In October 2022, BOOKED Trips hosted our inaugural trip to Mexico City with seven travelers for a trip inspired by the novel Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. The Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, coincided with our trip and was a great way to connect the themes of the book with our trip. Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1st and 2nd to remember and honor deceased loved ones. Families decorate altars with flowers, food, and personal items belonging to the deceased. The altars are believed to serve as a bridge between the living and the dead, and families often gather at the altars to eat, drink, and tell stories about their loved ones.
Like Water for Chocolate, is a sensual and intoxicating exploration of love, loss, and family set against the backdrop of a traditional Mexican kitchen. The novel’s protagonist, Tita de la Garza, is the youngest of three sisters and is forbidden to marry by her domineering mother. Tita’s culinary creations become a conduit for her suppressed emotions, and her dishes reflect the cyclical nature of life and death, love and longing.
Food plays a central role in both Like Water for Chocolate and the Day of the Dead. Tita’s dishes are often symbolic of her emotional state, and her family and friends gather around the table to enjoy her creations. The Day of the Dead altars are also adorned with food, which is believed to nourish the spirits of the deceased. In Mexico City Families visit cemeteries to clean and decorate the graves of their loved ones. They also hold elaborate parties at home, where they serve traditional foods such as pan de muerto (bread of the dead), mole poblano, and tamales. The streets of Mexico City are filled with colorful parades and festivals, and people dress up in costumes and masks to celebrate the holiday.
Both Like Water for Chocolate and the Day of the Dead are celebrations of life and death. They remind us that the two are inextricably linked, and that even in our darkest moments, there is always hope. In the words of Tita de la Garza, “Love and loss are two sides of the same coin.” It was only fitting that we create a book-inspired journey that connect the two.
The Trip
Our BOOKED Trips Mexico City experience was a six-day, five-night experience that immersed travelers in the world of Like Water for Chocolate. Travelers visited the places that inspired the book, sampled delicious Mexican cuisine, and learned about the country’s rich history and culture including the annual Dia de Muertos Celebration. Read on for a recap of each day.
Highlights of the Trip
Day 1:Tabula Rasa, A Clean Slate
After all of our travelers were picked up from the airport and settled into our hotel we had a welcome dinner featuring dishes from the book. We partnered with Tabula Rasa, a private chef and tablescape curation duo run by José Ángel González and Luis Felipe Rojas. The name Tabula Rasa refers to the absence of preconceived ideas, that knowledge comes from experience. The pair began this project nine years ago as a way to organize breakfasts, brunches, lunches, and dinners among local and foreign friends. They were the perfect partners to bring specific dishes from the opening dinner to life, including:
- Quail in rose petal sauce: This dish is served at Tita and Pedro’s wedding, and it causes everyone who eats it to become overcome with passion. This dish in particular was a hit with the group.
- Chiles in walnut sauce: This dish is served at Rosaura’s wedding, and it causes everyone who eats it to have explosive diarrhea
- and of course HOT CHOCOLATE: This is the titular dish of the book. The Spanish phrase “Como agua para chocolate” refers to the boiling water, typically used in Mexico, which is mixed with coco to make hot chocolate. This phrase is dualistically used either to depict ones state of scathing anger or passionate attraction, both of which are central themes in the novel.
Each chapter of Like Water for Chocolate is written based on a recipe. So we had a book club experience with the twist of being immersed in dishes from the book. We started our discussion with a discussion of each traveler’s families and traditions and expanded to a discussion about the book – our favorite scenes, least favorite characters, and overall impressions. It was a great start to the trip that grounded us in the story.
Day 2: Exploring Teotihuacán and Dining With Locals
On the second day of our Like Water for Chocolate-inspired trip to Mexico City we explored the complex relationship between tradition and modernity in Mexico. Tradition is both a source of connection and bondage, as seen in the novel Like Water for Chocolate. The De La Garza women bond over making sausage and mole, dishes that mark joyous occasions. Mole is the main dish Tita makes to celebrate the birth of her nephew, Roberto, one of her greatest joys. However, tradition also prohibits the youngest daughter from marrying, keeping Tita and Pedro in a tortuous unrequited love for most of the book.
We brought the themes of tradition to the forefront by visiting Teotihuacán, an ancient city that is a testament to Mexico’s rich history and culture with Hugo and Gabriel, two locals who grew up near the pyramids. After our tour of the pyramids, we had a delicious mole lunch, a traditional Mexican dish that is often associated with family and celebration, at their grandmother’s house.
Mole poblano is a complex dish that can contain up to 52 ingredients, including chocolate, chilies, spices, and herbs. Hugo and Gabriel’s grandmother’s recipe is passed down through the generations, and it is a true testament to the rich culinary traditions of Mexico.
In addition to mole poblano, we also sampled pulque, a traditional Mexican alcoholic beverage made from fermented agave sap. Hugo and Gabriel’s family has been producing pulque for generations and we got to taste multiple bottles from their pulqueria while enjoying a live band. We had an unforgettable experience dining with Hugo and Gabriel and their grandmother. It was a privilege to learn about their family’s culinary traditions and to taste their authentic Mexican cuisine.
Day 3: Defying Tradition: A Bike tour of Coyoacán and Visit to the Frida Kahlo Museum
Gertrudis, Tita’s sister, is a free-spirited woman who bucks tradition, not unlike Frida Kahlo. Inspired by the passion evoked by Tita’s rose-petal quail dish, Gertrudis runs away to make love with Captain Juan Alejandrez. When he alone can’t “quench the fire” inside her, she goes to work at a brothel. She eventually joins the rebel army and works her way through the ranks to become a general.
Frida Kahlo is also a woman who defied tradition. She cultivated her own self-image and shattered normative boundaries in art. She defied gender norms by dressing in male clothing and taking both men and women as lovers. She defied her destiny as a victim: as a woman with disabilities, she transformed her physical limitations into works of art.
On our third day of the trip, we enjoyed a half-day bike tour of the Coyoacán neighborhood, where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived. Coyoacán was the first capital of New Spain until 1523. We stopped at the Centro Cultural Elena Garro, a community cultural center, bookstore, education, and events venue named after this famous woman writer.
We explored the beautiful parks, street art, and colorful markets of the neighborhood, which were in full bloom for Día de Muertos. We had delicious churros with atole in a colorful plaza and tostadas in the market. We ended our day exploring the Frida Kahlo Museum and had the special surprise of seeing their Día de Muertos altar, which honored Frida’s life.
Day 4: Immersed in History and Revolution
The Mexican Revolution of the early 1900s casts a long shadow over Like Water for Chocolate, influencing critical events from weddings to births. In the novel, the sisters obtain French silk for Rosaura’s wedding night from an intermediary who deals in smuggled goods because travel to the capital is too dangerous during the war. During the birth of Tita’s nephew, Pedro is detained by the federales, and Mama Elena and Chencha are unable to return for the birth because of shooting breaking out in a nearby village. As a result, Tita alone has to deliver Rosaura’s baby. The wet nurse who feeds Rosaura’s baby is killed by a stray bullet from a fight between the rebels and the federales. In an effort to feed her nephew, Tita discovers that she can produce milk even though she has never been pregnant. This draws her and Pedro even closer together, but it is also the catalyst for Tita’s heartbreak and descent into mental illness after the death of her nephew, Roberto.
To immerse ourselves in the history of the Mexican Revolution, we took our own tour of Mexico City. We started the morning in the Guerrero neighborhood, a non-touristic and very traditional barrio where we had a traditional breakfast and visited the market. We then took the metro to the Revolution Monument and a local bar to learn more about the Mexican Revolution and the impact of the war over pulque. We discussed art, architecture, and history as we journeyed through more than 20 sites, including Alameda Central Park, the Fine Arts Palace, Latino Tower, and extravagant altars set out in the Zócalo for the Day of the Dead.
We couldn’t visit Mexico City without visiting at least one bookstore, so we ended the day in el Centro with food and drinks at the historic center location of Librería Porrúa, a local bookstore chain. Above the bookstore is a rooftop bar with amazing views of the Zócalo. Here are a few other bookstores and libraries to visit in Mexico City.
Day 5: Food, Family, and Dia de Muertos
Food is the heartbeat of Like Water for Chocolate. It is the connective tissue between the characters and fills in the gap when words fail. It holds the stories and traditions of the De La Garza family and creates a tie between Tita and Nacha even after death. Dia de Muertos celebrates and honors the loved ones we’ve lost and the permeability between the world of the living and of the dead. During the three days of the holiday, the deceased return to their families and are drawn in by the drinks and food they enjoyed when they were living, which are left out on ofrendas.
In the book, Tita is in the throes of grief after the death of her nephew and sees visions of John’s deceased grandmother, Morning Light, a Kikapu native woman who was kidnapped by John’s grandfather. The herbal teas Morning Light makes and her training in the curative power of plants begin to heal Tita after the loss of her nephew, Roberto. The importance of communion with our loved ones even after death was the backdrop for the evening’s Dia de Muertos activities.
Being in Mexico City, we had the unique opportunity to taste food from various regions around Mexico. We partnered with Sabores Mexico Food Tours for an immersive walking tour visiting various local producers, chefs, restaurant, and storeowners in the Colonia Roma neighborhood. Our guides are proud to be Mexican and are committed to keeping alive the ancient traditions, recipes, history, and stories that make it great. We enjoyed delicious fish tacos, mouthwatering contemporary dishes, tasty tamales, and creative signature cuisine in restaurants we wouldn’t have been able to find on our own. Our guide, Joseph, was the BEST!
We ended our night and our trip celebrating Dia de Muertos. We went to a rooftop party with face painting and tequila and ended at a local cemetery where we saw how local families honor their lost loved ones through ofrendas.
Conclusion
The BOOKED Trips Mexico City trip was a unique and unforgettable experience for book lovers and travelers alike. Travelers had the opportunity to explore a vibrant city, learn about its rich culture, and sample delicious food, all inspired by the beloved novel Like Water for Chocolate. It was a great way to kick off BOOKED Trips as a company and we’re so grateful to our first travelers.
