I was listening to KCRW’s Good Food radio show the other day, which is my favorite food show not only because I’ve been on it a few times, but because it’s always been an excellent source of information about delicious food, strange food like eating insects, and food politics, with the super knowledgable and vivacious host Evan Kleinman.
On last weeks show on Chinese Wine, The Foreclosure Gardener, Mexican Hot Chocolate, and Compost they mentioned the Xocolatl Café in Los Angeles, which sounds like it’s doing a great job of both teaching everyone in the area about the roots of cacao and chocolate in Southern Mexico, and teaching kids in two local charter schools their cultural history connected with chocolate while helping ensure they can learn the Aztec Nahuatl language.
It may be a while before I can make it to LA to try this place out, but from the video that Good Food posted and one on Dispierta America (in Spanish) it looks like many of the drinks they make like pozol (corn and chocolate drink), xocolicious, and popo (a foamed chocolate drink from Veracruz) are both tasty and authentic, made with cacao beans from Xoconusco, Chiapas, where we have been getting many of our organic beans. The hibiscus lemongrass drink, though not native to Central America, is also a super refreshing, delicious drink found in some form throughout Mexico, and the hibiscus is something we’ve been incorporating into our popular Candied Hibiscus chocolate bars. The food at Xocolatl looks great too, with squash blossom quesadillas, red corn pozole (hominy corn, not to be confused with pozol, the drink), and blue corn pancakes.
I can’t wait to try this place, but in the meantime, everyone out there in So Cal should go there, have some scrumptious food & drink, learn about chocolate history, and support the local schools!
