Oaxaca, Where the Cooking's Hot and Cool

The main course was a mole (MO-lay), a rich spicy sauce with many different versions usually unique to a particular area, even town. Trilling chose a typically Oaxacan chicken mole familiarly known as "Tablecloth Stainer" -- the mole was made with three kinds of chilis, tomatoes, sesame seeds, almonds, raisins, garlic, cloves, peppercorns, allspice, local cinnamon, oregano, plantains and pineapple. It was served with Arroz con Cilantro (cilantro rice) -- rice cooked with more chilis and garlic, green pepper, onion and cilantro.

And after all that came the dessert I had made, Budin de Chocolate Oaxaqueno, a Oaxacan chocolate bread pudding made with a pound of Mexican chocolate, strong coffee, eggs, creme fraiche, sour cream, vanilla, cinnamon and raisins soaked in mescal (a strong agave-based Mexican liquor), accompanied by Salsa de Tuna (a puree of a local fruit). I'd chosen the pudding because it looked delicious and a little more foolproof than some of the other recipes. Baked in buttered ramekins in a hot water bath in the oven like many custards, the pudding's straightforward steps and familiar cooking method were reassuring.

I also wanted to work with Mexican chocolate, which is much more granular than the North American and European versions, less fat and flavored with a little cinnamon. (It's hard to find in the United States at a reasonable price, but is available through www.Zingermans.com for $16 a pound.)

To speed things along, most of the ingredients had been cut and measured for us in advance by Trilling's kitchen assistants, Mina Arellanes Martinez and Lorenza Taboada Vasquez. Local women, they had watched other newcomers try to look competent and confident many times before. Oscar Hernandez, a Oaxacan whom Trilling met through his chicken slaughtering business, was there too. A patient culinary coach, he was ready to answer questions, light the ovens, find appropriate cooking utensils -- and stop us before we cooked something too long or too little.

As we made the meal, we had received upbeat, attentive guidance from Trilling and her staff. Finally, it was time to eat. We took off our aprons and eagerly moved from the kitchen to a table set with Mexican pottery, glassware and linens. Hernandez, who assembled the plates and adjusted the seasoning, also served the increasingly festive meal.

And it was only the first day.

Out and About

The five-day course alternates hands-on cooking with field trips to area markets, as well as to the homes of local traditional cooks, to crafts villages and other cultural events. That first morning, Trilling sent a van to pick us up at our hotel -- a modest but cheerful place in Oaxaca city (translation: no air conditioning or exterior windows, no hotel shops, no Internet access, but a welcoming open-air breakfast and snack room with both North American and Mexican dishes).

From there we headed to meet Trilling, where she cautioned us to travel light to avoid enterprising pickpockets (no large purses or tote bags), for a visit to the city's central market, a huge indoor space that's the largest and most diverse market in the area -- and the second largest market in Mexico.

We started at the very busy molino stand. The molino, Trilling told us, is a 7 1/2 horsepower engine that acts as a village blender where people bring things to be ground -- at this stand primarily cacao beans for chocolate -- but other foods such as chilis or corn can be brought here too. "It's liberated the women of Mexico," said Trilling.

Just about anything you need is for sale at the market. Belts, baby clothes, bird cages. Furniture, flowers, piñatas. Shoes and sweaters. Underwear. Herbs, spices and spice pastes. There are fish stands with the fresh catch of the day, several kinds of dried fish and a variety of shellfish. Everywhere you look, there are mounds and mounds of chilis -- as many as 40 different kinds. And for sustenance while shopping, there are tamale and taco stands where customers ask for any of a dozen or so fillings or toppings -- from moles made with chicken, pork or rabbit to cinnamon and raisin.

The markets brought to life the foods we would hear about and cook with and introduced us to many more: tiny dried grasshoppers, brightly colored custards and gelatins, an array of herbs and spices sought out by some Oaxacans for medical purposes. Throughout the five-day course, we'd go to other markets too -- like the Sunday market at Tlacolula, where a couple of dozen outdoor barbecue grills served the "fast food" of Oaxaca, or another smaller but fully stocked local market on the way to Ocatlan.

(Eating at such open air "dining rooms" is popular on the streets of Oaxaca city too. Delicate eaters, or just plain sensible travelers worried about sanitation, sometimes shy away from food that's served on plates that might have been cleaned by a trip to a large tub of standing soapy water and then rinsed off. Grilled food is a safer bet than food that's been sitting around in a stew pot, and tidbits served on skewers or wrapped in pastry are safer than meals served on plates.)