Editor’s note: This feature by CB’s Mexico City correspondent Ben Herrera takes a look at Mexican fondas, inspired by his own experience growing up in one of these family-run neighborhood restaurants.
For as long as I can remember, I have loved mornings, a preference that likely – perhaps counterintuitively – originates from my experience working bright and early at my parents’ fonda. Continue »
Pozole, like the tortilla, is one of those ancient dishes that seem to be embedded in Mexicans’ DNA, serving as a culinary link to the ancestral past. A type of soup or stew that was a ceremonial dish in pre-Hispanic Mexico, pozole has yet to be widely commercialized, being offered mainly in pozolerías, small restaurants that specialize in serving up the dish and little else. Continue »
Markets in Mexico City are as integral a part of the culture as mariachi music and tacos, providing a place for neighbors to come together for shopping, gossip and family outings and playing a key role in keeping the social fabric tightly woven. While most neighborhoods have their own brick-and-mortar locations, their street markets are far more colorful. These crowded, boisterous shopping areas – some so large that their colorful tarp roofs can been seen on satellite photographs, stretching for miles – are also an essential component of the city’s culinary scene. Continue »
The past year has been a very good one for food in Mexico City. We’ve had a wonderful time exploring new restaurants, tracking down exciting dishes and meeting great people along the way. There have been so many memorable moments over the past year that it was hard to sit down and come up with a list of the ones that really stood out the most. Through debate and discussion (and some revisits), we narrowed down the worthy field to our top favorites. Here are our Best Bites of 2012 from Mexico City. Continue »
Mexico City is probably not the first place one thinks of when it comes to ice cream. Enchiladas and tacos, sure, but ice cream? In fact, the city has quite an established ice cream scene, with spots in nearly every neighborhood. La Especial de París, an ice cream parlor on the edge of Colonia San Rafael, stands out as a family-owned venue that – unlike many of its competitors, which have increasingly turned to selling mass-produced dairy products – still makes all its ice cream the old-fashioned way, by hand and with fresh, all-natural ingredients. Continue »
Dear Culinary Backstreets,
What and where is safe to eat in Mexico City? We’ve heard horror stories from other travelers about “Montezuma’s Revenge” and would like to avoid getting sick while visiting the city. Continue »
In Mexico, sandwiches generally come in the form of the torta, usually made out of a white bread roll known as a bolillo that has been sliced in half and then filled to the brim with meat, avocado, tomato, onion and sliced jalapeño peppers. In Mexico City’s San Rafael neighborhood, however, a family-owned sandwich shop called La Vaca de Muchos Colores is doing its best to expand the city’s sandwich scene. Continue »
To call Tacos & Deli, a one-year-old family-owned spot in the popular nightlife district of Zona Rosa, small would be an understatement. The main dining area contains six little tables, a tiny kitchen, a taco station and a cashier stand, all of which are squeezed into a micro-sized area that in many other restaurants would probably end up being used as a broom closet. Continue »
Mexico City’s southern neighborhood of Coyoacán, once a separate town outside the city limits, is now a popular area with cobblestone lanes full of art galleries, museums, restaurants and flea markets. For us, though, the real allure of the neighborhood is the opportunity to visit Tostadas Coyoacán, a marketplace restaurant that elevates the humble tostada to dizzying culinary heights. Continue »
One of the staples of Mexican cuisine (and of bar menus north of the border), the quesadilla can be found on almost every street corner and in every neighborhood market in Mexico City. Those served at Mercado San Cosme in Colonia San Rafael, however, redefine the quesadilla. Indeed, while this neighborhood market is far from being the city’s largest or most famous, it’s worth visiting just for a chance to eat at Quekas, an eatery housed in the market that makes some of the best quesadillas we’ve had in the city. Continue »
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