The Mystery of Mexican Cuisine

Coming to Mexico on this trip was something of a comfort amongst countries we have and will visit which we know little about and whose culture we know even less.  When we lived in Houston, we met many people from Mexico and ate Mexican food regularly.  We also spent a few weeks in Baja California as a part of a business trip not long before we departed.  Sure Mexico City could be scary, but at least we knew tacos, quesadillas and tamales right?  Well, sort of…..

Tamales

In describing the cuisine that we encountered, it is probably best to present the heirarchy of Mexico City´s eateries.  This would start with common street vendors.  Street vendors are armed with anything from full sidewalk stands that are permanent and are essentially small buildings without water or electricity, to tamales being sold from black plastic garbage sacks.  Most popular are tacos (we will get to those in a minute), tortas (those too!), hot dogs and quesadillas.  We were told, as a general rule, to avoid these stands at all costs as you could never be quite sure which disease you may contract from these unclean germ kingdoms.  However, one of our Couchsurfing hosts knew of a particularly good quesadilla joint that was known to be safe and quite appetizing, and we partook one evening for dinner.  Of course quesadillas are not two tortillas with American cheese smothered between as we would expect.  Here, they look like giant ravioli if you are Ben or homemade Hot Pockets if you are Deenaree.  Raw tortilla dough is filled with ingredients (not necessarily cheese), closed and deep fried.  It is safe to say they are not good for the choleserol, but quite tasty.

Market vendor

A step up from your typical street vendor is your market food vendors.  These are stalls at the local market which primarily serve as restaurants.  Food is about the same price as at street vendors, but a little more reliably clean.  We ate a morning breakfast at one of these vendors in Mercado Merced.  Mercado Merced is the largest market in Mexico City and is astoundingly huge.  Everything seems to be sold there and from the moment we got off the subway, we did not once find its bounds.  We settled on a restaurant that had a cute little girl doing the marketing, trying to entice people to come inside.  Once there, we decided to order a gordita (because it looked appetizing on the fryer) and a huarache (because every stall seemed to have them).  It turns out gorditas are like tortilla sandwiches, except the tortillas are almost as thick as pancakes.  A huarache is basically a Mexican pizza on a thick tortilla with meat, cheese and salsa toppings.  Both were delicious, and of course fried.

Tortas

Taco de Ojo

The final rung below a full-fledged restaurant is a cafe.  Cafes are in permanent buildings with water and electricity, but serve informal, inexpensive cuisine.  They are safer than the other options, but slightly more expensive as well.  One of our favorites was La Torta Brava, in the center of the city, right next to Zocalo.  Their specialties are tortas, which are basically sub sandwiches on hoagie rolls with local meats and cheeses for filling.  They also make delicious gringas, which are the similar to gorditas, but they use the regular tortillas instead of the thick ones.  Another favorite was our host’s recommended taco place in the city.  As may have guessed by now, tacos are not ground beef, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.  Tacos at this shop come in two varieties: standard tacos and rico tacos.  Standard tacos are filled with the meat of your choice and a selection of half-a-dozen toppings like beans, cheese, potatoes, salsa and cacti.  The rico tacos are smaller, cheaper and stranger.  Your rico tacos are filled with meat only on a small corn tortilla.  Your selection of meats is what makes these interesting.  On top of the standard pork or beef, it is possible to order tripe, intestine, tongue, brain or eye.  You can even order a combination!  The beef eye tacos are particularly delectable.

As our time ends in Mexico City, we have had interesting and delicious experiences with the food in Mexico City.  Some food has been new, some unexpected, some enjoyed, and some not.  We have covered much of the local cuisine in Mexico City and know there is plenty more to find on our next trip.  Above all, we are certain that the only things we were quite clear about coming here, we only now truly understand.