.
Worry 1. Since many families in rural Mexico have their own mole traditions, since these families often tend to the indigenous end of the [...]