In and around New York, the most widely available style of the beverage horchata (or-Chot-ah) is made from rice, scented with cinnamon, and sweetened with sugar. But horchata isn't uniquely Mexican, and it needn't be rice-based; a recently vogueish Old World variety employs tiger nuts.
Still another variety relies on trees in the genus Crescentia, whose common names include morro, Mexican calabash (no relation to the gourd), and jícaro (Hee-cah-row). The fruit, jícara, when ripe has a thin hard shell that often is transformed into a decorative bowl or drinking vessel. The pulp is reportedly unpalatable, except to horses and cattle, but the seeds, when dried and ground, are the namesake of Gran Nevada brand horchata de morro (11 fl. oz., $1). Perhaps because this commercial product, like many homemade horchatas, incorporates cocoa and cinnamon as secondary ingredients, my overall impression was of a thinner Nesquik. For a sweltering day, it's an easygoing choice.
Las Americas Food Center
43 Fleming Ave. (at Lexington St.), Newark, New Jersey
973-589-7661
