La Asuncion Oaxacan Bakery/Bites preserves heritage and gastronomic traditions from the…read morePre-Hispanic era. Come here for your Day of the Dead colorful sugar skulls and decorative Pan de Muerto. Or, dive into a good representation of Oaxacan cuisine. Decolonize Your Diet!
You'll find tasty lunchy-snacky bites here you won't find elsewhere in the city. Please be patient with Doña Martha as she's the only one in the kitchen cooking.
In her baked goods display, you will find:
PAN DE MUERTO - Day of Dead edible bread art with the dead depicted in a very Art Deco Tamara Lempicka style.
PAN DE YEMA (DE HUEVO) - Egg Yolk Bread, a staple in Oaxacan cuisine with strict rules about size, weight, egg ratio.
PAN DE CAZUELA (or, DE TLACOLULA) - oddly shaped bread due to the baking vessel. Ever so subtle chocolate, raisins, cinnamon, anise. Quintessentially Oaxacan!
EMPANADAS - recognizable sweet-filled empanadas (strawberry, coconut, or pineapple)
Bakery breads here are not as sweet or showy as other panaderias - most are intended for dunking with your café de olla.
For lunch/a bite, just ask and order what's available that day. Here's what's possible:
TLAYUDA (like a rustic large flatbread tostada tortilla) - tasajo is beef organs jerky style. Warning: it's tougher/salty (not to my taste). Try the chorizo, cecina enchilada (marinated pork or beef), pollo (chicken), mole (chocolate sauce) version.
EMPANADAS AMARILLO: Yellow empanadas with chicken. A Oaxacan delight which you'll recognize as a folded tortilla stuffed with a slightly spicy chicken stew rather than a proper empanada.
MEMELAS/PELLIZCADAS - rustic flat sopes with a mole spread, a little drizzle of cream, and topped with quesillo (Oaxacan semi-hard white cheese like string or mozzarella cheese) and then topped with chorizo, beef, or chicken). The chorizo was lovely. A favorite!
QUESADILLAS - large tlayuda tortilla stuffed with quesillo cheese and your choice: grasshoppers, sautéed squash blossom, or huitlacoche (corn smut/fungus) or meat choices like barbacoa, chorizo, beef jerky (tasajo)
TAMALES - salsa roja or verde (red or green sauce), mole (chocolate based sauce), rajas con queso (poblano chile and cheese) and the very special puerco puñete (which means "punch" and shaped like little tamale balls stuffed with beans and sometimes pork or other meats). Again, something you're really not going to find unless you travel into the region. These are rumored to taste good even when cold.
CHILAQUILES - tortilla casserole with eggs and/or meat. Typically, a breakfast dish though good anytime!
For a refreshing treat, Oaxacan nieves (snow) are served here. Like an ice/snow cone or sorbet, nothing like ice cream or custard.
TUNA - Prickly Pear Cactus
LECHE QUEMADA - an unusual and delightful smoky milk flavor. I've never had anything like it and yet, it's vaguely familiar. It's best served Oaxacan style with a little of the tuna (prickly pear cactus) on top,
Other flavors NUEZ (Walnut), LIMON (Lime), NUEZ (Walnut), MAMEY, COCO(nut), FRESA (Strawberry), MANGO.
CAFE DE OLLA - coffee with cinnamon and brown sugar, it's really delightful on a cold, blustery day.
In the same shopping center as Every Grain (a culinary hotspot), La Asuncion is a kinda small, cluttered,unkempt space for maybe 8 people total and it's perfect that way. Sometimes, there's a little rush for bread. Most of the time, it's empty and unassuming. I'm so glad I ventured in and spent a little time learning about this cuisine. While I am Mexican, this region is unfamiliar to me and I'm learning and loving it and have ordered some cookbooks to start experimenting and using the ingredients I bought. Buen Provecho/Enjoy!
P.S. Be sure not to miss the specialty ingredients sold for Oaxacan cooking at home including:
TOMILLO (Thyme) from Oaxaca
SAL DE GUSANITO - Ground worms in salt used as a smoky/salty Pre-Hispanic protein with mezcal or on any dish that needs a little extra insect. ;)
HIERBA DE CONEJO - Rabbit's Herb, relative to the daisy used to make black beans,
GARBANZO Y FRIJOL MOLIDO - Ground Beans to make soup,
OAXACAN CHOCOLATE - used as a culinary ingredient rather than to enjoy on its own,
CHAPULINES - Grasshoppers, great in tacos (totally!)
COPAL- not edible, used for altars. Mayans used it as incense and as a spiritual thing. Can be used for everyday atmospheric scent
CHINTEXTLE - refrigerated wild smoked chili paste made from shrimp, pasilla chiles, avocado leaves, spices, nuts like pecans/almonds, herbs. It's like an ancient Clif Bar paste. Warriors & workers spread this on to tlayuda (large rustic tortillas) to take it with them for energy. Use it as a spread for fish and meats in cooking.
Ingredients here sound super exciting - temper expectations. These are very humble ingredients from an ancient cuisine - sometimes much milder and sometimes spicier/more pungent than expected and sold in little plastic bags. :)
