Food festivals in Puebla worth planning a trip around, by month.
Food festivals in Puebla worth planning a trip around, by month.
El Mural de los Poblanos gathers moles from beyond Puebla each May, pouring its own 26-ingredient house recipe alongside mole de Xico and mole de Quimixtlan from guest cooks.
Focus: Mole
Tip: Each mole is served with its own accompaniment, from short rib to turkey and bean tamales, so order across the flight rather than one plate.
Twenty traditional cooks fry molotes on the Plaza de la Concordia in San Pedro Cholula, from tinga and huitlacoche fillings to gourmet versions built on chile en nogada and seafood.
Focus: Molotes
Tip: Entry is free and molotes run between 50 and 200 pesos depending on size, so budget for grazing rather than one order.
Atlixco gives its salted, air-dried beef a fair of its own at the Centro de Convenciones, which is the fastest way to understand why cecina atlixquense travels across the state.
Focus: Cecina
Tip: Atlixco is forty minutes from Puebla by road, so pair the cecina fair with a nogada lunch if you are visiting in August.
The Elotada runs more than forty hours of corn cooking at the Atlixco convention centre, from elotes and antojitos through moles, tamales, chalupas and the town's artisanal ice cream.
Focus: Corn
Tip: It overlaps with chile en nogada season in Atlixco, which makes mid-August the single densest food week in the state.
Puebla pours pulque and seasonal curados over the Day of the Dead weekend, with a community altar, cartoneria craft stalls, poetry and pulquero bands playing into the small hours.
Focus: Pulque
Tip: Entry is by voluntary donation and the Saturday session runs from two in the afternoon until three in the morning.
Atlixco's autumn corn fair follows the summer Elotada and leans harder on the harvest itself, with regional gastronomy stalls built around the maize grown in the valley below Popocatepetl.
Focus: Corn
Tip: The venue moves year to year, so check the Atlixco events calendar before travelling rather than assuming the convention centre.
The avocado growers of San Pedro Benito Juarez, on the slopes above Atlixco, run a one-day fair of gastronomy, crafts and folklore built entirely around the fruit they farm.
Focus: Avocado
Tip: It is a village fair rather than a city event, so go early in the day and treat the drive up from Atlixco as part of it.