Fine Dining for the Dead

Hanal Pixan Altar, Izamal, Yucatán, MX 2023

Hanan Pixel Altar, Akumal, Quintana Roo, MX

In the Maya-speaking states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán, in Mexico, Dia de los Metros, the Day of the Dead, are known as Hanal Pixán.  Hanal and Pixán, respectively, mean food and soul and the Maya language and used together, the phrase means "food for the souls".  This is literally the point of all Day of the Dead celebrations, whether in the Maya lands or in central Mexico,  The idea is to provide food (and drink) for the deceased to encourage them to return to the land of the living for an annual visit, maintaining a link between the living and the dead.

There is one dish that is characteristic of Hanal Pixán altars that you will not find in other parts of Mexico. That is mukbil pollo which translates as "buried chicken"; the dish is also called "pibes".  Mukbil Pollo is a chicken tamale wrapped in banana lives and cooked in a hole in the ground; the realm of the dead. It has a distinctive smokiness due to the way it is cooked.

Mukbil Pollo

The thing is that living people also like Mukbil Pollo.  It has a wonderful smoky aroma and taste because of the way it is cooked-wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in an open fire underground. Several years ago, I had the dish in a restaurant in Izamal during the time of Hanal Pixan. Hoping for a repeat, I drove the three hours to Izamal from my home base in Quintana Roo, since Mukbil Pollo is generally not available commercially'. It typically s cooked in homes for the express purpose of the altars.

Arriving in Izamal, a fascinating town with a rich colonial colonial history and the beautiful 16th century monastery of San Antonio de Padua, I began my inquiries. They turned up nothing.

,,

Convento of San Antonio de Padua, Izamal Yucatán

Izamal, Yucatán

Street scene, Izamal, Yucatán, showing monastery wall

Finally, someone told me about a woman with a tricycle cart who sold mukbil pollo, daily, proving my point that the dish attracts the living as well as the dead. Asking as I went, I found her street and then her house.  Peering in her house, I could see the pibes (same as Mukbil Pollo). 

House interior, Izamal, Yucatan 

Mukbil Pollo orders for Hanal Pixán altars, Izamal, Yucatán

Counting the orders of Mukbil Pollo, Izamal, Yucatán

The woman was a good businesswoman and had her grand-daughter tally orders to see if there was spare for me.   As she counted the orders, I decided not to to take food out of a dead person's mouth, thanked her and told her to hold onto her orders in case one was needed for a last-minute altar.

Back on the street I started, once again, making my inquiries.  I was in luck- a restaurant down the block, the finest in the town, was serving mukbil pollo to living humans.   I'd managed to stumble into Izamal's fine-dining establishment, the beautiful Restaurant Kinich Izamal. 

 Kinich's special for the day- it was November 1, the second day of Hanal Pixán- was none other than Mukbil Pollo.  The portion was huge, as one is typically split by a whole family.  I'm not sure if it was actually cooked in the traditional way, stuck in a fire in a hole in the ground, but it was close enough.

Restaurante Kinich Izamal

Mukbil Pollo, R Kinich, Izamal, Yucatan

A sizable box of left-overs in hand, I walked back to my car for the 3 hour return trip.

 

Dia de los Muertos: Hospitality for the Dead

Dia de los Muertos Altar;  San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, MX
(click to enlarge photos)

Mexican altars for Dia de los Muertos range from the very simple to to the elaborate. Yet, they all share a single purpose: offering hospitality to the dead and including them, for a brief period of time in the world of the living as not just memories but really present.  This unique outlook on death forms a sharp contrast to attitudes to the dead outside of the Latin American world where the dead are remembered with respect and their memories treasured, but where the prospect of the dead actually being present makes people uncomfortable. 

For the Days of the Dead, November 1 (children) and 2 (adults) in Mexico everything is done to entice the dead back to their former homes on earth and a big part of the effort is food.The living strive to throw a great party for the dead with the things that they used to enjoy eating and drinking in life.

Altar at Los Arcos Restaurant, Izamal, MX

The altars, altares in Spanish, regardless of how elaborate they may be are all just tables as can be seen in the photos below; we tend to lose sight of the fact that all altars in all religions are  tables meant to serve sacrifices to the gods.  The altars for Dia de los Muertos serve food that the living sacrifice for the comfort of the dead, who although they are not gods, are the honorees of these days. In fact, in the language of the Yucatec Maya, the name for Dia de los Muertos, is Hanal Pixam which translates in Spanish as Comida de las Animas, or food for the souls.

Small Table Altar, Izamal, MX

Decorative for Dia de los Muertos in form of a table altar, Playa del Carmen, MX

The observance of Dia de los Muertos varies throughout Mexico from the very traditional as documented in my video shot in Chamula Chiapas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg_1bTFIi1g  to more typical observations of the holiday as seen in this video from San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np9YteLYljE.  Over the years, the Oct. 31st celebration of Halloween has come to be included in the holiday.

    

In each area of Mexico, the holiday takes on characteristics of the specific locale. These palm-leaf covered palapa altars are typical in the Yucatan, where the palapa is a basic unit of architecture.  The altars are placed within the palapa rather than being out in the open air.  The one below is from the cemetery in Playa del Carmen in the state of Quintana Roo, which is located in the eastern part of the Yucatan peninsula.

Playa del Carmen, MX

Each year a traditional altar like the one in the photo above is built in Playa's cemetery and is the only one there.  

Dia de los Muertos altar inside the above palapa

Palapa altar for Dia de los Muertos, Cozumel, MX

Yet, among all of the different twists on observing the Days of the Dead, usually Oct. 31-Nov. 2,  and in some places such as the traditional Mayan communities of Quintana Roo for the week following Nov.1, there is one thing they share in common: food. Dead souls are believed to enjoy food and drink as much as the living, although they partake of it in a different way, through inhaling its essence.  In fact, Hanal Pixam, the Yucatec Maya name for Dias de los Muertos, translates as Comida de las Animas or food of the souls.

In mid-October throughout Mexico begin offering the special foods associated with the holiday. One is  pan de muertos, bread of the dead, and these are sold throughout Mexico.

Pan de Muertos

If you look closely you can see the cut-out pieces of dough that resemble bones.
Along these lines, other foods typically seen during this holiday are skull-shaped
candies made of sugar. Sugar skulls, inscribed with the names of the deceased on the forehead, are often eaten by a relative or friend.

Sugar Skull, Playa del Carmen, MX

Sugar Skulls, Playa del Carmen, MX

Various sorts of other sweets are put on the altars for the enjoyment of the deceased, such as the preserved pumpkins seen in the photo below.

Preserved pumpkins in Playa del Carmen store

The dead have to be properly enticed back to the world of the living or they may not show up.  Engaging the dead person's  sense of smell is critical in guiding them back to the world of the living and in assuring that they will come to the altars to partake of the feasts offered.  Copal incense is burned in containers and sweet-smelling wood is put out as well to help them find their way.

Coal incense in Playa del Carmen store

Items for Dia de los Muertos in Playa del Carmen, MX

By far, the most unique food for Dia de los Muertos comes from the Yucatan and is know as  pibes or mucbil pollo.  This is a kind of tamale that is wrapped in banana leaves and roasted underground, the domain of the dead. I was told that the delicious-smelling steam coming from the hot food is what entices the dead.  

Pibes on altar in Restaurante Los Arcos, Izamal, Yucatan, MX

But, the good news is that you don't have to wait until you are dead to enjoy pibes.  Although it is placed on altars as an offering, as on the above altar from Izamal, it is a delicious food for the living and happens to be one of my favorite Yucatan foods. Personally, I look forward to Dia de los Muertos for my annual helping.

Pibes from Restaurante Los Arcos, Izamal, Yucatan

Not only food, but alcohol is included on altars as offerings to the dead (and the living).

In Chiapas, for instance, it is customary that the living drink the very high-proof local alcohol called pox, (pronounced "posh") that is also offered to the dead and it is an insult to refuse a glass of pox.

Beer for Day of the Dead in grocery store, Playa del Carmen, MX

Altar, Chiapas

The result is a party-like atmosphere in the graveyard, a place most of us would see as

a solemn venue.  Not, the case in Mexico, where the dead are welcomed with music, joy, food and drink.

Dia de los Muertos, San Juan Chamula, Chiapas

  The result is a party-like celebration in the grave-yard, a place that most of us would see as a very solemn venue.  Not the case in Mexico, where the dead are welcomed with music, joy and of course, food.  In some places the holiday is observed in a more sedate way, as it was in this lovely celebration in the cemetery of Playa de Carmen, MX this year.  There, I was fortunate enough to be invited into a family plot by the family's gracious matriarch who had a group of musicians serenade the tombs of two of her children.  The peace the celebration gave to her and the rest of her family was evident; everyone in the family, living and dead, was together again. 

Dia de los Muertos Celebration, Playa de Carmen, MX