I was still savoring every bite as we witnessed the Voladores (“flying men”), a religious dance performed by the Totonac people, during which the dancers offer themselves to the gods and in return, ask the gods for rain. Five men climbed to a platform on top of a roughly 100-foot metal pole. One began to play, on a flute and a small drum, songs dedicated to the sun, the four winds and the cardinal directions. The other four men flung themselves off the platform with ropes around their waists tied to the platform, appearing to take flight. They slowly spun around the pole, upside down, gracefully lowering themselves to the ground in a mesmerizing spectacle.
The scorching manzano
I had so far easily endured the sting of almost every chile I’d tasted since arriving in Mexico. But that was about to change.
Coatepec, in central Veracruz, is Mexico’s coffee capital. We warmed up with a delicious cup and a warm concha, a Mexican sweet bread, at the Panaderia el Resobado, a bakery where the oven has been burning 24 hours a day, seven days a week for more than 100 years. But we had come to eat a stuffed manzano.
The manzano is bright yellow, crunchy and sweet, with earthy, smoky undertones. It can also be one of the spiciest chiles, up there with a habanero. I had never come across the manzano before this trip — it is impossible to dry because of the high water content in its skin, so fungus always develops during the drying process. This means few people outside Mexico have had the joy of eating one.
In Coatepec’s market we went to a small open-air restaurant stall and sat at a table covered in a red plastic Coca-Cola tablecloth. We ordered a manzano stuffed with cheese, onions and greens, and a stuffed and batter-fried jalapeño.
I was able to endure only a few bites of the manzano. It felt as if a forest fire were blazing in my mouth and throat. I had to admit defeat, and took tiny sips of agua fresca, holding each in my mouth to quench the blaze. When I finally tried the battered jalapeño, it was telling that I found it sweet and not the slightest bit spicy.
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