Maiz Maiz was one of the highlight of my trip to Seattle. It’s located right near Pike Place Market, a huge farmers market in the centre of town There is some serious competition around Pike Place, and if you are hungry, dozens of places you could (and should) stop and eat from. Please start here. First, I loved Maiz Maiz because they serve champurrado (minus the disposable cup…but what can you do). Champurrado is an atole, which means a typical drink made from corn. This one also has chocolate, water, milk, piloncillo (which is unprocessed sugar) and a range of spices, most commonly cinnamon. I enjoyed many champurrados in Oaxaca, Mexico, so it was so nice to be able to sip the real deal again here. The Mexicans have been drinking atole since before the Spanish arrived…except without the sugar or cinnamon as those were introduced by the Spanish. Atole itself is a Nahuatl word, one of the indigenous languages of Mexico.
The second reason why I loved Maiz Maiz is the food! Oh my gosh, it’s so good. Corn is at the centre of Mexican culture and this little, colourful shop is a celebration of that culture. But corn is not singular, there are many, many corns. Maiz Maiz works with small scale farmers that harvest many of the 59 different registered varieties in Mexico and many more in the US. One of the ways that this tradition around corn can be protected is simply by consumers choosing to eat more different corns, so we need more Maiz Maiz! Here they make products from Criollo corn, bolt pink, chalqueno blue, tolonqui white, bolt yellow, conic red and chalqueno white. The specific corns featured are all written up on their menu.
It can be intimidating walking into a restaurant where you don’t know the food. I assure you that everything is very good here so you really can’t make a mistake. If in doubt, the staff were incredible and more than happy to walk customers through the options. First you choose your “antojito”, a small portion of corn dough cooked in different forms using different kinds of corn. This could be a taco, tostada, tlacoyo or huarache (which looks like a traditional Mexican sandal…but much tastier obviously). Second, you choose your “guisado” which is basically the tasty fillings that go on top that change everyday. Go every morning for breakfast and you can try something different ever time, starting maybe with the tamales made with freshly ground nixtamal corn and a range of daily fillings.
Pike Place Market has an incredible history. In 1900, produce was being sold for very high prices by middle men bringing it into Seattle. One day a farmer came into sell their own produce directly and sold out within hours. This led to more and more farmers coming in to sell direct to customers in 1907, right here in Pike Place. I isn’t just farmers markets but a range of restaurants and other shops.
Maiz Maiz, 1914 Pikę Place, open Monday to Sunday from 8am to 6pm https://www.maizseattle.com @maizseattle
