SISAL IS AN ANCIENT SPANISH colony on the northwestern tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It is a poor place. A lost place. But it is definitely not a lonely place.

We arrived at midnight after a five hour drive around the peninsula with friends. They wanted to introduce us to their house. We wanted to see it. The moon had risen and cast its glow over the lagoon where the fresh water from the cenotes mixes with the sea. We unpacked our overnight bags and crawled into bed at a twelve-dollar-a-night hotel and slept like the dead.

In the gray predawn light, we crawled out of sleep in anticipation of a sunrise glimpse of pink Mexican flamingos, preferably while nursing steaming cups of local coffee. Little did I know that my day would be all Anthony Bourdain and would end in my host’s great-aunt’s kitchen, where I would learn recipes carefully kept and passed down from mother to daughter to wide-eyed traveler.

I enjoyed her Spanish immersion that day with Mona and Tia Ligia amid sizzling Yucatan squash and fresh shrimp and tomatoes and market-bought chilies and bacon and crab and snail and octopus ceviche and achiote and epazote paste and soft noodles and light as- meringue look. I will never forget. Connected. A few hours with the family I just met. Not my family, but my family. Because in those moments, they became my family. Because, when I left late in the afternoon, Aunt Ligia grabbed my hands and insisted in her sweet broken English, “This is your house. This is your house!”

I hope to return one day, even though it is a long journey through miles of jungle and swamps. Not to mention far, far off the grid. I fell in love that day. And I’m sure if you had been there you would understand.

This is the place.

Thank you Mona for teaching me how to make meringue and introducing me to your iguana. And thank you, Tia, for inviting me into your heart.

MERINGUE
Very well kept and acclaimed as the Yucatan’s own version of this classic French dessert.

6 egg whites
2 cups organic sugar (ivory color)
Quarter-sized slice of lime rind
2 drops of lime juice
11 tablespoons of water

1. Add water and lime rinse to sugar and boil until it forms into a ball in your fingers after submerging in cold water (soft ball stage).

2. Add 2 drops of lemon juice. This makes the meringue bright white.

3. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

4. Pour the sugar syrup in a steady stream into the egg white while rotating the bowl and beat until thick and firm.

5. At this stage, the meringue forms a smooth, velvety icing for cakes and cookies.

6. If desired, spoon onto a cookie sheet and cook until glassy and dry.