A pastry brought to Mexico by British miners is still popular after 200 years

ENT

A pastry brought to Mexico by British miners is still popular after 200 years

2024-10-15 12:10 Last Updated At：12:30

REAL DEL MONTE, Mexico (AP) — Isabel Arriaga Lozano carefully fills a small pastry with a savory mix of meat, potatoes and chili pepper. She is crafting a “paste” (pronounced PAH-stay), a beloved Mexican snack with a rich history.

Originating in the mining town of Real del Monte, in the Mexican central state of Hidalgo, the “paste” was introduced by British miners in the 1820s and has since become a local culinary tradition. Each year, food enthusiasts converge on Real del Monte to celebrate the International Paste Festival, honoring its delicious heritage.

Pastes are popular across Mexico, with fillings ranging from spicy Mexican mole to sweeter concoctions like pineapple or blueberry with cheese.

And although many are unaware of their surprising origin, a graveyard at the top of a cobbled hill holds the clue: around 700 graves sit covered in moss and lichen with distinctly English names. These are the graves of the hundreds of miners who traveled to Mexico in 1824 to work in Real del Monte, extracting silver, copper, zinc, gold and mercury.

The miners came from Cornwall, a region on the southwest of England which had a similar strong mining community in the 19th century. They brought with them this iconic snack, known in England as a “Cornish pasty.”

Cornish pasties date from the 13th century, when they were the food of nobility and the upper crust. By the 19th century, they became popular with working class Cornish families. A simple shortcrust pastry case was filled with cheap cuts of meat alongside potatoes, rutabaga and onion. The pastry was then crimped at the side, sealing the ingredients and giving the eater something to hold onto.

The crimped side would serve as a sort of handle, meaning that the miners could hold onto their lunch without getting the rest of the pasty dirtied with mud and grime from working in the mines.

Arriaga said she has made pastes for 30 years. She married into a paste-making family and took over the business when her husband passed away. Pastes, she said, have become a crucial part of life in the “magical town” of Real del Monte. “I think around 50% of us here make a living from this,” she said, highlighting a very special ingredient that goes into every snack. “It’s, above all, the love we put into every paste that makes it a good product."

She said pastes have persisted thanks to the “mexicanization” of the ingredients. Compared to Cornish pasties, she said, "in Mexico (...) we always look for that spicy flavor ... we add pepper, we add parsley.”

Pastes are such an iconic snack in Real del Monte that they have their own museum.

“The paste arrived in the year 1824, with the English miners from Cornwall who came to Real del Monte to start working in the mines," said Epifanio Garcés Torres, director of the town's Paste Museum. "The first Englishwoman to bake (one) here in Real del Monte was Mary Jenkins in 1824.”

Visitors at this year's paste festival tried an array of treats. Where pastes in the U.K. have adopted fillings such as “full English breakfast,” “steak and ale” or “lamb and mint,” the Mexican influence on the pastry here is clear: Frijoles (beans); spiced mole sauce or Mexican style tuna — with the obligatory chili pepper — are on the menu.

“They’re delicious," said one festival goer.

The festival featured colorful banners and signs displaying the Mexican, British and Cornish flags, highlighting a unique connection between Mexico and Britain that goes back 200 years — and linking the towns of Real del Monte and Cornwall, which sit more than 5,300 miles (8,530 kilometers) apart.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Soto, Stanton homers back Rodón as Yankees take advantage of wild Guardians to win ALCS opener 5-2

2024-10-15 12:21 Last Updated At：12:30

NEW YORK (AP) — Juan Soto's home run punctured Cleveland pitching, which then went wild.

Soto put New York ahead in a three-run third inning, and the Yankees beat the Guardians 5-2 on Monday night in an AL Championship Series opener that included Cleveland throwing five wild pitches and walking nine batters.

Giancarlo Stanton added his 13th career postseason homer for the Yankees, who are seeking a record 41st AL pennant and their first since winning the 2009 title.

“Getting the start-off win is big,” Stanton said. “It’s a message in its own.”

Cleveland became the second team to throw a pair of run-scoring wild pitches in a postseason inning and tied a postseason record with five overall. Guardians pitchers walked six in a nine-batter span and nine overall.

“They don’t chase a whole lot,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “If I take something away from tonight, we just need to attack the zone better.”

New York batters have walked 36 times in five postseason games.

“That’s what they’re capable of. That’s in their DNA,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We beat that over — we hammer it.”

Game 2 is at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. Entering this year, teams taking the opener of a series with a 2-3-2 format have won 66 of 99 times.

Soto entered 7 for 11 with four homers against Cobb. Before a sellout crowd of 47,264 that included pop star Taylor Swift, Soto hit his first postseason homer for New York when he drove a high slider from Alex Cobb into the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center.

He made a circle sign toward the relievers with his hands as he rounded first.

“It’s only me and the bullpen.” Soto said, smiling. “We keep it to ourselves.”

Rodón rebounded from the Yankees’ only loss in the Division Series, limiting the Guardians to a pair of singles before Brayan Rocchio’s sixth-inning homer.

“The goal was to just stay in control, stay in control of what I can do, obviously physically and emotionally,” Rodón said. “I thought I executed that well tonight.”

Stanton's seventh-inning homer boosted the lead to 5-1. Steven Kwan cut the Guardians' deficit when he extended his postseason hitting streak to a team-record 11 games with an RBI single in the eighth off Clay Holmes.

Luke Weaver entered with runners at the corners. He struck out pinch-hitter Will Brennan and retired José Ramírez on a groundout, and then followed a leadoff walk in the ninth with three straight strikeouts for his fourth save this postseason.

Making his first playoff appearance in 11 years, Cobb walked the bases loaded in the third and rookie reliever Joey Cantillo threw a pair of run-scoring wild pitches.

Cantillo had four wild pitches overall, one shy of the record for a postseason game set by Rick Ankiel of St. Louis in a 2000 NL Division Series opener against Atlanta. The only other time a team scored twice on wild pitches in a postseason inning was by Minnesota against Oakland's Tim Hudson and Ted Lilly in the 2002 AL Division Series.

“That performance was obviously the difference in the game, so that’s on me,” Cantillo said.

Cobb dropped in 0-2 in the playoffs, making just his fifth start in a year limited by injuries. He threw 36 of 65 pitches for strikes, getting only one swing and miss, and allowed three runs, five hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings.

Cobb, who had hip surgery last Oct. 31, was removed because of hip tightness and a back spasm.

“It’s kind of been there for a little bit but, obviously, I had the surgery and tendinitis kind of flares up every once in a while," Cobb said. "Sometimes the back will tighten up along with it.”

Rodón struck out nine and walked none, getting 25 misses among 53 swings, matching the fourth-most misses in a postseason game since pitch-tracking began in 2008. His pitches broke so much that catcher Austin Wells had to throw to first three times on strikeouts for the putouts.

“He was just in complete command of himself and of his emotions,” Boone said.

Still, New York knows it was only one game. The Yankees opened the 2019 ALCS with a win at Houston, then lost three in a row and were knocked out in six games.

“In our eyes, we haven’t done nothing yet,” Stanton said. “We’ve got to win three out of six, and we take that as three out of three."

TRAINER’S ROOM

Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (flexor strain in pitching elbow) is to throw a second bullpen session Wednesday and is a possibility for the World Series roster, should the Yankees advance.

UP NEXT

Yankees RHP Gerrit Cole makes his third postseason start on Tuesday after beating Kansas City in the Division Series clincher. He is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA this postseason. RHP Tanner Bibee starts for the Guardians. He had a 2.08 ERA without a decision in a pair of Division Series starts against Detroit.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb