How to Eat Like a Local in ... Mexico City
Mexico City (Thinkstock)
Mexico City, the District Federal of Mexico, or “DF” as the locals call it, is a world-class culinary city where the food is a star player. Food vendors can be found on every corner of this bustling metropolis, and even if you are not up to fully indulging in these offerings there are plenty of other delicious dinning options to keep your tastebuds entertained. With the upcoming finale of Bravo TV’s Top Chef season 12 set in Mexico City, a colorful kaleidoscope of urban food markets, and slew of internationally acclaimed restaurants, the city is primed to receive the full foodie cred it deserves. Here are some tips to maximize your enjoyment of the DF’s incredible food scene by taking direction from how the locals do it:
1. Start the day with a traditional Mexican breakfast.
Sanborns’ dining room (Julia Pemberton Hellums)
Mexicans customarily eat their lunch between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., so for locals (and for visitors with a full day of sight-seeing planned) breakfast can truly be the most important meal of the day. Breakfast at El Cardenal located in the Centrio Historico and housed in an elegant Beaux Arts-style mansion, is full of nostalgia. The warm-from-the-oven sweet breakfast rolls and steaming pitchers of hot chocolate are legendary. Just down the street, the equally celebrated Sanborns Madero resides in the 17th century palace Casa de los Azuelos. The two story dinning room, covered in talavera tiles, is the coffee shop of this Mexican department store’s historic Centrio location. Make it a mid-morning stop for the more casual but just as classic Mexican breakfast dishes like molletes, warm bolillos (football shaped baguettes) smothered with refried beans and queso Oaxaca (mozzarella-like cheese) or chilaquiles verdes fried tortilla strips drenched in green tomatillo salsa and topped with shredded chicken and queso fresco. When served with a scrambled egg, this dish is a favorite local hang-over cure.
2. Eat out at a food market
Mercado Roma (Julia Pemberton Hellums)
The food markets of Mexico are famous for their energetic, colorful qualities and the extensive variety of street-food offerings. Every Tuesday the tianguis (outdoor greenmarket) in Condesa, one of the city’s tonier neighborhoods, is located near the corner of Calle Pachuca and Avenida Agustin Melgaron. You will find it filled with food stalls that offer tostados and tacos of every description. Alternatively check out Mercado Roma favored by the hip Roma neighborhood’s trendy residents as a gourmet alternative to eating on the street. With a specular selection of culinary treats from high-brow vendors, it has the feel of Chelsea Market in New York or Eataly in Chicago. Park yourself on one of the communal tables and graze the many Mexican delicacies locals enjoy like traditional antijitos (corn-meal bases that are topped or stuffed with various combinations of meats, vegetables, and cheeses), steaming bowls of pozole (hominy corn soup) with a spintz of fresh lime, a variety of ceviches (seafood cocktails), and tortas (mexican sandwiches) made to order.
3. Eat tacos.
Lago de Los Cisnes (Julia Pemberton Hellums)
Make sure you take the opportunity to indulge in the ubiquitous Mexico City speciality Tacos al pastor. These tacos reflect the influence of the large Lebanese immigration to the area that began in the late 19th century. Thin slices of pork are marinated primarily in Mexican achiote paste and roasted Middle Eastern-style on a revolving vertical spit. Meat is carved onto a tortilla to serve and topped with pineapple, onions and a squeeze of lime. El Lago de Los Cisnes serves a fantastic Tacos al Pastor in the Las Lomas neighborhood and is opened until 6 a.m. on weekends to serve the hungry post-clubbing crowd. Another popular local choice for tacos al pastor is the chain El Tizoncito — it actually claims to have invented the dish. For a step above, go to El Bajio in Polanco for other Mexico City favorites like tacos carnitas (roast pork) and tacos barbacoa (roast lamb). Take the opportunity to try the restaurant’s very popular gorditas (stuffed tortillas) and tamales, as well.
4. Try the street-food snacks and drinks.
Chicharrones (Julia Pemberton Hellums)
Snack vendors are a part of the landscape in Mexico City. Colorful aquas frescas (fresh fruit juices and infusions), home-made potato chips, chicharrones (fried pork skins), assorted nuts, candies, and even local fave toasted crickets are seductively displayed in carts and stands all over the city. Chip vendors serve customers their choice of crisp treats in a paper funnel and top their offerings with a selection of hot sauces. On a warm day, try one of the traditional drinks like the milky white horchata, which is made with milk, rice, vanilla and cinnamon and is reminiscent of a refreshing liquified rice pudding, or the bright cranberry-colored agua de jamaica which is made with dried hibiscus flowers.
5. Treat yourself to an ice cream.
Ice cream from Neveria Roxy (Krista/Flickr)
Enjoying an ice cream cone in Mexico City is a traditional, much-loved treat. With uniquely Mexican flavors like mamey, tarmarino, guanbana, and cajeta (goat’s milk caramel), Neveria Roxy has been serving generations of locals in the Condesa neighborhood some of the best ice cream in the city for years. It’s old fashioned soda foundation decor with a Formica bar and original milkshake mixers is a throw-back to a by-gone era. The milkshakes, banana splits and ice cream sodas, however, still deliver. A newer location in Polanco also fits the bill and is packed with neighborhood crowds every weekend.
6. Dine at a world-class restaurant.
Pujol (Pujol/Facebook)
Dinning out in Mexico City is by no means all casual tacos and snacks, it can also be a serious culinary experience. Dulce Patria is one of the many innovative and creative restaurants that the city is home to. Chef Martha Ortiz is a culinary wizard with a passionate, artistic approach to cooking the food of her Mexican homeland. Bright colors and flavors explode on every plate and in every glass that is served at the restaurant, it is almost as if you have stepped into a Frida Kahlo painting. Locals come for the original technicolor house cocktails and Chef Ortiz’s whimsical and very feminine take on traditional straight-forward dishes like duck mole and grilled fish. Chef Enrique Olvera’s restaurant Pujol has been celebrated as one of the world’s top 50 restaurants. His innovative approach takes historic Mexican dishes and flavors and reinvents them using contemporary molecular cuisine techniques. The restaurant food and style is subdued yet always interesting. Locals come for the surprises like liquid quesadillas, avocado ravioli, and reinvented carnitas.
7. Indulge in churros and (hot) chocolate.
El Moro Churreria (Julia Pemberton Hellums)
Whether you begin your day with warm, crispy, thin churros and a cup of hot chocolate or end an evening out with them, since 1935 El Moro Churreria has been serving Mexico City this authentic comfort food for the kid in all of us. Many believe it to be the best churros and chocolate in the world. Order one of their four hot chocolate recipes: Especial (bitter with cinnamon), Frances (sweet), Espanol (thick and sweet), Mexicano (milky with vanilla) and dip your warm churros in the frothy chocolate just like the locals do. You might just think you have died and gone to heaven.
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