Quintonil
01Amaranthus hybridus
The amaranth green that names the house, taken young for its mineral, spinach like bite.
Polanco, Mexico City
We cook native quelites, wild herbs, and milpa produce, gathered young and read like a living herbarium.
Specimen of the day
Hoja santa
The big aniseed leaf we steam our tamal in, gathered before the sun turns the gardens warm.
The method
The leaf leads. Everything else answers it.
We treat the native herb as the lead voice, not the garnish. A single quelite sets the direction of each plate, and the chilli, the masa, and the broth move quietly around it.
We treat the native herb as the lead voice, not the garnish. Each plate is built around a single quelite or wild green, pressed and labelled in our minds like a specimen, then cooked just far enough to release what it already holds. The chilli, the masa, and the broth move around it. The herb stays in the centre.
The herbarium
A field index of the native greens in rotation this season.
Papalo
02Porophyllum ruderale
A loud, almost soapy leaf torn raw over cured fish so each piece reads on its own.
Hoja santa
03Piper auritum
A broad aniseed leaf we steam tamal inside until it gives up its root beer scent.
Epazote
04Dysphania ambrosioides
The herb that anchors a bean broth, sharp and resinous, never used by halves.
Verdolaga
05Portulaca oleracea
Purslane, succulent and faintly sour, dressed in a sauce drawn from its own stems.
Huauzontle
06Chenopodium berlandieri
Wild amaranth flower, fried light and set in a pale pumpkin seed mole.
Romeritos
07Suaeda torreyana
A fine seepweed that drinks up dark mole and turns the plate to the colour of soil.
Chepil
08Crotalaria longirostrata
Small bright leaves folded through a custard of milk corn, sweet and grassy together.
Pipicha
09Porophyllum tagetoides
A slender cousin of papalo, citrus sharp, scattered at the last moment over warm masa.
Plates built around a single green.
A few dishes from recent evenings, each named for the leaf that leads it. The order on the table changes with the morning gather.
Verdolaga and charred avocado
Purslane gathered before noon, dressed in a green sauce of its own stems, served over avocado seared on the comal until its edges turn bitter and sweet at once.
Huauzontle in pumpkin seed
Wild amaranth flower fried in a thin batter, set in a pale mole of toasted pumpkin seed, with a thread of serrano oil drawn across the plate.
Hoja santa, masa, and milk curd
Fresh masa pressed thin and wrapped around fresh curd, steamed in hoja santa until the leaf gives up its root beer scent, finished with a salsa of green tomato.
Papalo with sea bass
Line caught bass cured briefly in lime, scattered with torn papalo and pickled chepil, the herbs left whole so each leaf reads clearly on the tongue.
One leaf, pressed and read before it is cooked.
Every quelite that passes the kitchen is logged in a working herbarium at the pass. The record teaches the menu what the season already knew, and keeps the gardens at the centre of the room.
A kitchen that has made the humble quelite the most exciting thing on a Mexican plate, precise and deeply rooted in its valley.
Sit at the garden table and let the leaf decide.