Food in Mexico is good. Really good. Especially if you eat from street vendors. It's pretty darn cheap too. And don't be afraid of the street vendors: they really aren't dirty, and if anything, the food is MUCH fresher than at many restaurants because they only bring out what they know they can sell in a certain time period. No malingering pork or cucumbers. And they're BUSY too. When in Mexico City, choose the busiest taco cart you can find, and buy some tacos, at least two, heck, maybe four. They're only 30 cents each, and probably the best tacos of your life. I'm not joking. Sadly, I don't have any taco photos, a terrible oversight.
Also, assume you will avocado in some form every single day. Either just sliced, or mashed into guacamole, we ended up eating avocado every single day, sometimes more than once a day. Mexico loves avocados and limes.
But on to the photos below. This was our first meal in Mexico City, and probably the fanciest one of the entire trip. Fortunately it was delicious. It was a restaurant called La Fonda Refugio, and we sure had a hard time finding it. Lonely Planet's map was wrong, but Derek didn't give up, and it was worth it. It was fairly elegant, and seemed to have a lot of foreigners eating there, but it wasn't a tourist restaurant. We started off with guacamole, freshly made chips, and Bohemia beer.
Next, we split a nopalitos salad. Notice how brightly green they are. So fresh! I've eaten it in Portland a few times, but it's always been a dull army green. Canned, probably. But this wasn't. Nopalitos, onion, cheese, tomato, and probably a squeeze of lime. Wonderful!
My dinner: pork, arroz verde, fried plaintain, and refried black beans.
Derek's dinner: chicken in a green mole, I think.
The next night, we ventured to the "infamous" Garibaldi Plaza (not sure why it has such a reputation, it seemed fine), to try the equally infamous beverage called pulche. Pulche is a cactus-based beer-like beverage, that supposedly has a very strong alcohol content. I think that the pulcheria we visited only served pulche-lite, because we went through quite a bit of the stuff, and didn't feel even the slightest buzz. But whatever. I had a strawberry version first, which honestly, wasn't very good, and Derek tried mango. Mango was much better. Then we moved on to coconut, which was actually really good.
There are beautiful bakeries all over, windows flaunting all their enticing pastries. I had three dreams during the trip about pastry. The closest I came, however, was a doughnut on the last morning. A very good, very large, Mexican doughnut. But I vow to come back, and taste these elegant treats. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Here we are at La Opera Bar, a very historic (read: touristy) place. Supposedly, Pancho Villa left a bullet hole in the ceiling when he galloped in long ago. It was very pretty, but they stuck us in a booth in a back corner, so we couldn't really see/interact much. We had some nice margaritas, and decent food, but nothing very special. Really, we could have just come in, looked around, and then gone somewhere else to eat. C'est la vie.
Next photo is a market cafe in Valladolid. I had some sort of pineappley-pork thing and a banana agua fresca, which tasted just like the banana "milkshakes" my mom would make when I was little.
Now we're in Campeche. Derek was hoping for a big, beachside seafood dinner. That didn't exactly happen, due to a combination of digestive issues and poor weather. So we settled for a nice seafood merienda. Me below with a little crab cocktail.
Derek with his giant mixed-seafood cocktail.
The variety plates they bring out automatically as soon as you're seated.
Now we're back in Mexico City, this time in the Coyoacan neighborhood, which I LOVED. We walk to a food court/market type situation, and, since it's unseasonably cold and rainy, I decided a hot, steaming bowl of pozole would be the perfect dinner. It was. Possibly one of the best meals of the trip. (Feeling inspired, I made some here in Portland on Friday. It turned out really good, although Derek ate too much of it and felt ill afterward.)
After that, we wandered down the street and had tequila and sangrita at Cantina La Guadalupana, which is historic, but not at all touristy. Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera used to drink there. We saw two very drunk men there, but instead of just getting kicked out, the staff sort of teased them. To prevent damage, a waiter switched out one guy's glass with a plastic cup. Every once in a while, the guy would let out a loud whoop or yell. Everyone would laugh.
We tried two different kinds of tequila there, one of which was 100 years old. It was really good, and tasted quite different from any tequila I've ever had before. It was smoky, like scotch, and they served it to us in brandy snifters.
That's one of the drunk guys below.
Another bakery window.
La Bipolar bar, owned by super hot Mexican actor Diego Luna. It was pretty cool. It was like a Portland bar, very hip, but no annoying hipsters. Lots of college students. The drinks were good and fairly creative, and we ordered some mean taquitos Colorado.
The next morning, we went back to the square, and had coffee and doughnuts from Cafe El Jarocho at the plaza, like all the locals were doing. Every time we walked by there, the line was long. No wonder. Real, decent coffee seemed hard to come by in Mexico; often even "nice" places served Nescafe, or Olla, as it's called there. Yuck. The coffee was good, and the doughnut was great: fresh, huge, and ribboned with cinnamon. Mmm.
Obviously, there were a couple disasters, such as a disgusting tourist place in Merida with rude waiters. But overall, Mexico is tops on my list of countries to eat in. Tasty, fresh, and cheap, especially in Mexico City.
This is the first recipe I've attempted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, and it is a definite success!
Next, we split a nopalitos salad. Notice how brightly green they are. So fresh! I've eaten it in Portland a few times, but it's always been a dull army green. Canned, probably. But this wasn't. Nopalitos, onion, cheese, tomato, and probably a squeeze of lime. Wonderful!
My dinner: pork, arroz verde, fried plaintain, and refried black beans.
Derek's dinner: chicken in a green mole, I think.
The next night, we ventured to the "infamous" Garibaldi Plaza (not sure why it has such a reputation, it seemed fine), to try the equally infamous beverage called pulche. Pulche is a cactus-based beer-like beverage, that supposedly has a very strong alcohol content. I think that the pulcheria we visited only served pulche-lite, because we went through quite a bit of the stuff, and didn't feel even the slightest buzz. But whatever. I had a strawberry version first, which honestly, wasn't very good, and Derek tried mango. Mango was much better. Then we moved on to coconut, which was actually really good.
There are beautiful bakeries all over, windows flaunting all their enticing pastries. I had three dreams during the trip about pastry. The closest I came, however, was a doughnut on the last morning. A very good, very large, Mexican doughnut. But I vow to come back, and taste these elegant treats. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Here we are at La Opera Bar, a very historic (read: touristy) place. Supposedly, Pancho Villa left a bullet hole in the ceiling when he galloped in long ago. It was very pretty, but they stuck us in a booth in a back corner, so we couldn't really see/interact much. We had some nice margaritas, and decent food, but nothing very special. Really, we could have just come in, looked around, and then gone somewhere else to eat. C'est la vie.
Now we're in Campeche. Derek was hoping for a big, beachside seafood dinner. That didn't exactly happen, due to a combination of digestive issues and poor weather. So we settled for a nice seafood merienda. Me below with a little crab cocktail.
Derek with his giant mixed-seafood cocktail.
The variety plates they bring out automatically as soon as you're seated.
After that, we wandered down the street and had tequila and sangrita at Cantina La Guadalupana, which is historic, but not at all touristy. Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera used to drink there. We saw two very drunk men there, but instead of just getting kicked out, the staff sort of teased them. To prevent damage, a waiter switched out one guy's glass with a plastic cup. Every once in a while, the guy would let out a loud whoop or yell. Everyone would laugh.
That's one of the drunk guys below.
Another bakery window.
La Bipolar bar, owned by super hot Mexican actor Diego Luna. It was pretty cool. It was like a Portland bar, very hip, but no annoying hipsters. Lots of college students. The drinks were good and fairly creative, and we ordered some mean taquitos Colorado.
The next morning, we went back to the square, and had coffee and doughnuts from Cafe El Jarocho at the plaza, like all the locals were doing. Every time we walked by there, the line was long. No wonder. Real, decent coffee seemed hard to come by in Mexico; often even "nice" places served Nescafe, or Olla, as it's called there. Yuck. The coffee was good, and the doughnut was great: fresh, huge, and ribboned with cinnamon. Mmm.
