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4 result: mole poblano, that famously velvety sauce that's savory but sweet and now made differently by every chef (and definitely made better by someone's abuela). Puebla has been called the Lyon of Mexico, the apex of the country's culinary pyramid. (Anthony Bourdain once said that most of his cooks came from the state of Puebla.) One morning I went to the brand-new Rosewood Puebla, one of the latest additions to the luxury resort group, for a mole-making lesson with chef de cuisine Jonathan Alvarado, who cooked under Enrique Olvera at Pujol in Mexico City, one of the world's most acclaimed restaurants. As he dry-roasted chilies in a pan, Alvarado (whose mole recipe includes traditional ingredients, such as plantains and cinnamon, as well as brioche, which may have to do with his training in Paris) emphasized that Puebla, while a city of high tradition, also has a way with subtle experimentation. For instance, rather than serving his meltingly tender suckling pig as is, he prefers to debone the meat, press it French-style, freeze it, and cut it into small blocks. "You serve the pork with a quenelle of eggplant puree; a little salad of orange, lime, and arugula on top; and jus," made from roasting the bones into a chick sauce, he said. "Ir's the same as carnitas, but not. Ir's traditional, but not really." Alvarado served us his mole on Talavera plates, of course. Wandering Puebla, your eyes adjust as if co new light, and you see Talavera all over the city. It embellishes venerable buildings such as the Casa de Alfenique, believed to be Puebla's oldest museum. (Unfortunately, the large earthquake that shook Mexico last September, and which was centered not far from Puebla, left the intricate fa c;: ade in danger of falling off, and the museum remains closed.) At Puebla's other worldclass hotel, the recently opened, 78-room Cartesiano, decades-old Talavera from a disused tile shop form part of che sleekly modern design, yet another instance of the commitment to honor the old and nurture the new in this city of abundant scaffolding and cobblestone. The most' striking examples of Talavera I saw were at Herencia 811, a mansion that has been transformed into a collection of galleries and shops, where the lavatory floor is made of the most varied collection of tiles I saw anywhere. Puebla is one of Mexico's most prosperous cities, and its monuments have long testified to its wealth. Today they include the stunning International Museum of the Baroque, which opened last year to honor that era of ornate arc and music. Cleverly, the museum's austere home, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito, is anything but ornate. Like Puebla itself, the unexpectedly minimalist structure refuses to look only backward, pairing contemporary art with colonial masterpieces. Another museum showing off Puebla's extraordinary cultural riches is the Amparo Museum, whose classic fa c;: ade opens up to a luminous construction of glass, steel, and marble that brings to mind an Apple store stripped of gadgetry. The Amparo holds one of Mexico's best pre-hispanic art collections, but many of the works on display, such as srone carvings of dogs and jaguars, have cool, modern lines-unwitting indicators of how creativity can transcend the centuries. Recently, the museum has ramped up its cultural offerings in ocher media, venturing into music performances and film screenings, with the goal of embracing Puebla's heritage holistically, rather than preserving a time capsule. This mission takes physical form when you ascend to the museum's spacious rooftop, where wooden decking surrounds a glass-walled cafe/bar and blue square-tiled planters abound with blossoming iris, snapdragons, and lavender. The cityscape, with all those domes, almost embraces you, and I sat there for a while, nursing a Tecate and marveling at Puebla's remarkable energy. + Clockwise from above: A view of the Popocatepetl volcano from Rosewood Puebla; exacting artistry at Uriarte Talavera; Puebla Cathedral, Mexico's second largest; chilaquiles at Casa Nueve restaurant.

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