Zilopnou Cuisine

Zih-lahp-noo

From the Desert

The ingredients available to the peoples living within the Cipou Canyon? are varied, but limited to things that can thrive within the hot, dry environment they call home. Maize is a particularly common ingredient, it is grown in a variety of colors and used in most dishes. Maize takes particularly well to this environment, allowing it to be grown in large amounts. It is typically boiled in a pot with small chunks of limestone— in a process called nixtamalization. This brings out more flavor, and nutrition, from the grain. (Corn that has gone through this process is often referred to as hominy.) Other common ingredients include a variety of peppers, an herbivore known as a xikichopoli?, deer, yntxol?, cactus, tomato, and fish.

The smell of maize floats on the air, brother. I know it— we are almost home.

— A wandering man

Dishes

Staples

Corn gruel: Often given extra flavor with dried and ground peppers.

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Cuechet: A soup made with pulled xikichopoli meat, bell peppers, and hominy.

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Maize yetl: Or, corn plate— where a mix of meats, peppers, and grain are placed on a plate, and a baked corn tortilla placed on top. This is eaten by grabbing the objects on the plate with the tortilla.

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Maize linac: Or, corn pocket— where ingredients— meats, vegetables, fruits, etc— are placed on uncooked corn dough, and another sheet of dough is placed over it before being cooked.

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Tuat: Fish— usually bass or trout— baked and topped with a tomato-chili sauce.

Sides

Corn cobs: Cooked, or baked.

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Ytnxol fruit: Usually as is, sometimes dried.

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Nuts: Typically cashews, pinyon, or peanuts.

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Cornbread

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Dried corn: This is more typically used by travellers, or military, as a sort of instant meal.

Ah, yntxol— the flavor of home. I wouldn't take aging as well as I have if I was unable to eat it any longer.

— An aging, toothless, man

Yes, it's simple, it may even make one's mouth sore— but dried corn feeds the soul. Keeps the body strong, going, and ready.

— A Lliaqeu soldier

Drinks

Corn milk

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Ytnxol juice

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Tequila

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Pulque: An alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of an agave plant.

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Aloe juice

Deserts

Cuetytl: A cornbread cake mixed with honey, and topped with yntxol jam.

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Honeyed nuts

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Sweet nut bread: Nut dough mixed with honey, then baked.

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