Masala y Maiz — A restaurant after my own heart
Next to Indian food, Mexican food has always been my favorite. It makes sense given that I have an Indian background and was born and raised in Texas. It is so exciting to me that these two countries from opposite sides of the planet have so many similarities in their cuisines. I think that’s for a variety of reasons — they are huge countries spanning across a range of latitudes with unmatched geographical diversity, they favor spicy and well-spiced food, there is a love for punchy, acidic, complex flavors, and then there’s that whole unfortunate colonization thing.
Take a salsa verde and compare it to a cilantro chutney, for example. The sauce of an aguachile and that of a pani puri. A mole rojo and a rich curry base. Picadillo and keema. Empanadas and samosas. Queso panela and paneer. Jamoncillos and pera! Tortillas and chapatis! Arroz con leche and kheer! The list goes on! And on!
What is unique about my experience of Indian food is that it’s more of an Indo-African blend. My family moved from India to Tanzania four generations ago, so the food I grew up eating is never something you’d find in an Indian restaurant outside of East Africa.
Enter Masala y Maiz, a restaurant in Mexico City that “explores the migration of people, culinary techniques, ingredients, cultural food ways and political movements between South Asia, East Africa & Mexico.” Chefs Norma Listman and Saqib Keval create an experience that honors the “intersections of their respective cultures and the many similarities between their foodways.” They go on to describe this with the word mestizaje:
Mestizaje - An organic blending of cultures over generations often in response to colonization & displacement. This is the culture in-between that happens when people come together.
I so looked forward to dining here in August 2022 during a short trip to Mexico City, and Masala y Maiz did not disappoint.
Suadero samosas with a pastry nearly as thin and delicate as my Dadima’s. A crudo served with pappadum. Infladita chaat, essentially a giant pani puri, filled with a mango pickle raita and epazote chutney. Peel and eat masala shrimp served with a vanilla and chile morita ghee that was so caramelized it almost tasted like butterscotch. Clams with paratha. Whole fish in a tamarind adobo served with a starfruit kachumber and tortillas.
This feast paired with some super interesting natural wines took the experience to the next level. Like chefs Listman and Keval say, this is not fusion. This is so much more – A reflection of the complexities of culture, both the tragedies of colonization and forced migration and the beauty of movement building. The ingredient exchanges of Mexican for Indian and vice versa made sense on the most fundamental level. It all just fit. They create food that tastes like the food my grandmother makes while at the same time tasting like something I have never dreamed of.
On a personal note, it was incredible to see my unique background reflected back to me in a world renowned restaurant. My grandmother comes from a village that had no running water or electricity. She immigrated to the United States and left a decades long, abusive marriage. To see her food in a restaurant that is sought-after, thoughtful, artistic, and let’s face it, impossibly hip, was something special.
Masala y Maiz shows that we are more alike than we are different, but that in the nooks of those differences lies such an extraordinary joy.