{"id":488298,"date":"2026-10-07T18:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T18:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488298\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T18:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T18:28:13","slug":"free-la-mole-festival-highlights-complex-indigenous-mexican-dish-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488298\/","title":{"rendered":"Free LA mole festival highlights complex indigenous Mexican dish \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of Mexico\u2019s iconic dishes will be celebrated with a free festival that will turn a downtown Los Angeles park into a vibrant culinary and cultural experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big Mexican food party. It\u2019s the kind of fiesta you picture in a party at a pueblo in Mexico, and here we\u2019re celebrating mole,\u201d said Vanessa Motolinia, a spokesperson for La Feria de Los Moles.<\/p>\n<p>The free food festival will be held from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11 at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, where more than 80 local <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2020\/11\/27\/5-best-places-serving-mole-in-the-san-fernando-valley-for-takeout-and-delivery\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mole<\/a> vendors and invited guests chefs from Mexico will serve numerous versions of the thick sauce that can include up to 30 ingredients and takes days to make.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ll be getting a real taste of Mexico. These are recipes passed down for generations. These are recipes they got form their grandmas,\u201d\u00a0 Motolinia said.<\/p>\n<p>Mole\u2019s roots go back to Oaxaca and Puebla in Mexico where the sauces blend indigenous ingredients like tomato, cocoa, vanilla, and spices, traditionally ground in a metate. Ingredients such as cinnamon, cloves and almonds were later added during colonial times. The result is a thick sauce that adds a savory and slightly sweet taste when poured over other dishes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"La Feria de Los Moles will be held from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, where more than 80 local food vendors invited guests chefs from Mexico will serve numerous versions of the thick sauce. (Photo courtesy Feria de los Moles)\" width=\"3024\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LDN-L-MOLEFEST-1009-2-01.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"6988200\" \/>La Feria de Los Moles will be held from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, where more than 80 local food vendors invited guests chefs from Mexico will serve numerous versions of the thick sauce. (Photo courtesy Feria de los Moles)<\/p>\n<p>Those who attend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2018\/10\/01\/this-los-angeles-food-festival-celebrates-an-ancient-mexican-dish\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Feria<\/a> will get to try all sorts of moles, from green Pipi\u00e1n mole made with pumpkin seeds to black, red and Poblano mole, which offers a good hint of chocolate. Other varieties will include shrimp, almond and vegan moles. Some of the moles will be poured over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2026\/10\/01\/where-to-find-deals-on-and-around-national-taco-day-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">taquitos<\/a>, steaks, chilaquiles and tortas.<\/p>\n<p>While mole primarily comes from Oaxaca and Puebla, the State of Michoac\u00e1n will be recognized with the participation of traditional cooks from the city of Uruapan who will make regional specialties like Corundas de Mole, Mole de Carne (beef), and Agua de Aguacate.<\/p>\n<p>And there will even be mole ice cream created by Benito Rios, co-owner of Nieves Xochi Oax, a Los Angeles-based ice cream shop and restaurant known for Nieve de Mole.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"La Feria de Los Moles will be held from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, where more than 80 local food vendors invited guests chefs from Mexico will serve numerous versions of the thick sauce. (Photo courtesy Feria de los Moles)\" width=\"1242\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LDN-L-MOLEFEST-1009-2-02.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"6988201\" \/>La Feria de Los Moles will be held from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, where more than 80 local food vendors invited guests chefs from Mexico will serve numerous versions of the thick sauce. (Photo courtesy Feria de los Moles)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe decided to turn this traditional dish into ice cream. The base, the main taste of the ice cream is mole. It has a little bit of spice at the beginning and at the end it has a little bit of sweetness,\u201d said Rios, who hails from Oaxaca and came up with the cool blend of flavors which he will whip up just a couple of days before the festival to ensure its freshness.<\/p>\n<p>And while it\u2019s a cool dessert, for Rios, his ice cream, and moles in general, go beyond taste in their significance to his culture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe get to share our culture and especially in these times we get to show that we\u2019re stronger than ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>La Feria de los Moles<\/p>\n<p>When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11<\/p>\n<p>Where: Grand Park,\u00a0 200 N Grand Ave, Los Angeles<\/p>\n<p>Cost: Free to enter; food is for sale<\/p>\n<p>Information: <a href=\"https:\/\/feriadelosmoles.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">feriadelosmoles.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Mexico\u2019s iconic dishes will be celebrated with a free festival that will turn a downtown Los&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,1647,12740,48,52,51,47,137,50,49,420],"class_list":["post-488298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-downtown-los-angeles","tag-free-and-cheap","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}