This little typical Yucatecan restaurant is located in the little town of
Muna, about 39 km (24 mi) out of Kabah on the way to Uxmal.
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Approaching Chun Yaax Che Restaurant.
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Los Cebos.
Right at the entrance, there is a store that sells replicas of original
Mayan pieces. It belongs to Patricia Martin's atelier Los Cebos, and
specializes in Mayan replicas.
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This Mayan art atelier brings you the opportunity to learn about the
various kinds of replicas from original pieces that have been exported
or exhibited in diverse museums around the world.
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The workshop.
Behind the shop is the workshop. Patricia Morales is a Mayan artisan
certified in Smithsonian, international exhibitions. She receives in her
workshop Los Ceibos in Muna, Yucatan.
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Patricia Martin is not only a world-class artist with pieces of her
creation in museums and private collections around the world, she is
also the least pretentious person you could ever meet.
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This atelier is formed by an artisan family, who make high quality
archeological replicas of Mayan art in stone, jade, and clay, using
pre-Hispanic techniques.
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Each member of this team has a specialty: Rodrigo Martín sculpts;
Julián makes ceramic jars, plates, and pots rotate in the wheel; and
Patricia Martín paints the intricated stories of Mayan life and ritual
on the ceramics.
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See more at
Patricia Martin Morales - Instagram
and
Patricia Martin Morales - Facebook.
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Personal memorabilia.
Among the personal memorabilia from this trip are a small Mayan mask
carved from bone (hopefully not from human bone as the ancient Mayans
did!) acquired at Patricia Martin's Los Cebos workshop (in the center of
the photo), and a ballpoint pen lined with patterns mayas, made by Maria
an indigenous woman in San Cristobal (on the left of the photo).
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On the way to the restaurant.
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Cooking chicken.
At Chun Yaax Che, the cooks arrange chicken in big pans lined with
banana leaves.
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They coat the chicken pieces with lots of bright red achiote sauce and
top them with sliced tomato, red onion and chile dulce, a mild chile
that looks like a miniature bell pepper. After covering the mixture
with more banana leaves, they laid on top a leafy branch from a roble
(native oak). This, they said, would add a special aroma.
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Mayan custom was to bury the chicken protected only by banana leaves.
Romantic as this may sound, the truth is that dirt and ashes got in
the food. So at the restaurant, the pans are topped with tight metal
lids.
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Then they are set amid hot logs and rocks in an outdoor pit and
covered again with a corrugated metal sheet. The logs come from katsin
trees, which grow in the monte, the thick, low jungle that carpets
this flat terrain.
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After four hours, the chicken emerges incredibly succulent and falling
off the bone.
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See also
Sources
Location
