Tacos de Butifarra Chiapaneca

Chiapas, Los Altos, San Cristobal de las Casas. That is where this taco lives. Cold mountain air, market tables lined with smoked meats, cheeses, panes compuestos, and coils of butifarra made by families who learned the seasoning from mothers and grandmothers, not from a factory label.

Butifarra chiapaneca is pork sausage, compact and well-seasoned, usually eaten sliced as a botana or warmed on the comal. For tacos, you cut it thick enough to keep its bite, then brown it in its own fat until the cut sides take color. No me vengas con atajos. If you boil it or bury it under cheese, you've missed the point.

The salsa belongs to the highlands too. Chile manzano, tomatillo, onion, cilantro, lime. The chile manzano has heat, yes, but it also has a green-fruit sharpness that works against the pork fat. This is not food from a single Mexico. Cada estado, su propia cocina.