It’s hard to overstate how much delicious food there is in Mexico City. Every single street has at least one taqueria, and many are lined with carts serving fried meats, fresh fish, fruits, and endless tacos. Here are some of the best things we ate.
Street Tacos
My God, these things are unbelievable. Every type of meat you could want, and some you probably don’t. We had street tacos at some point almost every day we were in the city. They’re all chopped fine, served on soft, chewy corn tortillas and topped with onions and cilantro. Each stall has its own selection of homemade salsas in a variety of flavors and spiciness levels, with absolutely no signage or indication as to what’s what. My favorite type of gamble!
My favorite style of taco (and torta, tostada, etc) was campechano – you’d get a mix of whatever that particular stall was famous for. One place it would be chicharron (commonly fried pig skin, but sometimes fried chunks of pork) mixed with skirt steak. Another would have chorizo, carnitas, and cabesa (headcheese). Yet another might have octopus, crab, and shrimp. It was always incredible, a real feast in each bite.
Our favorite taco from our time there was the campechano from Taqueria Pocho. Honorable mention to the very first al pastor we got from a little stall in the middle of Centro – a touristy district not known for its good food – which was amazing and a great introduction to Mexican street food. Also to El Pescadito which had far and away the best fish tacos I’ve ever had.
Not only were the tacos a culinary masterpiece, but they were so incredibly cheap. A typical plate of 5 would run you 50 pesos – just shy of $3 – for a full, amazing meal.
Cooking Class
One of our goals for the trip is to take a cooking class in every country we land in. We love to cook (and eat!) and we figured this would be a great (and relatively inexpensive) way to experience local culture and cuisine. We found Nicole and Ricardo’s market tour and class on Cookly, which included a tour of Jamica (Hibiscus) Mercado and preparation of four local dishes of our choice.
Jamica Mercado was a great tour. It’s one of two flower markets in the city, known for being open twenty-four hours a day (midnight funerals, last minute weddings, and drunken seranades). As you can imagine, it’s gorgeous and smells divine. It’s also got what you’d expect from a classic mercado – groceries, food, and handicrafts. We picked up the ingredients for our meal and headed to Nicole and Ricardo’s home.
There we prepared a traditional chicken mole, chalupitas with cactus salad – a traditional pre-Colombian dish, and piña atole – a corn and pineapple drink. For dessert, we had corn fritters with sugar and cinamon.
Learning how to make mole from scratch was fascinating. The recipe we used, from Nicole’s grandma, contained fried bread, tortillas, several types of boiled chiles, tomatillos, spices, and more. It was absolutely incredible, maybe our favorite food of the trip. We’re so thankful to Ricardo and Nicole for showing us the market, inviting us to their home, and teaching us all about Mexican cooking, history, and their lives.
Pujol
We knew we wanted to try the world-famous restaurant (twelfth best in the world!) since before we even knew we were going on the trip. Inspired by the Chef’s Table episode and the adoring description of the “grandmother mole”, we booked a reservation for the taco omakase months in advance.
The tacos were inspiring and the mescal (including one distilled with – wait for it – chicken breasts) was tasty, but the true star of the show was the finale of corn pudding with vanilla ice cream. Refined, yet comforting. Warm, cool, and sweet. Pure bliss!
Fresh Fruit & Juice
The produce we had in Mexico City varied in quality but was generally very good. The stuff around the city center wasn’t that great, but once we ventured out into the surrounding neighborhoods and mercados we found some of the best citrus and tropical fruit I’ve ever eaten. We had grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, small mangoes, and passionfruit for breakfast with granola, and it was great every time.
That fruit wasn’t just for eating – carts around the city would squeeze it into wonderful juice for 20 or 30 pesos. Mexicans take their juice seriously! A typical serving is a whole liter, which is a heck of a lot of juice. The best we had was the grapefruit – not bitter at all, just sweet, amomatic, with the perfect hit of tang.
Churros at El Moro
It wouldn’t be a visit to Mexico without some fresh churros. We had mixed luck with churros from street vendors – they really need to be fresh out of the oil. The place we had the most luck with was El Moro, a famous churreria with locations all over the city. Getting a batch of 4 and dunking them in dulce de leche, chocolate, or a strawberry milkshake was a fantastic treat.
Mercado San Juan
Mercado San Juan I got the opportunity to try worm, beetle, and even scorpion. They mostly just tasted like fried empty calories, but the beetle in particular was delicious. It tasted like a mix of fried beef jerkey and soy sauce. I’d have eaten a whole bag full if it wasn’t so pricy (I’m sure I was getting the gringo price).
Not only did they have all sorts of creepy crawlies, they also had exotic meats like lion, llama, and zebra. We decided to pass on a crocodile burger and went for the final specialty of the market – tapas! Washed down with sweet sangria, it was a charming meal in admittedly grizzly (hah!) surroundings.
Sala Gastronomica
We got an incredible lunch our first day at the restaurant inside the Museo Nacional de Antropología. I got a grilled fish fillet with plantains, and Mary got a citrus salad and some tortilla soup. Beautiful, delicious, by far the best museum food I’ve ever had.
Coyoacán and Coffee
We went to our favorite coffee shop in the city in Coyoacán, where we sipped on espresso, ate donuts, and people watched. The coffee we had in Mexico was exceptionally smooth, with rich flavor but hardly any bite. You could easily slurp down a double espresso without any milk or sugar.
The food in Mexico City was definitely the highlight for me. It would be really hard not to be amazed at the quality, selection, and price of food on display. It alone would be a great reason for a return visit.
Go to Mexico City and eat!
