At 07:26 AM 10/30/01 -0800, Ted Wagner wrote: >You know what's VERY hard to find is a place that serves mole. The >last place I had TRUE mole with chicken was down in Yuma, AZ. I was >always amazed and the varied dishes on the menu that you rarely found >at any other "run-of-the-mill" Mexican restaurant in the US. it's equally tough to find 'real' mole in mexico...except in certain areas, during certain times of the year...it is a complex dish, requiring a LOT of time and ingredients that is usually made from-scratch only during certain holiday seasons...most restaurants use mole from a commercial paste, found in a jar, just like the one you find on your supermarket shelf... not that that is all bad...there are several brands of mole paste which make very passable mole...but alas, some are not... there are as many recipes for mole as there are for chili...but all have a long list of ingredients, and remind me of the new orleans cook that was asked for her recipe for making a roux..."lock the door and take the phone off the hook" was the beginning of the recipe...if you want to make mole from scratch, plan on spending an afternoon... bill (who has had TRUE mole, and still believes that chocolate belongs in eclairs, not on turkey)... There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself. -- J.S. Bach