Try an Ancient Mexican Soup Cooked With Scorching River Stones at Quiote’s Pop-Up | Eater Chicago

"A family-run restaurant in Tlalixtac de Cabrera, Oaxaca, has been preparing pre-Hispanic regional foods for about 22 years and is named for its signature stone-cooked soup: a broth of shallots, onions, cilantro, epazote, peppers, fish, and shrimp poured into a hollowed gourd (jícara) into which hot river stones are dropped to finish cooking. The Gachupín Velasco family preserves a generational recipe and practice that traces back millennia (the preparation is linked to around 5,000 B.C.); traditionally the stones are heated over a riverside fire for roughly 30 minutes and are used only once because they break. The dish is a cultural symbol of perseverance among Chinanteco speakers (a language predating the Spanish conquest and uncommon in the U.S. outside Staten Island), and the restaurant — which did a pop-up in New Orleans in 2016 — is making its first trip to Chicago to demonstrate the technique and bring stones from Oaxaca." - Ashok Selvam