Tejate

Oscar who works at the children’s museum is from Oaxaco and when I showed him a picture of my pig/cow thrift find, he exclaimed “She’s making tejate!” Oscar explained it was an Oaxacan drink made with corn flour. It is, I found out, also called the Drink of the Gods and has been served in Oaxaco as a cold morning beverage since preColumbian times.

Oaxacan women start by making a paste of toasted corn flour, pixtle which is ground seeds or pits of the mamey fruit, a white flower called rosita or flor de cacao, and often fermented cocao beans in giant clay bowls. They add water and knead it which causes a white foam to rise to the surface.

Then they scoop it up with jicaras or calabash gourds and serve it.

“And here you go” the pig/cow seems to be saying.