Tierra del Sol

Chef-owner Olga Cabrera Oropeza hails from the provincial town of Huajuapan de Leon in Mixteca, the rugged northwestern region shared by Oaxaca and the states of Puebla and Guerrero. She grew up with the sweet smell of pulque-leavened breads made by her mom, a renowned local baker, and helped her abuela run a rustic comedor (lunchtime restaurant) famous for pipianes (moles thickened with pumpkin seeds) and chileajos, the Mixtecan stews powered with fruity-hot slender chiles costeños.

After moving to Oaxaca City two decades ago, Cabrera opened her own modest comedor proudly serving her region’s dishes. But the urbanites here, used to the rich sweetened colonial flavors of Oaxaca’s Valles Centrales, didn’t instantly “get” the direct, spicy Mixtecan flavors.

These days, as cuisines from Oaxaca’s different regions are having a moment, Cabrera presides over one of the most acclaimed local restaurants—and is growing a little food empire around it. On Tierra del Sol’s expansive terrace suspended above Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca with looming mountain views, one can kick off with a craft mezcal and a miraculous multi-colored tetela, a triangle composed from three different masas and filled with huitlacoche and beans.

Among Cabrera’s unique moles is a seasonal umami-rich mole del campo, usually made during rainy season and involving chapulines (grasshoppers) and chiles costeños; and a mole de laurel she prepares with aromatic Mixtecan bay leaves, fermented fruit, and chiles pasillas. Also on the menu: Cabrera’s tour de force mole blanco that took her months to create—a delicate mixture of almonds, chiles de agua, white cacao, and sesame seeds among more than two dozen ingredients, all blended and served over meaty sauteed oyster mushrooms.

Among Cabrera’s other tributes to Mixtecan milpas are a warm salad of 10 varieties of heirloom beans, each soaked and cooked differently; or a tiradito de nopal featuring batons of four different cactus types presented over a zingy gazpacho-like sauce.

Downstairs next door to the restaurant sits Cabrera’s bakery called Masea Trigo y Maiz where the conchas and guava pastries pay homage to her mom. And adjacent is the Atoleria specializing in the thick nourishing pre-Hispanic drink called atole, here in flavors ranging from blue corn and walnut to yellow corn perfumed with jasmine, to a champurrado blending four different kinds of Oaxacan cacao beans.