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5 great places to eat in Mexico City

August 3, 2013 10 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

Street food: blue corn tortillas with rajas, tomatillos, cheese.

A heads up: you don’t say Mexico City, you say ‘DF’ pronounced ‘Day effe’, meaning Federal District.
It’s one of the most populated cities in the world. The streets are full of smog, dirt, poverty and noise. The trains are like a parliament of hawkers and beggars, singing their way up the crowded carriages. But I love it. To the point that I’d live there.
Mexican food has been underrated until recently, but it is one of the world’s great cuisines. There is so much variety in genuine Mexican food, it’s so much more than the Tex-Mex version, heavy on the beans and cheese, that we tend to get over here.

Giant molcajete
Flauta, rolled tortilla
Potato chips with salsas and pickles. Like you do.
The food everywhere is fairground bright
Pepitos, coloured wafers with pumpkin seeds
Tripe tacos

While waiting for the toilet, why not buy a cool drink from an impromptu stall?

1. Street food: possibly Mexico has the best street food in the world, on a par with Thailand and India. There isn’t a corner of Mexico where people aren’t eating. Mexicans really love to eat. You might even say, ahem, that they are greedy. Every doorway, every street corner, every cranny, every park, every metro station, every bus stop, every canal, every road, has a stall or a booth or a counter or a cart or a guy with a drinks maker on his back, selling the most delicious food. From a narrow bar hacking up tripe for tacos to grandmas crouching over a hot burner toasting blue corn tortilla with rajas, to intricately carved bright fruit on a stick, or pepitos hanging like bunting on a line, Mexico City is crammed with food experiences. Even the humble packet of cheezy wotsits becomes a gourmet feast, with salsa, chilli and lime. I’m not going to recommend particular places but suggest you go on a voyage of discovery, it’s rarer to have bad food than good.

The Courtyard at Azul Historico. Fantastic food.
Padrinos at 30 Isabel la Catolica. Note the bicycle on the wall. 

2. Posh food: in the Centro Historico (historic centre), I discovered a tree filled shady colonial courtyard which housed several restaurants, boutiques, galleries and food shops. Two main restaurants Padrinos and Azul Historico, the latter run by Chef Ricardo Munoz Zurita (who spent 12 years writing the weighty Mexican food anthology ‘Gastronomia Mexicana’ of which I bought a copy. This book is a must for anyone seriously into Mexican food). I ate at Azul Historico, which celebrates the Munoz Zuritas interest in regional Mexican cuisine by hosting monthly guest chef spots, this time for a female chef Pilar Cabrera who runs La Olla in Oaxaca.  You could order dishes such as guacamole with grasshoppers, but I tasted the enchiladas de jamaica orgánica which were very original, blue corn wraps stuffed with pickled hibiscus flowers. I also ordered a drink from a section called ‘bleedings’. What’s that? I asked the waiter. It’s white wine or port, say, with a flavoured syrup. I had a white wine and mint. Not to my taste.
Above the courtyard you can also visit ‘Culinaria Mexicana’, a great resource for Mexican foods and kitchenware.

The barges
Guitarists lurking on the banks
Corn on the cob with chili and salt
Dressing the cob ‘elote’

3. Xochimilco: Mexico’s Little Venice is known for its extended series of canals, all that remains of the ancient Lake Xochimilco. People travel in colorful trajineras (boats) covered with flowers. I spent three relaxing hours on my own in a boat, for it was the off-season. The canal is almost comical, with drifting barges of different kinds of musicians, from mariachi to classical, nudging up alongside your boat, urging you to hire them. You pay per song. Idling on the reedy banks are vendors for crafts. Restaurant boats and food barges cruise past, give them a wave and they park next to you, preparing your food. It’s as crowded and lively as the street but on the cool breezy water.

Frida’s bed (I got in trouble for taking this)

4. Coyoacan the market: near the house of Frida Kahlo. Eat there before or after visiting Frida’s house. This compact market has rows of stalls with rainbow-hued salsas and ceviches, sold in heaped pyramids.

5. The market at San Juan: known as the chef’s market, go to eat at market counters, have a wander and buy from the food stalls. The lunch stall of Dona Juana is very good. There are ornate religious shrines within the market.

Juice and pickles

Oil cloth

Other resources: check out Good Food in Mexico City by Nicholas Hillman. He’s a snotty bugger on Twitter (what is it with American men once they leave America?) but his blog and possibly his books are well worth reading.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rebecca Subbiah

    August 3, 2013 at 5:37 pm

    great post I want to take a flight and eat

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      August 4, 2013 at 9:28 am

      Thanks Rebecca, I reckon the perfect holiday would be: a flight to Puerto Vallarte for a bit of beach then back to Mexico City for some culture and excitement.

      Reply
  2. Karen (Back Road Journal)

    August 3, 2013 at 11:58 pm

    Loved your post! My husband would have to try the tripe tacos if he saw one of those stands.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      August 4, 2013 at 9:29 am

      I did have a closeup of the tripe taco but felt so repulsed I didn't publish it. My friend Les Wong would have loved those tripe tacos, ugh. The stall was packed though

      Reply
  3. Magnolia Verandah

    August 4, 2013 at 5:34 am

    Most certainly colourful. Loved that restaurant with the wall garden (and Bike).

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      August 4, 2013 at 9:30 am

      That whole complex is worth visiting, so many beautiful shops and great food.

      Reply
  4. The Little Dinner Lady

    August 4, 2013 at 5:15 pm

    Wooow! So much colour and deliciousness and excitement. Now firmly on my wish list, great post, thank you!

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      August 5, 2013 at 12:15 pm

      Yes it's brilliant TLDL!

      Reply
  5. Lizzie Mabbott

    August 6, 2013 at 10:46 am

    I loved DF so much when I visited last year – I would also love to live there. Wasn't Frida's house amazing? Lovely pics.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      August 6, 2013 at 5:29 pm

      Frida's house was so beautiful. Apparently you aren't allowed to take a picture of her bed with the mirror above, where she did many of her amazing paintings. I didn't know.
      Thanks, I have so many pix, I could have filled a whole blog with them…Mexico is so photogenic.

      Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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