Cindy Fan

Breakfast is a decadent affair at these international venues

Published in The Australian – Travel+Luxury on September 17-18, 2022

Cindy Fan

Chicken in mole negro at Almu

In a rustic, open-air restaurant set within an endemic plant nursery in the desert town of San Martín Tilcajete, 45 minutes from Oaxaca City, an army of sturdy women prepare morning spreads based on what’s fresh from local farms. Amid copal trees and potted succulents, perk up with café de olla (spiced, sweetened coffee), before tucking into traditional Oaxacan dishes such as chicken in mole negro, a rich sauce of chocolate and dried chilli, or higaditos, a hearty serve of scrambled eggs, broth, meat and liver. Watch as the cooks press tortillas, grind cacao and froth jugs of hot atole by hand. Masa cakes toast up on the clay griddle, soups and moles simmer over a wood-fire as cazuelas of cheese-topped stew bubble and brown at the hearth. Ranchera music is accompanied by a kitchen cacophony of chopping, mixing, pounding, clattering and sizzling, along with the sound of diners enthusiastically scraping their plates.