Showcasing the diverse cultural landscape of Northwestern Mexico, Sinaloa Encanta brings a blend of culinary abundance, regional music, and cultural heritage to the Sinaloan region of Mexico. This year’s event was an ambitious and successful feat held on the picturesque grounds of the Leyson Family’s Farming Operation. I can only imagine what next year’s event will entail, but if it promises to be anything like 2015, start securing your travel calendar now.
The Sinaloa Encanta experience is inclusive to all, a testament to the diverse range of industries and cultures within its model. The event brings together retailers, wholesalers, food industry executives, independent retailers, entrepreneurs, growers, artists, entertainers, Sinaloan natives, and international palates to share and promote the best of Sinaloa’s fresh produce, livestock, fishing and seafood, as well as its culinary arts.
The festival-like atmosphere is made possible by collective participation in the entire traditional food chain: from growing and harvesting to cooking, eating, and sharing. Sinaloa has achieved its unique platform over time, creating a wide variety of preparations that are now considered traditional icons of the Sinaloan kitchen. From Chilorio meats, sausage, and chicken, to Mocorito cheese, cream and curds, fish, shellfish, and all things shrimp, the rituals and practices around Sinaloa’s food production make it a cuisine to be aspired to, and at this event, shared.
Sinaloa Encanta offers guests the chance to sample the state in one intimate location in the capital of Culiacán. The region hosts unique range of ethnicities and cultures, from French, Spanish, and Chinese to German and Greek. All these backgrounds inform the cuisine along with Sinaloa’s musical variety, customs, and art.
Each year, the Board of Sinaloa Encanta searches the various regions of the state for the best blend of flavors to represent Sinaloa as a whole. With a rich history in agriculture and a 622 kilometer swath of coastline, the event showcases the land and the sea with restaurants and wineries that speak to the versatile flavors of Sinaloa. Rich valleys and mountain regions also help differentiate the cuisine, represented through the locales of Culiacán, Mazatlan, Guasave, and Los Mochis.
Sinaloa is an essential element in shaping the cultural identity of Mexico, as well as the produce industry in North America. The Sinaloan state alone produces 30 percent of U.S. produce with only 2.3 percent of the Mexican population, representing a large slice of the agricultural pie. The history and customs of Sinaloa also help fuel the imagination behind the event with entertainment ranging from traditional Banda music of German origins to Latin American jazz, folk dancing, fire dancing, and living art.
This year’s guests included the Governor of Sinaloa, Mario Lopez Valdez (Malova); Mayor of Guasave City, Armando (Kory) Leyson and Mayor of Navolato City, Miguel Enrique Calderon.
From a diverse display of multicultural roots, influences and musical performances to a unique gathering of farmers, politicians, entrepreneurs and artists, Sinaloa Encanta is an event to be remembered, and definitely one to mark on your calendar for in 2016.
