-Guadalajara, Jalisco, is such a hub for creativity in Mexico, with a thriving art scene and oh-so-many amazing food options.

And sometimes these two things come together beautifully on the same plate.

I'm getting a tour of a ceramics factory that supplies some of the world's best restaurants with plates, bowls, and tiles.

These are all the pieces of the mural?

-All the pieces.

And we have to put it together in a mesh.

-How cool is this?

Then a stop for sweets, where I can barely tell the difference between a dessert and a work of art.

I know I should eat these with a fork, pero no.

-Why not?

[ Laughs ] -Mmm.

In my kitchen, I'm making two Jalisco-inspired recipes with equal, equal taste -- a saucy, crispy, flavorful street-food favorite, pollo à la Valentina, and a side with a perfect combo -- jasmine rice with poblanos and corn.

And this luscious, creamy, decadent almond tres leches cake.

My favorite ever tres leches cake.

-♪ Dame, dame ♪ ♪ Dame tu chocolate ♪ ♪ Dame, dame ♪ ♪ Dame café caliente ♪ ♪ Dame, dame ♪ ♪ Dame tu corazón ♪ ♪ -"Pati's Mexican Table" is made possible by... ♪ -La Costeña -- por sabor.

♪ -♪ Avocados from Mexico ♪ -Fud brand meats -- with traditional Mexican flavor.

-Stand Together -- helping every person rise.

More information at StandTogether.org.

-Mahatma rice lets you unite ingredients and flavors.

Mahatma rice unites.

-King Arthur Baking Company.

Find out more about our masa harina at KingArthurBaking.com.

-Oléico high oleic safflower oil.

-♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ -Tecate.

Mexico is in us.

-FEMSA Foundation.

♪ [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -You know when we're savoring bite after bite after delicious bite of food.

Do we ever notice a plate or the bowl?

When they're made here, at Cerámica Suro, they definitely deserve our attention.

iHola!

And so does this man, José Noé Suro.

iAy!

Wait!

Mari!

Mari, can you give me my phone?

-Yeah.

Hey, Karen.

[ Laughs ] -So, this is my sister, Karen... -Hi!

-...who I adore.

-Lovely to meet you!

-Karen has the hottest -- the hottest restaurant in Mexico City, called Niddo.

-We're building an empire.

-We're working on the new plates for Niddo and some pieces with her.

-Amazing!

Bye, Kar!

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] ♪ José Noé seems to be involved in everything in this city, from its biggest restaurants to art installations and everything in between.

And it goes way beyond Guadalajara.

This is gonna be the bottom of a pool in Austin.

Artists, architects, and designers from all over the world work with Cerámica Suro on all kinds of projects.

His creative juices are flowing!

This is contagious!

It seems like no idea is too big or too small or too out there.

-Half a million pieces.

-These are all the pieces of the mural?

-All the pieces.

And we have to put it together in a mesh.

-[ Gasps ] How cool is this?

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] Okay.

This is my spice cabinet.

-Mm-hmm.

-I'm looking for the colors in my dress.

Excuse me.

[ Laughter ] I'm just missing the pink.

[ Speaking Spanish ] Now I need to make something with this.

José wants to make a plate with the colors of my dress, and I am game.

[ Up-tempo music plays ] ♪ I should open a restaurant so that I can have my plates designed by you.

-You should.

-[ Laughs ] Whether you're painting with a brush or a spoon, one can almost taste the energy of creativity here.

And today I'm lucky enough to see him collaborate with one of Guadalajara's most respected chefs, Poncho Cadena.

So, you guys work together, and you bring your food here to test it here to see how it works on the plates and if you need to change things?

-Well, actually, it's really a very cool place to inspire and to get inspired because you can see a lot of different textures, different kind of plates.

Plate and the food, it works together.

-So, we're having an...?

-This is a beet aguachile.

-Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] -Mmm!

Mmm!

Mm-hmm.

Mmm!

The plate looks prettier now.

-[ Laughs ] -iAy!

Oh!

iQue bonito!

And it goes with my dress, and it goes with my kitchen.

José Noé and Poncho are helping to push the envelope in Guadalajara.

The city has a very conservative past, but now things are expanding and growing.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] The influence of Suro ceramics on Hueso is undeniable.

♪ iHola, hola!

These are all real bones, right?

-Yes indeed.

-You're very bold.

So, it's called Hueso, which translates to "bone."

-For me, bone, it means flavor, no?

-Yeah.

-Claro que sí.

Claro que sí.

-His Mussels Triple X are a twist of French and Mexican influence.

-A small chili paste.

-Ooh!

Poncho is an artist through and through.

Before his rise as a rock-star chef, he was center stage as a singer for a punk-rock band.

So his love of music, art, and design enhance his talent with food, creating plates worth the experience.

-Now we just need to boil a little bit, and that's it.

Smell this.

-iOye ya!

iPor favor!

Mmm.

Mm?

-Mm-hmm.

-So much flavor!

[ Down-tempo music plays ] ♪ Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm-hmm.

Mmm!

Mm-hmm!

-[ Chuckles ] -And he wouldn't let me leave without trying his take on a Tapatío favorite... Ooh!

...broiled veal tongue.

Poncho serves it with charred onion jam, pickled beets, and green avocado mousse.

Look at my taco.

♪ What is this?!

Eating Poncho's delicious food on plates made at Cerámica Suro, I get why they both say they just wouldn't work anywhere else.

-It has art.

It has music.

It has gastronomy.

It's evolving.

It's alive.

It's organic.

I have everything I need to be creative.

-And there's so much beauty in Jalisco, not only the gorgeous, colorful food, but where they serve it and cook it and present it, and even the tiles that adorn the restaurants and the homes.

These tiles come from Jalisco.

These bowls and plates come from Jalisco.

And they have this amazing chicken there that's called pollo à la Valentina.

It's chicken, potatoes, vegetables, shredded lettuce, pickled jalapeños, and sauced in this simple but oh-so-flavorful sauce.

So, this is one of those dishes that had its origin as street food, that then people loved it so much that they adapted it to make it at home.

So, I have a pound and a half of ripe Roma tomatoes.

You can use any tomatoes that you like.

You want to see them fully blushed red and very mushy.

I have my water here that's already at a boil.

The great thing about using tomatoes that are so ripe is that they cook really fast.

We're getting all of our chicken pieces out.

It turns out that this method of precooking both the chicken and the potatoes before they bring it out to the street, it makes it absolutely delicious because the potatoes are already soft and tender, and then they go in brown and crisp.

So what's not to love about that?

We're gonna let the chicken cool and dry.

So, if you want to open up a street-food stand, I'm giving you your first recipe.

We're gonna put the tomatoes in the blender.

Surprisingly, this sauce does not have many ingredients or chilies in it.

What it does have is the brine from pickled jalapeños.

It has all the flavor that the brine has been getting from the chilies, the carrots, and the onions.

So I'm adding 3 tablespoons.

And then of course we're gonna eat the pickled jalapeños with the final dish.

Adding 1 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1 teaspoon salt.

This is it for the sauce.

That's it!

The smell of oregano with cooked tomatoes and that pickled jalapeño brine.

Mmm!

I'm gonna have my heat at medium-high heat.

I'm going to add a full tablespoon of oil.

Then we wait for it to get hot, and we're gonna cook this sauce for about five to six minutes, just until the sauce seasons and thickens.

And then that's it.

You see the colors going from bright red to really rich.

Pollo à la Valentina is delicious just with chicken and the potatoes.

But if you want something else to use that sauce in, this corn and poblano rice is perfect as another side.

I'm gonna start by heating up my oil.

There's so many ways to make rice in Mexico, but we always start with this first step.

It gives it a layer of toasted flavor and makes any kind of Mexican rice taste Mexican.

I started using jasmine rice when I moved to the U.S. We're using 2 cups of rice.

I'm gonna fry the rice in this bit of oil until it gets toasty.

I love it because it is floral, aromatic, kind of exotic.

Goes beautiful with all my Mexican flavors that I have here in this kitchen.

And I'm waiting for the rice grains to change in color from that grayish white to a deep, deep white.

I'm adding 1 tablespoon of butter.

[ Butter sizzling ] And once the butter melts, I'm gonna add 2/3 cup of white chopped onion, 1 1/2 cups of corn kernels.

And then we're gonna let the corn toast a little.

I'm gonna season this with 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice.

Since we have 2 cups of rice, I'm going to add 4 cups of chicken broth.

And as this starts simmering all over the edges, I'm going to add my poblano peppers.

They were fresh.

You roast them or broil them.

You put them in a bag, you sweat them, you clean them, and then you remove the stems and the seeds.

And I cut them here into small strips.

Once the chicken broth starts simmering, you add the poblanos.

This is such an amazing combination.

You have the poblano chilies that are really exuberant and aromatic, just like the jasmine rice.

You really do want to wait for the broth to strongly simmer.

You cover, and it's gonna be like 10 to 15 minutes.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] Sometimes food meets art, and sometimes food is art.

At the dessert destination La Postrería, Chef Fernanda Covarrubias is reimagining what a sweet treat can be.

I don't think I've been to a place that has so many gorgeous desserts that look like a piece of art.

-Thank you.

-Maybe that has to do with Guadalajara, no?

This is a place that is just so full of art and creativity.

-Yes.

I think so.

-Do you think that comes from you being a Tapatía?

-[ Laughs ] -Maybe?

-This is a very talented city.

The mix of all the cultures that we have here, we transform them into food.

[ Both laugh ] It's you eat what you see, and what we're gonna eat, it's a cheesecake made with the mandarin skins, mandarin liqueur.

-And it really looks like a tangerine.

Just look at that.

-It does.

-I know I should eat this with a fork... -Why not?

[ Laughs ] -Mmm.

And I put it, like, next to my face, I could smell, like, how you smell when you peel a tangerine and it's juicy.

-That's the whole idea.

-And it sprinkles everywhere.

You know how when you -- -On the spot.

Yes.

-Yeah!

This is so amazing.

-And then we have another type of dessert that we call, like, plated desserts, and we do them à la minute in the kitchen.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] -When you create these kinds of dishes, what do you see your mission, like, in food being?

-To show a dessert as an experience, not just a food.

So everything that involves all your senses... ...the value that one ingredient has.

-Enough watching.

Let's eat.

-So, this one, we call it herbed clam.

In one bite.

-One bite.

Mmm!

Mmm!

Mmm.

Like what you said about highlighting the one ingredient.

It just elevated it.

-Yes.

-I would have like 45 of these.

-You have dozens.

-45.

-Like a dozen.

Yeah.

-Yeah.

Yes.

-This one is a combination of raspberries, lychees, and roses.

-Mmm!

I love lychee.

This is so beautiful.

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

And the combination of these three is perfect balance.

-...it's, like, super subtle.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] -This is called Forest.

-Okay.

-So, we have matcha tea, pistachios, berries, and we also put earth extract.

So when you try it -- -Earth extract?

-Uh-huh.

-My mind is blowing and I haven't even tried it.

-Wait till you try it.

Yeah.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] -Mmm.

Mmm!

-When people maybe think of Guadalajara, it's just traditions.

-Yes.

-But now there's also a mix.

You see all these new places, like Hueso, like La Postrería, that involve all your senses in the architecture of the places, the flavors, the dishes.

People need to come to Guadalajara.

-Yes.

They need to come and eat it here.

-[ Laughs ] -Now we have everything that we need for the pollo Valentina.

So, when you come to the stand and you order your chicken, all they have to do is sauce it and give it a quick fry, which is what we're gonna do.

I have my heat over medium-high.

I'm gonna first go with the potatoes.

[ Oil sizzling ] [ Mid-tempo music plays ] ♪ Now I'm adding some salt and pepper.

And these potatoes are now going to crisp up but with the sauce.

And we're just gonna let them brown.

Potatoes are gorgeous.

So, remember, they're already cooked in that chicken broth, so they're really soft inside.

And now we're gonna do the same thing with the chicken.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] So, not too many at a time.

We don't want these to steam.

This is the street-food method.

The great thing about precooking the chicken -- Precook it, then you drain it, then it dries so the juices aren't running out of the chicken.

It looks nice and crisp and brown, which is what we want.

When we're done browning and crisping the chicken, we're going to add the remaining of the sauce to the sauce pan, let it thicken, bubble, and then we want to cook this down, because the most irresistible part about the pollo Valentina is that sauce.

♪ Okay.

So then you have pollo Valentina, sauce, potatoes, some lettuce, radishes.

And then we have the beautiful rice.

We gave it a chance to settle, so now it is even fluffier.

♪ The chicken is so soft inside.

You feel the crispy from where the chicken browned.

The potatoes are so seasoned.

♪ Mmm.

Let's try the rice.

You hear the crunch of the corn.

Sweet, and the poblanos want to be spicy.

So aromatic.

After you make it, you're gonna see why this pollo Valentina is so loved as street food and why people want to bring it into their homes.

♪ After seeing how so many people are playing with desserts in Jalisco, I wanted to take my tres leches cake to unexplored territory.

So I'm making an almond tres leches cake.

The first thing I want to do is I'm going to sift my dry ingredients.

I'm using two different kinds of flour.

I have 1 1/2 cups of cake flour, which is so light, so airy, so fine.

It's just like dust.

And then I have 1 cup of almond flour, which is thick.

It's very granular.

It has a lot of texture.

It's packed with flavor but also with density.

And then a teaspoon of baking powder and a teaspoon of baking soda.

1/4 teaspoon of salt.

I'm just gonna whisk this.

And now, here, I already separated eight egg yolks.

Once the egg yolks have really thickened and the color has changed, I'm gonna add 1/2 cup of safflower oil, a teaspoon of almond extract.

And this is really gonna boost the flavor from the almond flour.

3/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk.

This is a way for us to marry all the almond flavors.

And then we're gonna make our egg-white mixture, and this is going to give the fluff and the volume to the cake.

We need to beat eight egg whites and 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar.

Once the egg whites get to soft peaks, I'm gonna add a cup of sugar to help the soft peaks become really stiff peaks.

Once you can start seeing the shape of the whisk into the egg whites, it means that they may be ready.

Looking really good.

We have the three parts that we need, and now I'm gonna add my dry ingredients into my egg-yolk mixture.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] It smells so marzipany already.

I add my egg whites.

This is, like, the most fun part of making this cake.

Aside from eating it.

The egg whites took a while to get so nice and thick and stiff, and I don't want to deflate them.

You fold a little bit at a time.

Try to have no streaks.

And you can see how the mixture is thickening, and all of that flavor of marzipan is now getting mixed with the flavor of soft meringue.

♪ Divide your batter and make two cakes.

So, I have my oven at 350, and I'm gonna bake them for 20 to 22 minutes until the top is browned and springy to the touch.

So, my tres leches sauce is also going to have almond milk.

I have unsweetened almond milk instead of just whole milk, and I'm adding a cup and a can of evaporated milk and a can of sweetened condensed milk.

I'm gonna whisk these, and you just want to make sure that the milks are really nice and mixed because the sweetened condensed milk is so thick.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] ♪ So, these have cooled.

♪ I'm gonna turn over the first one onto this platter.

Oh, no!

It doesn't matter, 'cause it's gonna get all covered in the sauce!

Oh, my God.

Yum.

Now I'm gonna poke it all over the top with a fork.

And you really want to have a go at it.

So, I'm doing a third of the sauce because the cake soaks the sauce slowly.

♪ I love the combination of marzipan and almonds with apricot, which will give this cake, like, a nice, tangy, contrasting taste.

And then we're adding a cup of slivered almonds, and these will give more almond-powered flavor to the cake, plus texture and crunch.

♪ Now I'm gonna poke the top, just like we did the bottom, and we add the rest of the sauce.

And it may seem like there's a lot of sauce on the sides, but the cake will absorb it all.

And the more the cake sits in the sauce, the better it will be.

Then you want to put this in your refrigerator and let it sit for at least eight hours.

And then we're gonna add the heavy whipped cream on top.

I have one ready here.

And you can see all the milks were soaked and this is really nice.

And I whipped here 2 cups of heavy cream, 1/4 cup of confectioners' sugar, and the zest of a lime.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] So pretty!

Now it really looks like a festive cake!

♪ I know what I'm getting.

I can't wait to bite into this thing!

Oh, that looks so pretty.

Did you see?

♪ Did you look at the cake?

♪ [ Mid-tempo music plays ] Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

This is now my favorite tres leches cake.

If you love almonds and you want to take your tres leches cake to almond territory, give this one a try.

♪ [ Theme music plays ] ♪ For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit PatiJinich.com.

And connect!

Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest -- @PatiJinich.

-"Pati's Mexican Table" is made possible by... [ Dramatic music plays ] ♪ -La Costeña -- por sabor.

♪ -♪ Avocados from Mexico ♪ -Fud brand cheese -- with traditional Mexican flavor.

-Stand Together -- helping every person rise.

More information at StandTogether.org.

-Mahatma rice lets you unite ingredients and flavors.

Mahatma rice unites.

-King Arthur Baking Company.

Find out more about our masa harina at KingArthurBaking.com.

-Oléico high oleic safflower oil.

-♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ -Tecate.

Mexico is in us.

-FEMSA Foundation.

♪ -Proud to support "Pati's Mexican Table" on public television.