Raquel Guardia — Arizona to Mexico City travel, Sonoran-Mexican recipes, and desert design from The AriMexico Journal

Raquel Guardia · The AriMexico Journal

Live well,in color.

Name: Mole Negro — The Two-Day Sonoran-Oaxacan Version
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 6 dried chilhuacle negro chiles, stems and seeds removed, toasted; 4 dried mulato chiles, stems and seeds removed, toasted; 4 dried pasilla chiles, stems and seeds removed, toasted; 1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted; 1/4 cup almonds, toasted; 1 ripe plantain, charred whole, then peeled and sliced; 2 oz Mexican chocolate, chopped; 1 cinnamon stick, lightly toasted; 3 lb chicken pieces (legs and thighs) or turkey, slow-cooked and shredded; 1.5 tsp salt, plus more to taste; 2 tbsp lard (for frying the mole paste)

I'm Raquel Guardia — designer, real estate advisor, and the voice behind a life lived between two deserts. Through my design studio, my work in Arizona real estate, and years of wandering the corridor from Phoenix to Mexico City, I've built one restless practice: making rooms, tables, and days that feel like they belong to someone. This is where it all lives — the recipes, the places, the design work, and the weekly dispatch from somewhere between the Sonoran and the high plateau.

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What this is

a field journal betweentwo deserts.

I cook, I wander, I write it down. Arizona and Mexico City — two landscapes that taught me color belongs on the plate and the page. Here are the four things this place is for.

The Recipe Notebook

Cooked slow, written by hand

Mole ground by hand, mesquite in everything, the long-table Sundays. The full searchable notebook of Arizona and Mexico City recipes.

Read the notebook →The Little Black Book

Places i'd send you

My curated shortlist for Mexico City and Arizona — the stays, tables, and corners I tell friends about. Steal freely.

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Stories & sound notes

Long-form stories and little podcast episodes from the field. Tap a title to unfold the whole piece right there.

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The AriMexico Kitchen

The printed field-guide cookbook — hardcover or softcover, shipped to your door. Pre-order the first print run.

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The free guide to living, eating, and designing between Arizona and Mexico City — curated destinations, recipes, and the free Polanco + CDMX weekend guide, yours to download.

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Mole Negro — The Two-Day Sonoran-Oaxacan Version

From the kitchen

the recipenotebook.

Mexican

Mole Negro — The Two-Day Sonoran-Oaxacan Version

This is the mole I make when a Sunday turns into a Monday. It's the dish that taught me that color belongs on the plate — black as volcanic glass, slow as a long table, and worth every minute. I learned it in a Mexico City kitchen and brought it home to Arizona, where I swap in a little mesquite-smoked chile for the Sonoran side of the corridor.

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Most-loved

the recipes readerskeep coming back to.

Rated by the people who cooked them. The four the community can't stop making — then the whole notebook waits for you.

Mexican

The little black book

places i'dsend you.

Eat

Lux Central — Phoenix

USA

The Phoenix coffee shop that feels like a living room. A converted auto showroom, exposed brick, good light, and the kind of room you can actually work in for hours. I come for the flat white and stay for the people-watching.

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The Cookbook

the AriMexicokitchen.

60+ recipes from my table to yours — Arizona classics, Mexico City moles, and the long-table Sundays in between. Hand-written notes, a pantry field guide, and film photography from the places where it actually happened.

Printed on demand·Hardcover $48 / Softcover $32·Ships worldwide

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Mexico City Weekend Itinerary: Polanco + Roma in 48 Hours

From the journal

stories &sound notes.

Jul 20, 2026Story

Mexico City Weekend Itinerary: Polanco + Roma in 48 Hours

Two days, two neighborhoods, and the exact corner-by-corner route I send friends who have one weekend in Mexico City — coffee, meals, a market, and a rooftop.

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Free field guide

The AriMexicoField Guide.

A free field guide to living well between Arizona and Mexico City — the rooms I'd design, the tables I'd pull up to, and the corners I'd send a friend. From desert modernism in Phoenix to the old walls of Roma Norte. Drop your email and it's yours.

The AriMexico Weekend Guide — a free Mexico City travel guide by Raquel Guardia

your field guide, on the house.