Locomotoring

After traipsing through the caves of Lava Bed National Monument, I caved into my long term desire and bought my first (and hopefully my last) molcajete. If Masienda had sold a legged molcajete, I would have bought that. If any other purveyor with provenance had a legged molcajete to sell, I would have bought that. But as such, my only option after searching the world from my armchair ended up being Masienda’s Chico. It arrived yesterday and I spent the morning seasoning it (link).

In my land, my mothers and their mothers have used the equivalent of metate, we call it shil nora. The shil is the larger stone and the nora is the handheld stone. I still remember using my mother’s shil nora for the first time – I had added some fresh grooves to her shil and some noticeable rocks to my ginger-garlic paste. I eventually learned the motion. Modern kitchens are not quite suited to shil nora, but a mortar and pestle fits in. Fact is that many of us have several sets of mortar and pestle. The molcajete is the closest to shil nora.

Unlike the Japanese Suribachi, Molcajete feels primeval. The tejolote (pestle) of this model fits my palms perfectly. I am hoping that as the tejolote calluses my hands, my hands in turn would smooth the volcanic stone down. Is it just a little poetic that we use the angry core of earth, the lava, to create a kitchen equipment that is used in pounding and smashing?