I have celebrated many Halloweens, but never Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), so I thought to change that fact this year.
In honour of this Mexican tradition, Tamaly Shop hosted a handful of different themed workshops to showcase the celebration and educate on the culture.
I decided to attend the one on Halloween night, which happened to be the baking of the traditional bread of Dia De Los Muertos, as well as some pumpkin decorating.
The tradition does not call for costumes however, I thought to dress up in the Canadian spirit anyhow. As guests trickled in, we took a seat at the long table centring their cafe space.
For those unfamiliar, the restaurant specializes in the traditional Mexican tamale. They have these in an assortment of sweet and savoury options, available fresh or frozen. Plus, they have a full menu’s worth of authentic Mexican dishes and coffee to choose from.
We began the session with some background history on the Day at the Dead, speaking to the alters that are built to honour the dead. The belief is that every year on November 1st and 2nd your deceased love ones return from the land of the dead to visit you here in the living. A two day celebration, where the first is to commemorate the martyrs.
In order to ensure your loved ones know where you are and can easily find you, you curate elaborate shrines dedicated to them. These are decorated with their favourite items when they were alive, each of the offerings with their own significance. It often includes tequila, their favourite foods and fruits, and your favourite photos of them.
Today we were invited to write our own well wishes, and the names of those who we miss and are now gone, and add them to the shrine.
Everything placed on the alter is not to be touched or taken off for at least three days. Once those days have elapsed, the food is discarded, as it is considered already eaten by the dead.
There is often a mix of both living elements and nods to the deceased. The best example are sugar skulls, which actually symbolizes the historic practice of burying your love ones beneath your home, as they were no graveyards in the past. So these colorful, happy skulls are used to represent them in a more friendly, every day way.
Water is presented as it connects the land of the living to the dead. There is also salt placed on the alter that is meant to cleanse, allowing the good spirits through the threshold, and dispelling the evil. Candles are also commonplace, as they are lit to help guide the way.
And most important, is the fresh made Pan de Muerto (Day of the Dead bread). Typically only made during this time of year in Mexico, so people are clamouring to get their hands on them. However, the Tamaly Shop does have them available all through the year, for those interested in trying.
The design on the top of the buns are meant to symbolize bones. The traditional flavour is orange blossom, which is thought to help guide the dead to you through it scent. Otherwise it is a plain bread topped with butter and colourful sprinkles. Each colour has a meaning as well. The black represents ashes, the pink used to attract brightness, and the yellow and orange are for the marigolds that are used heavily in this celebration. These flowers are said to also attract the deceased through their fragrance.
We then learned how to make Pan de Muerto with a live demo in Spanish. Admittedly it was hard to follow as a non-speaker and to watch from my seated. From what I could gather and referring the recipe hand outs, the gist of it is adding the ingredients in a certain order and mixing it on low with a stand mixer.
Prepared step by step from scratch by the in-house chef. It involves yeast so would require three hours to rise. Therefore, for the sake of time they prepared a batch of dough ready to go.
Each person got enough to roll out their own bun. After watching how with a tutorial, we were left to own devices. Kneading with the palm, sectioning out the dough, folding the edges over, and then rolling out the smaller pieces to be the “bones” that would be place over the top of the bun.
Ours was flavoured with the traditional orange blossom extract and orange zest, but they have been known to use cream and Nutella as a filling for a commercial take. The texture has also been made modern, as the traditional version is hard like a cookie and designed to look like a mummy.
After a wash of butter, each bun was placed onto a pan, to allow to rise further before a communal baking. Each person is given a number so that we would be able to identify our own. The entire pan is baked for 50 minutes at 350°. The result is a golden brown bun that puffed up wonderfully, spongy and soft.
The final step would be to brush on more melted butter before sprinkling on your desired coloured toppings.
It was quite the treat to be able to eat it right away, and notice how light and fluffy it was. You could definitely make out the gentle flavour of the orange. This is a wonderful bun to enjoy with tea.
The second part of the workshop is learning how to paint a sugar skull, but on a pumpkin. The traditional method is to use an actual ceramic shaped skull and place it on the alter, as mentioned above. However, considering the country we were in, the event organizers cleverly had us combining this Mexican tradition with a Canadian one, and we were tasked with painting pumpkins in the traditional sugar skull imagery.
Event goers were able to choose their own pumpkins and using a wide variety of art products available paint, color, and draw to their creativity’s end. I immediately grabbed the cans of spray paint. And used paint paste and metallic gold to give my pumpkin its face. The activity saw many of the participants quiet as we focused on the task at hand. Little did we know there would be a $50 gift card at stake. The Tamaly shop was hosting a contest that based on the number of likes each pumpkin gets online, the winner would earn this prize.
Unfortunately for me, due to an almost accident by an Uber driver, my pumpkin was ruined in the car ride home. And I unfortunately did not think to take any of the paints or brushes home, that we were all able and invited to. This was considering that my piece had been completed. C’est la vie.
This workshop was hosted by a famous, local Mexican artist who specializes in oil painting. He too spoke to the traditions of the sugar skull and the significance they have representing love ones, as I mentioned above.
In closing, this was a fun way to learn more about the Mexican culture and I walked away with a new found appreciation for the food. I appreciate how great they are at introducing their culture to those less familiar, like myself.
Tamaly Shop
2525 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5T 3E5
(604) 369-3446
tamaly-shop.com
