(crunching) (sizzling) (laughing) (speaking in foreign language) - [Mark] Oh, look at that. There must be 30 different
ingredients in this mole recipe. (speaking in foreign language) - I can tell you certainly, there's nothing like this in the world. (exciting music) Good morning, I hope you're
having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Oaxaca, Mexico. Okay hold on, we've gotta back up. I need to tell you the full story. So at this point in the morning
when I started this video, I desperately wanted to eat some homemade Oaxacan mole negro. The only problem was I had no clue yet how it was going to happen. Our full plan for the day was to, number one, hire a van
and driver for the day, which we had already
arranged the night before. So we can cross that one off the list. Number two, drive to a
local Oaxacan village. Number three, go directly
to the fresh market. And number four, walk around
and find a grandmother or aunty to cook us some mole. From scratch. Yes, we were going to wing it, and I knew very well the risk of failing the Oaxacan mole
negro mission was very likely, but sometimes when you
travel without a plan, you end up having the most memorable experiences of your life. So we're now in the van, and we are on our way to a place called Teotitlan del Valle, and that's when things
took a turn for the best. (bright music) We're quickly stopping to get some gas, but I just gotta fill you
in on what's happening. When we started off today, we had not, we didn't really have a plan of what we were gonna do. We just wanted to go
to Teotitlan del Valle. And we wanted to find, especially mole, because they're known for mole
around that region of Oaxaca. But we were talking to the
driver, our van driver, who's a awesome guy, and
he mentioned that he's actually from a village
which is very close to Teotitlan del Valle. And he called his mom. He asked if she could make mole for us, and she agreed. So we're on our way. Well, we're stopping for gas right now, but we're on our way
to go pick up his mom, then we're gonna go to the market. We're gonna buy all the
ingredients for mole, and she's gonna home cook us mole. This is gonna turn into a
Oaxacan food mole adventure. (upbeat music) (speaking in foreign language) - This could not be a
more perfect location. The house is beautiful, the countryside here is gorgeous. The family is so generous and so inviting. We're on our way to the market now. (speaking in foreign language) - The actual town that we're in is called Tlacolula de Matamoros. And this is a Zapoteca town, so that's the culture, the ethnicity. Okay, and we have just
arrived to the market now. (speaking in foreign language) (exciting music) - [Mark] We're stopping
first to buy the chilies. Oh man, so many different
types of chilies. That's a big bag of chilies right there. (speaking in foreign language) - Vegetable section now. We're buying some tomatoes, some onions, some peppers, some green tomatoes. And they even put bread
inside Oaxacan mole. (speaking in foreign language) (people chattering) - Chicken. (squawking) (speaking in foreign language) - We're getting a full chicken
to go with that mole sauce. (speaking in foreign language) - [Mark] It's her recipe, oh. Is she a relative? (speaking in foreign language) - While we were at the chicken stall, we met the grandmother whose
recipe we'll be making. It's her mole recipe. And she definitely knows what she's doing when it comes to mole. Things just even got better. (speaking in foreign language) - Okay, this is called tejate, and it's a traditional drink. She uses, there's corn in here, and there is chocolate,
I'm not sure what all else. But as we were entering the
market, she was making it, and she was whipping it up with her hands. It was like a thick paste. But now she added more water, so it's turned into a liquid beverage. But there's still some chunkiness on top. This is very interesting. I can't wait to try it. Oh, and I asked her for it with no sugar. She said you could have sugar or no sugar, or however much sugar you want. It's really good with no sugar. You can taste the corn in there. You can taste the chocolate. It's a little bit starchy. It tastes like kind of a cross between a beverage and a porridge. It's great. (speaking in foreign language) (mariachi music) - Okay, we made it back to the house. It's time to start cooking. I wanted to just explain
that this entire area and this city is known for
it's Zapotec population, which is the indigenous people
of this region of Oaxaca. Tamales Oaxacenos. (speaking in foreign language) - She's getting started making the mole by just first starting
off with the chilies. Those are pretty large chilies. She's emptying out the seeds,
scraping out the seeds. And in the meantime, we have gotten lucky, and she made, without knowing, she made some tamales, some
local Oaxacano tamales. Steamed in corn husk. Let me empty this out. Let me just break up this tamal. (speaking in foreign language) - I am not totally sure what that is. You know what it is? There's a tub of salsa that our driver, oh by the way, his name is Javier. He said this is his favorite
salsa that his mom makes. And he said it's picante, it's spicy. I'm gonna add on some of this salsa. He said it's spicy. Looks amazing. Oh, that's amazing. It's corn, but it's
not like finely ground. It's kind of coarse. You can taste that unique
vegetable in there. It's more like an herb I think. Maybe like a wild herb. It's delicious with that salsa. Oh, it's incredible. Salsa's a little bit spicy, but just perfect with that tamale. It's delicious. (speaking in foreign language) (mariachi music) - That first step of chili is all ready. We're moving into the kitchen now. They're gonna light the fire, and we're gonna get
started cooking this mole. And they're making it purely from scratch. All the raw ingredients,
or the dry chilies, the dry ingredients. Yeah, but everything is from scratch. It's such a privilege to
have this opportunity. (speaking in foreign language) - [Mark] So she's
roasting the chilies now, or just heating them over the comal, which is the clay pan over fire. And they're not spicy, but to me, they almost have like a sweet, almost tomato-y aroma to them. (speaking in foreign langauge) - So she's roasting the chilies until, for a few minutes until they shrivel up, then they look kinda like a
shriveled piece of leather. But the aroma coming out,
they're slightly charred. I'm already starting to
sense that complex city of aromas and flavors that
will be part of this mole. (speaking in foreign language) - It's a plantain banana. She said that it's a little bit sweet, and I am still unsure how all of this is gonna fit together. (speaking in foreign language) - [Mark] So for the almonds, she put in some oil into the clay pot and then she's just frying the almonds. (speaking in foreign language) - She just pulled the
almonds out of the oil, and now she dropped in the walnuts. Take one. I never would've guessed
the next ingredient in this mole recipe. They're kind of like cookie biscuits. And again, she's just
tossing them into the oil, deep frying them just for
about 10 seconds or so. That's an ingredient I wasn't expecting. (speaking in foreign language) - There's also bread in the mole. And it's a special type of bread. There's some chocolate in the bread, and something else. Is that gonna be fried, too? Oh yes, yes it is. As the bread and as the ingredients are being fried and prepared, something to know about
mole is that it's a very, very well known dish. It's one of the ultimate dishes of Oaxaca, as well as in Puebla. And there are mixed theories
of how it was invented, or how it came about. But one thing is for sure is that it is a combination of both the local indigenous ingredients
and cooking techniques combined with the European
colonial influence to create this truly unique
blend of flavors and tastes. It's an incredibly complex dish, using so many ingredients. I mean, if you were trying to even come up with a dish like this, it would be impossible
because there are so many random ingredients in it, and it's such a complex dish. (speaking in foreign language) - [Mark] This is some type of pepper that I've never seen before. The next spice is cloves going in. (speaking in foreign language) - Cinnamon. This is when things are
getting more and more complex. And they're adding the spices now. So now she's frying some cinnamon sticks, and then we also counted out
some kind of peppercorns, and then cloves. There's gonna be some
sesames seeds that go in. Cloves and pepper go in the oil. The aroma of that is insane. (speaking in foreign language) - Oh, raisins, okay. Oh, that smells really good, being stir fried in that oil. (speaking in foreign language) - As the ingredients are still being prepared for the mole sauce, they're now preparing the chicken. The chicken has all
been cleaned and cut up. And I think she's just boiling
it straight up in water. (speaking in foreign language) - Mole is such a complex dish, and there's so many ingredients involved, and each ingredient you
have to prepare separately, and it's very time intensive, and it's such a, it takes
a lot of work to prepare, so it's such a, it's so
cool to be able to watch the whole process and
just anticipate the mole that we're gonna be able to eat very soon. (speaking in foreign language) (sizzling) - [Mark] Plums, I think. Some type of plum, dried plum, and then deep fried also. (mariachi music) (chattering) (speaking in foreign language) - It's oregano and some
kind of other herb. So basically, the chilies
get blackened roasted, but everything else is fried in oil. Chicken is coming along
nicely, nice and slow. So she just tossed in
some onions and garlic right into the fire to roast. (speaking in foreign language) - These white sesame seeds. That also goes into the oil to fry. Man, she has fried like at
least 15 ingredients so far. (speaking in foreign language) - Separately in the chicken pot, after just boiling the chicken in water, then she added in some
onions and some garlic, and also a type of leaf called oja santa, and that's gonna create a chicken broth that they're also gonna use for the mole. These are all of the ingredients so far. Look, it's an entire
bucket of ingredients. (speaking in foreign language) - The onions and garlic
finished roasting in the fire, and then they're just peeling off that outer blackened layer
and revealing just that juicy flesh underneath. And then for the tomatoes, there's two kinds of tomatoes. The green tomatoes and the red tomatoes. And she's again just frying it in the clay pot for a little while. (mariachi music) (people chattering) (speaking in foreign language) - That took about two hours
to prepare everything. It's now time to start
grinding everything together to make he sauce. (grinding) (people chattering) I love the sound of that rock on rock, but then with the squishing sound of those chilies in between the rocks. And she's such an expert. You can even smell, you
can really fragrantly smell the aroma of those
chilies in there, too. (grinding) A stone grinder like
this is called a metate, but it's very, very time intensive. It would take hours and hours to grind up this entire bucket full of
ingredients for the mole. They're gonna take it to the market where they have a bigger
grinder called a molina. And they're gonna grind everything on that so it will be a lot faster. So it doesn't, it wouldn't
probably take until tomorrow if they tried to grind
all of that by hand, and we don't have that much time. So they're gonna do that,
but in the meantime, we're gonna go to a waterfall which is near to this area
because then after that, the paste, it has to cook for a while. And then we're gonna come back to eat this just sensational mole. (bright music) The drive to get here was gorgeous. We came really high into the mountains. It's the views, the rugged
landscape is incredible, and we've arrived the place,
it's called Hierve del Agua. It's beautiful here. It feels like you're on
the edge of the Earth here. And this is where the water is bubbling, but the water is not hot. It's just kind of like fizzing. It's just room temperature water. We now hiked over to
the main swimming pools. It's quite a unique landscape. It's almost like a moonscape. (water bubbling) (bright music) Those were some pretty interesting and very unique moonscapes, but I am very, very hungry now. My excitement for eating
mole is at an all time high. (upbeat mariachi music) (speaking in foreign language) - Over here, this is the paste. And so that was all,
wow, you can smell it. So you can see the shimmering oil on it. I'm just gonna taste the paste. Oh wow. That's like unexplainable. It's almost like foamy in texture. You can taste the spices. The hint of clove, the pepper in there. (people chattering) (sizzling) (speaking in foreign language) - Also, they already added
the chocolate in there, so we didn't see them add that, but they added chocolate in there. It's almost time. (laughing) (speaking in foreign language) (sizzling) - Sesame seeds. It took like five hours to make this mole. They made everything from scratch, starting with the chilies. There must be 30 different
ingredients in this mole recipe, and what I love is that the family, they just kindly invited
us into their house, and into their compound, into their home, like we were family here. So what's interesting about mole is that they don't cook the
chicken within the sauce, but rather the chicken
is cooked separately, and then the sauce is prepared separately, and then they combine the
two for the final process right before you eat it. (people chattering) Wow. Oh wow. I can tell you certainly, there's nothing like this in the world. It is, it's so unique. It's so, it's such like an impossible mixture of ingredients. You don't even know, actually, and it's true that they don't know exactly how mole was invented. It's a very mysterious, amazing flavor. You can taste the chocolate, you can taste the chilies, you can taste the nuts in there. It has a nutty taste. It's really rich. Wow, it's phenomenal. Oh, look at that. It's really all about the sauce. But chicken is just like a, is just the second
ingredient in this dish. I have to taste a bite of chicken before I even move on to any carb form. (speaking in foreign language) - Wow. Yeah. That's stunning. And again, the sauce, I mean. The sauce is so incredibly flavorful that all it needs to
do is coat the chicken. It doesn't need to permeate
into the center of the chicken. I gotta get a bit more
sauce though on there. (mariachi music) That's remarkable. (people chattering) Carlos and Annette, how's the mole? Annette? - Delicious. - [Mark] Carlos. - Unique, special. Very different than any
mole I've tried before. Very good. - [Mark] By the way,
she refilled my sauce. (speaking in foreign language) - This mole sauce is just
blowing my mind right now. They've also made us
a plate of chapulines, which are grasshoppers. And grasshoppers are very,
very common in Oaxaca. You'll find them at the market. They said they harvest these grasshoppers sometime in November, October or November, when that's grasshopper season. But then they save them all. So they have a continual little supply of grasshoppers throughout the year. Oh wow. Oh those are just fantastic. Oh that's an entire mouth
full of grasshoppers. And they're kinda crunchy. They have, I think they're
cooked with some salt and lime, because the flavor is amazing. Oh those are beautiful, I love it. Oh, with that sauce. Mole, chapulines. Oh yeah, look at that. I'm gonna add on a little more mole sauce onto this grasshopper. That's actually an
outstanding combination, too. I like it with the grasshoppers. That gives it a crunch. That chicken just falls off the bone. Oh look at that. I'm gonna add this to my rice, and I've got one combination
that I need to try. I mean, I love it with the tortillas, but with rice, I mean,
I am Asian, I love rice. It's so good with rice. Oh, this sauce is just insane. Okay, they also have one of mom's homemade salsas here,
and I've seen Javier. He is adding some of
the salsa to his mole, so I'm gonna follow. Oh wow. There's nothing better
than adding sauce to sauce. Okay and then finally, I gotta go in for some
of those chapulines. Sprinkle those on top. Oh wow. Let me add one more grasshopper
for the final topping. And there it is. That is possibly the
greatest single bite of mole in the entire world. And that completes the mole. That was an absolutely stunning meal. Do I have any grasshoppers
stuck in my teeth? I don't think so, I just
have a chocolate mustache. A mole mustache. Oh man, that was so incredibly good. I love the mole. I love this entire experience. And when we set off this morning, we had no idea what we
were gonna do, actually. We didn't have plans. All we wanted to do was eat, wanted to find and search
out some of the best mole. And it was an incredible success. But thanks to the family here, I wanna say a huge thank you to Javier, who was our driver, because he graciously thought of this idea and
then he called his mom. His mom agreed, and they
graciously invited us into their home, which is incredible. I've said it many times before, but this is another one
of those experiences that is worth traveling across the world. There's nothing like an
experience like this, when it comes to food and travel. And I'm extremely grateful
to have this opportunity. So again, huge thank you to the family. We are all very happy
and full of mole now. And they're gonna give us
some of that mole paste to bring home with us. Okay, I'm gonna, before I'm a little bit under the influence of mole right now, so I'm gonna quit talking, and I wanna say a huge thank
you for watching this video. Please remember to give it a
thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Id love to hear from you in
the comments section below. If you're not already subscribed, click subscribe now. I'm gonna be sharing lots
more videos like this, and food tours, and travel videos. And also click that little bell icon so that you don't miss the
next video that I publish. Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you on the next video.
