La Parrilla Restaurant's Festival of Moles

This Wednesday, Jen checked her Facebook & spotted a 2-for-1 deal at our favorite restaurant in Cancun: La Parrilla. They have a Mexican buffet (150 pesos) on weekends & a seafood buffet (170 pesos) on Friday nights & the food is amaaaazing.

The Facebook coupon was a deal was for their "Festival of Moles," which is tastier than it sounds!
Mole (pronounced mo-lay) is the generic name for a number of sauces used in Mexican cuisine. Moles use various ingredients, but chili peppers are the common denominator. They range from mild to very spicy.

Mole dishes at La Parrilla

   
According to Wikipedia's entry about mole, it has become a culinary symbol of Mexico’s mestizaje, or mixed indigenous and European heritage, both for the types of ingredients it contains as well as the legends surrounding its origin.


The most common version of the legend takes place at the Convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla sometime early in the colonial period. Upon hearing that the archbishop was going to visit, the convent nuns went into a panic because they were poor and had almost nothing to prepare. The nuns prayed and brought together the little bits of what they did have, chili peppers, spices, day-old bread, nuts, and a little chocolate and more. They killed an old turkey they had, cooked it and put the sauce on top; the archbishop loved it.


Anyway, the deal was valid every Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday, but ended that Wednesday at 5:30 pm, and it was Wednesday at 4:50 pm! We raced downstairs, and hopped on our bikes, & arrived at the restaurant with 30 minutes to fill our faces!

They had so many different mole dishes (about two dozen) that we were only able to sample about half of them.

I highly recommend this restaurant. And if you visit Cancun next spring, look for the Festival of Moles.



Last Update: June 2012