mmm-yoso!!!

Mexico City (2022) - Taco Crawl - El Pescadito, Tacos Hola, La Guerrerense, and El Califa. And a Return to Panadería Almuerzos

Before our trip to CDMX, I had read a really nice cookbook named Made in Mexico by Chef Danny Mena. The cookbook featured based on the Chef's (who is from CDMX) favorite dishes from various restaurants and stands in Mexico City. I loved that there was a separate restaurant index in the back of the cookbook with all the locations. There were a couple that were rather close to where we were staying (Colonia Condesa) and I thought it would be nice to do a sort of taco crawl like we had done in the days before Covid.

We were a bit hungry after visiting the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. And El Pescadito was on the way back to the hotel, so we decided to stop there. I'd seen El Pescadito before as it is right across the street from Tacos Don Juan which we visited before.

Man, this place was quite busy; but they had a pretty awesome system. Order, get a number, find a table, pick up your food when called, and pay before leaving. It seemed like half the customers were non-locals here.

According to what I had read; this place specializes in Tacos de Marlin - smoked fish tacos, here it is smoked tuna. Something I really love. I ordered (left to right), a Tacochango (MarlinTun/Shrimp), MarlinTun, and the item in the book, the Chile Relleno Taco (MalinTun stuff in a Chile).

    So, first the good; man were things fried here good! The batter on the shrimp was crisp and light; the shrimp plump, moist, and tasty. The poblano chile likewise. Sadly, the MarlinTun was dry, fishy, and not very smoky in terms of flavor. The tortillas were decent and up to the task at hand.

    Sadly, I'd have to say I've had better tacos de marlyn here in San Diego!

And while the tacos may have been borderline disappointing; that "dude" to the right was not!

Remember that I've mentioned the amazing dog walkers of Mexico City before? Well this guy was "going for the gold". He had 9 pooches in tow...nine! He saw us jaw agape and even stopped for a photo. Take a look and count 'em.....9. And they were all pretty well behaved. 

El Pescadito
Calle Atlixco 38
06140 Ciudad de México

We headed back to our hotel and relaxed for a bit; then headed back out. We got to Avenida Amsterdam and found what we thought was the correct address, but nope....we asked at a nearby shop and the nice gentleman pointed us in the right direction; to Tacos Hola; a tiny shop which was doing good business.

The Missus got the little table with the two kiddie stools, shades of Hanoi! I went inside to order and found that a bunch of items were sold out!

Luckily, the recommended item; the Tacos de Bistec en Pasilla was still available. And I thought the Missus would enjoy the Tacos Acelgas (Chard).

  Tacos Hola specializes in Tacos Guisados, braised and stewed ingredients for tacos. So, even though it says bistec; it's actually braised beef; really tasty braised beef, with a very bright pasilla chile-tomato based sauce. The Missus really loved the beans here...She still mentions those beans, as in "why can't you make beans like those." The chard was quite tender, but quite mild in flavor....man, I could imagine this with collards! The tortillas were excellent.

I really want to return here.

Tacos Hola El Güero
Amsterdam 135
06100 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

Our next stop was in a familiar locale; the Parian Condesa Food Hall. Pasillo de Humo is located on the second floor. We've walked past La Guerrerense before.

Here it's the Tacos de Pescado and the Tacos de Camaron that are recommended, so that's what we ordered.

We didn't care for these very much. The fish in the Taco de Pescado was the width of my pinky and not even as long. It's the batter that is supposed to be special; it's made with vodka which is supposed make a delicate, crisp crust. We couldn't make out much.

The shrimp was the better of the two, more flavor, better texture. The tortillas broke apart while eating our tacos.

It was strange; we were the only customers in the place.

La Guerrerense
Avenida Nuevo León 107
06100 Cuauhtemoc, CDMX, Mexico

For our last stop, we decided to go with a favorite from our previous taco crawl, El Califa. 

We enjoyed the Al Pastor here on our previous visit, so we had two each. It did not disappoint.

The Al Pastor had that nice balance of sweet and salty; nice savory tones, the meat had a crispness to it as well. The onions added pungency and that pineapple was icing on the cake! 

Still a favorite of ours.

Taquería El Califa
Altata 22
06170 Ciudad de México

We were tempted to do an Al Pastor comparison and head on over to El Farolito across the street, but we were full and that comparison will have to wait for another day. We were pooped; it was time to hit the hay.

The next morning we hit up our favorite croissant stop, Panadería Almuerzos. Man, there was a line! We'd never seen this before. Word must have gotten out!

It was interesting; the two guys in front of us just spoke English and didn't even try to speak Spanish, as did the woman behind us. Like I mentioned in my previous post; we saw many more ex-pat/tourists than we had seen before. Panadería Almuerzos had also spiffed things up. It used to just look like a garage before, now they had a bakery case and everything.

And then I got my croissant and was crestfallen.

It wasn't crisp and flakey enough, lacked butter, was too doughy. 

Here's what it used to look like.

Man, this used to be my favorite croissant outside of France. What happened here? Have they lowered their standards? 

I'm not sure, but I sure was disappointed.

Panadería Almuerzos
Av. Vicente Suárez 64A
Colonia Condesa, CDMX, Mexico

I truly hope this was just a bad day.....but I'm thinking it wasn't. 

Well, I didn't have too much time to dwell on this, we had an Uber on the way and had to get to the airport.

Next stop, Oaxaca!

Mexico City (2022) - It's Tout Chocolate and Pasillo de Humo Yet Again, Fonda Garufa, and a Private Tour of Museo Nacional de Antropologia

**** I though I'd give you all a break from those really long Islay posts and do a couple on our recent trip to CDMX. I've posted on two of the places several times; so perhaps skipping down to our tour of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia might be worthwhile?

Yes, I know we'd already been to Mexico and CDMX earlier in the year. But the Missus had enjoyed that trip so much, San Miguel de Allende and especially Guanajuato was so much fun, that the Missus wanted to do another trip. This time to Oaxaca. However while Volaris, has 2 direct flights from TIJ, well, we really don't like flying Volaris. So, we decided that a layover would be fine one way and we'd go ahead and spend two nights in Mexico City. As a plus, I knew the Missus loved our visit to the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, though it was quite overwhelming, so I booked us a private tour. She was excited about that!

Getting in was the same 'ol routine. We stayed at the same place as on the last three trips. It was quite simple and easy. Like I said, we now had kind of a routine if you will. After checking in, we headed to Tout Chocolate so the Missus could get Her chocolates and some gifts.

Choosing Her chocolates was one of Her most difficult decisions of the trip.

Tout Chocolat
Amsterdam 154
6100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

In keeping with the routine, we had dinner at a place I've posted on three times already, Pasillo de Humo. So, I'll spare you all the gory details. I will say, that unlike our last visit we weren't misted by vinegar to prevent Covid this time around.

We have an approach that works for us at Pasillo de Humo. We've learned to stay away from the entrees and go for smaller plates.

And we enjoy the cocktails as well.

Two of our favorite dishes, the Memelitas de Cerdo and the Hoya Santa Relleno, were good as always.

But this time we found something we enjoyed even more; the Tripas Tacos!

The pork intestines were fried perfectly; crisp and light......the texture was amazing!

One other reason that I purposely chose to revisit Pasillo de Humo was that we were headed to Oaxaca and I was interested in seeing how the food at our favorite restaurant in CDMX lined up.

Pasillo de Humo
Av Nuevo León 107
06100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

It was a nice and relaxing start to things. Though I did notice many more "tourists/ex-pats" here then I recalled. And then I started reading articles like this one.

The next morning, before heading to the Museum, we decided to get a croissant from our favorite bakery in the area, but changed our mind when we noticed this place sold croissants and thought we'd try it out.

We then headed on over to Cafe Toscano, our usual morning coffee stop.

Unfortunately, the croissant was overly doughy and lacked the butteriness we like in our croissants.

Fonda Garufa
Avenida Michoacán 93
06140 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

Creatures of habit that we are; we had our typical morning coffee at Cafe Toscano.

Nothing amazing mind you, but a nice way to start the day.

Cafe Toscano
Calle Michoacan sn Mercado Condesa
Hipódromo Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

After our caffeine fix we headed out to the Museum. As always, it was a fine walk.

We had really enjoyed our previous visit to the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, so I went ahead and booked a private tour with Mexico a Pie Walking Tours.

Our guide was Andres and he was amazing. The tour was so full of info!

We met Andres at the Tlaloc Statue that sits outside the museum on the corner of Reforma.

Andres met us and after introductions and an overview of what was going to be covered in the tour today, he went over Tlaloc, the Aztec god of water and rain. He noted the key features, the round eyes, the fangs and said that we'd be seeing several different status of Tlaloc during our visit and that many folks think it's of a different go, but keep in mind the key features and it's easy to identify.

Andres covered exactly what we were interested in; the Archaic to the Contact Period. It was so much info; I'm just going to go over a couple of things that really stuck with us.

 

Andres quizzed us as we moved along the museum.

  And yep, if you're thinking that's Tlaloc above, you'd be right. Check out the eyes and the fangs! 

Another interesting story was that of King Pakal of Palenque (K'inich Janaab' Pakal). It is claimed that Pakal ruled for nearly 70 years and in 1952 a tomb was opened in the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque. In it was found a skeleton with an intricate jade mask and clothed as you see to the right. The actual jade mask can be found close by in a replica of the tomb.

We got to another interesting topic was when I asked Andres if Jade was actually found in Mexico and he told us that items like Jade, Turquoise, and Cacao which are not endemic to Mexico. We were then brought to this map which detailed how trade occurred between different peoples!

Turquoise actually came from what is now the American Southwest! Cacao and Jade from what is now Guatemala.

Andres went over the amazing Aztec Codex with us.

And even dispelled a couple of things we thought were true; like this famous object; the Aztec Sun Stone, which many people believe is a just a calendar.

It is now believed that the stone is actually a sacrificial altar! Here's something I read after returning from our trip.

It was an amazing nearly four hour experience, with so much information that I've forgotten more than I remember; but those few items stick with me. And we just covered half the museum! I guess we'll have to get the other half done the next time we're in CDMX!

Museo Nacional de Antropologia
Avenida Paseo de la Reforma y Calzada Gandhi s/n
Chapultepec, Mexico City 11560, Mexico

After the tour we took a short break and then we were off. It was time for a taco crawl!

Stay Tuned!

Mexico City (2022) - Entremar, Revisits to Temporal and Panaderia Almuerzos

We took a nice nap after a pretty busy morning, after which it was time to head off to an early (430pm) dinner. I had tried getting reservations at the very popular Contramar, but was unable to. I then switched to Contramar's sister restaurant Entremar and could only get an early dinner reservation.  Even though I thought we'd done enough walking for the day, the Missus disagreed, so we decided to walk the 2 1/2 miles to the restaurant. To be honest, the weather was very pleasant making this a nice walk.

We arrived at the restaurant, located in the ritzy Polanco district and couldn't believe how busy it was!

There was a bit of a queue to get in. As I stood in line, aggressive "Abuela's" pushed their way past me! This was such a change from the usual polite and well mannered folks I was used to in CDMX. I guess the potential of seafood will drive some folks to this!

Anyway, it wasn't a big deal and we had reservations. We were escorted upstairs and I gotta say the clientele upstairs were pretty tony.......

The staff worked so hard and were very gracious. We placed our order and just chilled out.

The first item to arrive was the Ceviche Contramar.

The fish was very tender, the marinating liquid had a perfect balance of sour with just enough salt to make it enjoyable. Very nice!

We didn't enjoy the Aguachile Verde Contramar as much.

The shrimp was quite tough and fishy and the "sauce" didn't have enough citrus tones for our taste.

The one dish we were looking forward to was the Pescado a la Talla, red snapper that is butterflied, sauced, and grilled. We chose the "Contramr" version, which had half of the fish rubbed with a red adobo sauce and the other half with parsley (De la Barrita) based rub.

 This came with some really tasty black beans. Surprisingly, at least for us, we really enjoyed the parsley rub more! It had nice garlic tones; some cumin, and you could really taste the mild, almost sweet flavor of the snapper, which was grilled perfectly! Don't get me wrong; that adobo rub had some nice smokiness and spice; but you really couldn't enjoy the great quality of the fish as much.

Overall; the Pescado a la Talla made the meal a memorable one and we'll gladly return.

Entremar
Hegel 307
Polanco V Secc, 11560 Ciudad de México, Mexico

I enjoyed that fish so much that when the Missus suggested walking back to our room I readily agreed!

Not having to be anywhere allows you to enjoy and notice things more.

Like this restaurant with a familiar name.

And this bar where I guess you might be able to "Break on through to the other side"?

It was still quite early, so we decided to stop for a cocktail and a snack.....we chose another place we'd been to a couple of times; Temporal. Where we sat downstairs at the bar area.

I got my favorite cocktail here; the Suerte de Dragon ("Lucky Dragon").

Sadly, this Mezcal and beer based cocktail tasted watered down and the usual spiciness of it was really muted.

As a snack we got our favorite menu item at Temporal; the Gulf Crab Sopes.

Which were smaller then on previous visits; the sopes were really gummy, and there was too much filler and not as much crab as on our previous visits.

Bummer.......

Restaurante Temporal
Saltillo 1, Hipódromo, Cuauhtémoc
06140 CDMX, Mexico

We slept well and got up early the next morning.

Our next stop was going to be San Miguel de Allende and we had hired the amazing Aaron Cruz to drive us there.

Since it was going to be quite the drive; we headed to another familiar stop close by; Panadería Almuerzos for a Croissant and then got some coffee from Mercado Condesa.

I've often said that the croissants at Panadería Almuerzos are our favorite outside of France....and this delivered.

And the coffee wasn't bad either.

Panadería Almuerzos
Av. Vicente Suárez 64A
Colonia Condesa, CDMX, Mexico

Cafe Toscano
Calle Michoacan sn Mercado Condesa
Hipódromo Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

Breakfast completed, we headed back to our room to finish packing and check out. Aaron would be arriving soon to take us to our next stop; San Miguel de Allende.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mexico City (2022) - Museo Frida Kahlo and Lunch at Tostadas Coyoacan

After a thoroughly enjoyable caffeine stop, we headed to Museo Frida Kahlo.

It was a nice stroll ad a line soon formed outside "La Casa Azul", the house where Frida Kahlo was born and where she lived with her husband Diego Rivera. We had gotten tickets online which was a good move as folks who came without tickets were out of luck for the day.

I've read that Frida Kahlo produced only about 200 paintings during her lifetime. But it is both her work, some of which are dark, emotional, surreal, and project the constant pain she was in after first contracting polio when she was 6, which caused her right leg to be shorter than her left and then the bus accident when she was 18 when the bus she was riding in hit a trolley causing a metal handrail to impale her. And her somewhat tumultuous marriages to Diego Rivera (they were married twice and Diego had an affair with Frida's younger sister!).

Of her paintings 55 were self portraits.

One of Frida Kahlo's most well known quotes:

"My painting carries with it the message of pain.”

The upstairs portion are fascinating to many as it has her bedroom and studio....where you can see her wheelchair stationed at the easel she used.

And the bedroom and bed where she spent so much time recovering from the accident and then her last years when she was in declining health.

For us, it was the medical portion and the corsets that Frida had to wear that really made an impact.

It really brought home the pain and suffering of Frida.

Walking in the garden area, I was struck by the displays of the tumultuous life of the artist, with the wonderful peaceful tranquility of the garden.

Which I guess just hits home the complexity of the duality of life......

Museo Frida Kahlo is well worth the time.

Frida Kahlo Museum
Londres 247
Coyoacán, 04100 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

For lunch we headed back down Ignacio Allende to Mercado Coyoacan.

Where it seems that you could get every kind of trinket you could possibly want!

The interior though, was a hustling and bustling market.

I had recommendations and read quite a bit about Tostadas Coyoacan which is located in the Market, so we found the bustling stand.

We ordered three Tostadas which arrived in minutes. Man, they've got quite the system going.

The amount of protein piled on the tostadas is quite admirable for the price.

The best of the bunch was the Camarones which had a nice balance of sour to salt and the shrimp were tender. The chicken in the Pollo Mole was quite tough and dry; the mole really weak in flavor. The pork in the Cochinita was tender, but was quite weak in terms of flavor from the typical aromatics (i.e. oregano/cinnamon/cumin).

Still, the most expensive tostada was the camarones which is about $2.50/US, the other two are about a buck-fifty; so I wasn't going to whine too much about this meal.

Tostadas Coyoacán (In Mercado de Coyoacán)
Ignacio Allende No.49
Coyoacán, 04100 CDMX, Mexico

After lunch we crossed the street to Jardín Allende where there was an arts and crafts market.

We strolled around a bit before calling our Uber and heading back to our hotel.

Where a nice afternoon nap was awaiting us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mexico City (2022) - Pasillo de Humo and Tout Chocolat Revisited and Coffee from La Catrina (Coyoacan)

As we headed into fall of 2021, things were looking pretty good. The Missus and I, fully vaccinated were looking to take care of the vacancy that not being able to travel internationally had created. So, we decided to "dip our toes" into the pool so to speak and not go too crazy......and go to one of our favorite destinations; Mexico City. The Missus also had another destination in mind and I worked out the logistics. Of course, along came Omicron, but by that time we both had gotten our boosters and when it was time for our trip, we decided to go ahead with it.

In some ways, it was good to start things off with CDMX as we had felt welcome and comfortable there from the first time we set foot in the city. We'd be staying at the same accommodations as our previous trips and was familiar with the area. It would also be interesting to see if things had changed over time.

We did the CBX thing and flew out of TJ.....

 We had a morning flight and were served breakfast. I quickly noticed the new "required accessory" that came along with breakfast.

We landed and found our transport to Condesa and checked into our hotel.

Things initially felt a bit strange, but once in the comfortable and familiar confines of the area, things started feeling normal....just like in the "old days".

Having arrived late in the afternoon, I had made reservations at a place I've posted on twice, so I'm mainly just putting up photos. We had decided to have dinner at Pasillo de Humo because we've always enjoyed the food, atmosphere, and service.

There was one interesting Covid precaution when entering the restaurant which is on the second floor of a food hall. You went thru a device that misted vinegar on you! You smelled pickled before you even had your first cocktail! 

And that Memelitas de Cerdo, the pork cheek memelitas were so good, we had a second order!

   Then the Missus had Her dessert....while I had, ahem, mine.

This was of course, the place where I first had Ojo de Tigre....from the modified hand truck with like 30 bottles of Mezcal on it. These days everything is based on QR codes. I spoke to our wonderful Server about Ojo de Tigre and was told they don't serve that here anymore. The reason? 

"Too many Ojo de Tigre!"

I'm guessing that Ojo de Tigre production is hitting mainstream and is now easily available. So I had him pick something "mui fumar" (smoky) for me, which he did.

It was really good!

Pasillo de Humo
Av Nuevo León 107
06100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

After dinner we took a short walk to another regular stop, Tout Chocolate. We've been here on every visit to CDMX; but strangely, I couldn't find a post on the place. This place has been a stop for us since our good friend "Alle" recommended it to us several years back.

Part cafe, part chocolate/confection shop....you know what the Missus was after, right?

She acquired a nice variety of chocolates.

Tout Chocolat
Amsterdam 154
6100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

Then we decided to call it a night. It had been a wonderful evening for us....it just seemed so comforting.

The next morning we had tickets and reservations for Museo Frida Kahlo and decided to get there before our 10 am entrance time and grab some coffee. Uber is amazing in Mexico, very affordable and very safe since all cars are tracked. We got to Coyoacan an hour before our designated time. So we headed off to get our caffeine fix. I had initially planned on getting some coffee from Café El Jarocho a pioneer in the CDMX coffee scene, established back in 1953 eventually  spawning 8 other locations in CDMX.

But the lines were long and even though everyone (just like elsewhere in Mexico during our visit) wore masks, it was just too crowded with little seating.

We decided on the shop across the street named La Catrina.

The young lady working was very sweet. And they had al fresco tables and seating.....

And here we came across one of those "memorable" moments. A sweet young lady came up to the window. She seemed a regular customer as the folks working knew her. Her companion and "bodyguard" was a tiny, three legged Chihuahua. I say bodyguard because this little one had some personality and was quite protective of the young lady! The pooch would ignore the smaller poodles and such that walked by.....but oh, when the larger dogs passed by, be it a Rottweiler or Pit Bull, the little fellow would start growling! Which is probably how he ended up with three legs! We started calling him "Tripod".....and no one messes with Tripod, no one! I regret not taking a photo of this Bada$$! 

As often happens when enjoying oneself, time flew by. Soon it was time to head on over to Museo Frida Kahlo. I went and took our cups back to the counter which brought a smile and a "gracias" from the young lady working. Meanwhile, Tripod let me pet him and scratch his ears and his owner smiled and told us "have a fun vacation!" I guess it was obvious that we were tourists.

Such nice folks.......though you don't mess with Tripod!

La Catrina
Ignacio Allende 45
04000 Coyoacán, CDMX, Mexico

Up next Museo Frida Kahlo

Where in the World Were We?

Man, when was the last time I typed that out? Well, it had been quite a long time since we "really" travelled, I mean the domestic road trips were fun, but we missed travelling internationally. So, back in November, when it looked like Delta was waning, we started making plans....nothing too far mind you; in fact we planned to visit the last place we visited outside the US, back in February of 2020.....man, it seems like a decade ago.

And then Omicron came along.......sigh. So, we had a decision to make......

In the end, with both the Missus and I fully vaccinated and boosted, having no pre-existing conditions, we decided to go ahead. I had also heard from our good friend "Alle" that folks in Mexico were really compliant with regards to wearing masks....and she wasn't kidding....almost everyone wore KN95s too! They even wore the masks outdoors.......the only folks not wearing masks were....well.....you know from where. We had temperature checks before entering most shops; were asked to sanitize....there were a few exceptions and I'll note my observations in future posts. In fact, when entering one of the restaurants were were misted with........vinegar!?!?! 

Anyway, we really enjoyed our trip. 

We got to revisit some favorites of ours.....

And are slowly working our way thru the "list" of places we want to check out.....

We hired a private driver for take us to our next destination......where checking out at least one rooftop restaurant/bar is a must. And you can clearly see why.

And such colorful streets.....

We were the only folks staying at our 6 room B&B, which we really enjoyed.

And had some pretty darn good food as well.

Our third and final stop was our favorite......

We actually took a private walking tour which was the highlight of our trip. 

Where we learned some history about this fine city.......

And our favorite restaurant of this trip was here as well......we loved it so much that we returned on our last evening.......

The overall travelling experience felt somewhat surreal at times; though we appreciated the warm and friendly people and the Covid precautions as well. We felt safe during our stay.

Yes, "Viva la Vida"....but also care about your fellow man, have compassion, respect........

Hope everyone is doing well! Take care!

Mexico City (Before Covid) - The Two Day Taco Crawl and Other "Stuffs"

**** Just summing up our last trip before the pandemic to CDMX.

It was quite apparent that during our visits to CDMX we hadn't addressed one important "food group".....tacos! And so, before our trip I set about trying to create a nice "taco crawl" of sorts...which ended up stretching into two days. So here's a brief summary.

We started off at the farthest stretches from where we were staying....to an interesting (at that time) concept called El Auténtico Pato Manila.

The place was quite busy....though we were both amused and confused by the name and what was on the menu.

On one hand you had the name..."Manila"...on the other hand; you had a statue of Chairman Mao.....

And the place was known for their "pato" - duck tacos served in a flour tortilla, in place of the usual pancake....

With hoisin sauce to say the least......not quite sure.....but this really didn't hit the spot. The proteins were dry....not sure what I expected; but it wasn't this.

El Auténtico Pato Manila
Culiacan 91
06100 Ciudad de México

Next we moved up a couple of blocks and got an outside table at Taquería El Califa. 

Which seemed quite popular.

This would end up being our favorite for the evening...great service and heck, they don't mess around when you order a side of avocado.

The Al Pastor was crisp and flavorful and I ordered the bistek "campechano" which came topped with chicharrons......

Our favorite place by far.

Taquería El Califa
Altata 22
06170 Ciudad de México

The next stop I picked because of it supposed "historical" significance....you see; El Tizoncito claims to have invented Tacos Al Pastor....it sure is quite busy to say the least.

We sat next to an amazing young man (like 6 years old) and his dad.....the kid was game for anything and I admired him....for he was from the Midwest US but was just willing to try it all!

The Al Pastor was disappointing though; tough and lacking in caramelization and quite bland overall.

El Tizoncito
Tamaulipas 122
06140 Ciudad de México

Our last stop was one that I'd read much about, Taqueria el Greco.....which served what they call "Arab-style" tacos. It's quite popular as you can see in the photos, though we did fins a table inside the small restaurant.

The Missus went with a typical taco of grilled steak...i.e. carne asada; while I went with a "Doneraky" (spit roasted) style taco in Arabian Bread (sort of like a pita).

 The Missus's taco fared better than mine; which I thought was quite bland, overshadowed by the cheese and avocado.

Taqueria El Greco
Michoacán 54
06100 Ciudad de México

From here we headed back to our hotel and called it a night.

The next morning we headed out to stretch our legs...coming across a "bike day" on Avenida Mazatlan.

After taking care of a couple of things; we headed off to a taco shop a couple of blocks from where we were staying......Tacos Don Juan

 We had passed this place during one of our walks in the area and I wanted to check them out.

Both the Arrachera-Tocino and the Chuleta Ahumada were quite good. Very solid, delicious tacos.

A solid no frills neighborhood spot - we'll be back.

Tacos Don Juan
Calle Juan Escutia 35
06140 Ciudad de México

From here we walked on over to Parque Mexico....it's always a fun walk and on this day they had a dog adoption program going on.

After which we stopped at Volador Café for a caffeine fix.

They sure love their pooches in CDMX.

Volador Café
Amsterdam 135
06100 Ciudad de México

As I often have said; there's something about his area in CDMX that reminds me of Europe.

When dinner time arrived; I had yet another taco shop in mind....but first we returned to a place close by; Temporal, for a Suerte de Dragon (Lucky Dragon) and some Gulf Crab Sopes.....just so we'd have enough energy to make it to dinner...right?

Restaurante Temporal
Saltillo 1
06140 Ciudad de México

It was a bit of a walk to to El Farolito, which I had seen the night before.

The place seemed quite popular with the locals.....

Maybe because the Al Pastor is roasting right in the dining area?

We sat at the counter and had some cerveza and al pastor and buche tacos......which were quite good.,

El Farolito
Altata 19
06100 Ciudad de México

Funny thing is.....El Califa is right across the street....hmmm....maybe next time....

And then we had a nice stroll back to our room....we had an early flight the next day. We thought we'd be back to CDMX in no time at all and then the pandemic hit.....so, until we're back again!

Thanks for hanging in there for this rather onerous post!

Mexico City (Before Covid) - La Casa de Toño, Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela, Mercado de San Juan, Museo del Calzado, Pastelería Ideal, and Cafe Jekemir

Here's another (hopefully) quick post (abbreviated) on our last trip before Covid struck from back in February, 2020.

The Missus decided that She wanted to do some "exploring" the day after visiting visiting Teotihuacan, so of course I had to plan something out. Of course I wanted to start out with something to eat, so we headed to La Casa de Toño.....because the Missus wanted some Pozole at the Zona Rosa location.

So, basically, I'll equate this to something like a Denny's....a chain that's very popular. The Missus wasn't enamored with the pozole....there are several choices in terms of meat available....She stayed safe with Maciza....while I went full "cabeza de cerdo" (pig's head) which turned out to be the better choice.

 This was pretty mild in terms of porkiness...at least it made the Missus appreciate the pozole I make.

La Casa de Toño (Many locations in CDMX)
Londres 144
06600 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

From here we headed to our next stop.....

The Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela.

Which...my goodness, had a huge selection of items you never knew you needed....

 Man, there sprawling alleyways and shops......I ended up needing a break after a while.

Luckily we found a cafe....and a cafe de olla came to the rescue.

Lest you think this marketplace is for tourists, I've been told that many local come here to shop for various items though I never did ask what those items specifically were.

We also took a walk thru Ciudadela Park across the street.

And saw this group practicing ballroom style dancing.

It was so sweet and charming. Notice the fellow dancing by himself? I'm wondering what the story might be behind that?

We enjoyed the green spaces in the city.

The next stop was purely for me....the Mercado de San Juan.

I always enjoy visiting these markets when I travel. There's always something interesting.

The "Chinatown" street, Dolores (which I've posted on before) is just a about a block away, so we headed up the street.

From here, I had an interesting place I wanted the Missus to see....the Museo del Calzado....yep, the footwear museum.

Up a discreet stairway is an interesting collection of footwear...from the historic...to, well, the famous.

   It's a fun stop whether you have a "foot/shoe" fetish or not.

Museo del Calzado"The Borcegui"
Calle de Bolívar 27
Mexico City, 06000 Mexico

Right down the block was another interesting sight....an Ottoman Clock - the Reloj Otomano.

You can read more about it at Atlas Obscura.

CDMX is indeed an international city!

And full of surprises.

The next stop was a recommendation of an acquaintance who said it was his favorite "bakery in the world".

Pastelería Ideal is located a few blocks away and is easy to identify.....just look for the towering cakes in the window.

You can't  miss it! And the throngs of folks shopping for their favorite pastry. Everyone is in sugar heaven!

I was instructed to head to the second floor.....

 Where there was a "showroom" of sorts for cakes. I cracked up as each cake was labeled with how much it weighed? Just in case you wanted that 10 kilogram panda cake!

Pastelería Ideal
República de Uruguay 74
06000 Ciudad de México

Boy, after inhaling all that sugar. I needed something to wake me up! Luckily, I had a cafe on my "list" that was just a few blocks away named Cafe Jekemir.

Which proved to be just what we needed.

Cafe Jekemir
Calle Regina 7
Mexico City 06000 Mexico

In spite of the caffeine I was bushed....so we called an Uber and headed back to Condesa for a short nap....which would come in handy since we'd end up walking quite a bit for the dinner I had planned.

Thanks for stopping by!

Clearing Out the Memory Card - Teotihuacan, Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and a Revisit to Pasillo de Humo (CDMX)

Well, the Missus keeps insisting that we had only one trip this year; our recent roadtrip. I reminded Her that we did two trips early in the year, San Francisco and Mexico City. I went ahead and started showing Her our photos. Honestly, I don't blame Her for thinking those trips didn't happen this year....January and February just seem so long ago now.

Anyway, while I was looking at some of my photos; I thought I'd better get me act together and start doing posts. I'm going to try to limit my verbiage from this point on and let you enjoy the photos, though I think I'm not going to be very successful.

Before our trip to CDMX, I contacted a Driver named Aaron Cruz that came highly recommended by a couple of the Missus's coworkers and heck is even the subject of this thread in TripAdvisor. Anyway, contacting and arranging was easy. And on the day of pick-up, I went out and quickly picked up some croissants from our favorite bakery down the street.

Aaron was on time and got us to Teotihuacan in no time at all. Both the Missus and I had read about this amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site and were excited about our visit. Needless to say; it delivered.

Entering from the Southwest entrance, the first thing you come upon is La Cuidadela (the Citadel), which is theorized to be the main square of the city.  Within the walls is the Templo de Quetzalcoatl ("Temple of the Feathered Serpent") which is said to be the last of the three pyramid built at Teotihuacan. There are six levels of the pyramid each of which is decorated with the sculptured heads of Fire and Feathered Serpents. Discoveries are still being made to this day around and under the temple.

The main street that lead past the Pyramid of the Sun and ends at the Pyramid of the Moon is called Calzada de los Muertos ("Avenue of the Dead") currently runs for about 2 kilometers and is thought to have been even longer during the height of Teotihuacan's existence.

There are what appears to be former dwellings and structures along the west side of the avenue and there's quite a bit to see here as well.

Right across the way is the very impressive Pirámide del Sol ("Pyramid of the Sun") which stands at 216 feet (65 1/2 meters) tall.

It's a fairly steep climb to the top, but totally worth it.

The views from the top are amazing.

We celebrated making it to the top by having our croissants...

While enjoying a wonderful view of Pirámide de la Luna ("Pyramid of the Moon").

You notice the photos of dogs above......they all seemed well behaved and really mellow. The most impressive dog was the one that was sleeping at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun! Man, to think this pooch climbed up all those steep stairs!

We headed back down and made our way to the Pyramid of the Moon. It's not just all huge structures at Teotihuacan. There are some interesting murals; like this one of a Puma.

And then we made it to the end of Avenue of the Dead.

And soon enough the Missus had me climbing up the Pyramid of the Moon; which for some reason seemed even steeper than the Pyramid of the Sun!

And the views from here were no less outstanding. The area in front of the pyramid is known as the "Plaza of the Moon" and the part of it with the central altar is known as the "Teotihuacan Cross".

After carefully working my way down the pyramid; we headed toward the Northwest Entrance where we'd be meeting Aaron and took some time to visit the Palace of Quetzalpapálotl to take in the wonderful carvings and bas-reliefs.

And soon enough; it was time to be on our way.

Aaron mentioned that we still had some time and recommended visiting the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. So naturally, we said "of course".

We parked on a side street; under the altar and headed up Calz de Guadalupe. There are actually two Basilica's here. The "Old" Basilica.

Which was finished in 1709. Because of unstable ground the church started sinking and; if look at it from an angle it is actually leaning.

Because of this; a "New" Basilica was completed in 1976, which looks very modern.

The Old Basilica was closed and went under repairs for many years and had just recently been reopened; so we got to check it out.

The entire complex called Villa de Guadalupe is composed of several churches, chapels and is where Juan Diego saw the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe (the Virgin Mary) on December 12th, 1531.

At the top of the hill is Capilla del Cerrito.

Along with other structures like "Las Velas del Marino", which from what I was told is an offering of gratitude for being saved from at shipwreck in the 18th century. It was rebuilt in the 20th Century.

There is much to see here; like La Ofrenda by Aurelio G.D. Mendoza.

And while exploring the various temples and churches, whether it's on an fault line and slowly separating from it's foundation; yet still standing upright due to "the will". Quite interesting to say the least.

Or perhaps the oldest church on this site, dating back to 1649...the Antigua Parroquia de Indios, it's all quite amazing to see. Faith plays out everyday here.

And then to end things off, we visited the "New Basilica" to end our visit here.

This was quite an amazing day and frankly we were bushed. Luckily, I had reservations at a place right down the street that we enjoyed on our previous visit, Pasillo de Humo. I'm not going into detail here, you can read my previous post. I will say, service was great and, at least for us, doing the appetizer thing might be the best way to go here.

And when picking from the Mezcal "trolley", my favorite is the "Ojo de Tigre".....

This was just as good as the last time we visited.

Pasillo de Humo
Av Nuevo León 107
06100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

Mexico City - Pujol

Yes, we were back in Mexico City. We had enjoyed our last trip so much; that we decided to head on back during the President's Day weekend.  And while this trip was not without some hiccups....more on that later; the linchpin of this trip was reservations at Pujol; considered by many to be the best restaurant in Mexico City; if not Latin America. so, we headed back on the Thursday before the long weekend. The drill was the same as before; though leaving before the long weekend was a blessing as CBX was a breeze. what wasn't a breeze was having had AeroMexico mess up our flight reservations. We made it across the bridge; only to be told that we had to go to the AeroMexico ticket counter because we had multiple reservations for the same flight. How that happened; I'll never know, but we'd lost our Business Class seats on flights going to, and returning from Mexico City. So, we ended up having to spend an extra hour at the AeroMexico ticket counter at the airport. I will say that dealing with the counter staff was amazing as they worked hard to straighten things out. and in the end, all was well, we had our seats going, and a flight change on the return flight.

Like on our previous trip; we got out of the plane, through all the gates, to our hotel transfer....and then had the six mile; forty minute drive to our hotel. We decided to stay at the same hotel as on our previous visit. We really enjoyed staying in the La Condesa neighborhood....and much like Paris, returning here felt much like coming "home".

The Missus decided that we'd walk from La Condesa to Pujol, which is located in upscale Polanco, which was about three miles and change, so about an hour-and-a-half before our dinner reservation we headed out. We'd never really been into Polanco before, so it was an interesting walk; many bars and restaurants; but the area seemed to lack the character of the Condesa and Roma neighborhoods.

We headed down one of the main streets that goes thru Polanco; Avenida Presidente Masaryk, which had me wondering why such a main thoroughfare in the area known as "Mexico City's Beverly Hills", would be named after the first President of Czechoslovakia. Here's a statue of him in one of the roundabouts on the avenue.

This statue was given to CDMX as a gift from Prague in 1999. As for the background on the naming of the street, you can find an interesting article here.

About five block further down the street, you take a turn on Tennyson and end up at the rather discreet entrance to Pujol. We had arrived about 30 minutes early for our reservation, which was no problem since our table was ready. We had a wonderful, discreet corner table, which we loved.

Service during our meal was excellent, very attentive, but not over-bearing. The pacing was a bit off, with some rather long waits between dishes near the end of the meal. But great service overall.

I started with a Mezcal Negroni which I really enjoyed; the Mezcal really tempered the sometimes overwhelming flavor of the Campari. The Missus who really doesn't care for Negroni, even in Florence, actually enjoyed this.

The Missus ordered something interesting from the drinks menu; a Junmai Gingo from Nami, the first Sake producer in Mexico. The sake had a light fruity nose, very clean finish, definitely not a Daigingo Junmai, but I thought this would go really well with our dinner. The only problem was it as served at almost room temperature. We both ended up ordering a second round and asked that the sake be put on ice, which fixed things up nicely.

So here's the part in the post where I need to apologize for the quality of photos. We loved our cozy corner table, but the lighting gave me fits....and sorry, but I'm not one of those folks who fiddles around waaaay to much before taking a photo with a gigantic DSLR. I prefer not to draw attention to myself. My point-and-shoot usually has excellent low light capabilities, but this was not one of those days.

There were two tasting menus available and we decided to get one of each, after all we share tastes. The Missus got the "Maiz" (corn) and I chose the "Mar" (sea).

Things started off with two lovely "Street Snacks". First, a wonderful, mini-sope topped with a lovely, mildly sweet butternut squash....great corn flavors shone thru.

Next, a smoking gourd arrived at the table.

This contained one of Pujol's signature dishes; a baby corn version of the ubiquitous street corn dish Elote. I can see why folks rave about this item. The baby corn has the wonderful, slightly sweet, maiz flavor, the slightly fruity, rich, costeno chile aioli, with nutty crunch provided by Chicatanas (flying ants). A wonderful, complex combination of flavors. Definitely delici-yoso!

The Missus's first item; a Tlayuda, topped with black beans, tomato, wonderfully mildly peppery-citrusy-bitter baby papalo leaf, and crunchy chapulines (grasshopper).

A wonderfully bold, but balanced dish....maiz-good acidity-slightly sweet, nutty......amazing.

Which over shadowed my well made Chayote and Scallop Pico, making it seem ordinary.

There was a bit too much acidity for me from the pico de piñata. The pickled chayote was amazing, but the scallops were sorely overshadowed by all the assertive flavors.

The Missus's favorite dish of the night included two of Her favorite items; Huitlacoche with Black Truffle.

Served with blue corn tortillas; this was fungi heaven; the earthy, but almost sweet flavor of huitlacoche, combined with fragrant black truffle....not much I can say about this other than....wow....

Our sake, nicely placed on ice arrived at this time. A really nice gentleman, I believe one of the dining room managers arrived and asked us about our serving preference and we explained that for us, this type of sake is best served between 6 to 8 degrees Celsius to really bring out the flavors and clean finish....really nice guy...he even took out a book and wrote down some notes.

My dish was the Kanpachi Ceviche.

The texture of the Kanpachi was perfect, just a slight toothsomeness. The cacahuazintle (nixtamalized corn) juice, celery, and yuzu made up the ceviche sauce. The hoja santa leaves added a bit of a herbaceous; slight anise-minty-peppery touch to the dish. The only downside was that this was a bit too salty.

The Missus Earthy-Smokey Eggplant "Tamal" with Swiss Chard was a simple, yet perfect combination of flavors. It was quite wonderful.

I loved the texture of the pulpo in the Octopus Chintextle with Pickled Carrot.

The pulpo was beyond fork tender.....just perfect. The various Oaxacan Herbs added a different touch to each bite. The Chintextle; a Oaxacan chili paste was kind of strange to my palate as it had an almost bitter, turmeric flavor....the paste almost came across as a pseudo-curry. The Missus loved the octopus, but hated the sauce.

The Missus loved Her Wild Herb Open Papadzul.

So many amazing flavors; the chiltomate salsa had a wonderful tangy-mild sweetness, with a hint of heat from habaneros. The quail eggs were amazing; the texture, they must be sous vide...it was like eating butter.  This was simply amazing.

The skin on my Striped Bass was so wonderfully crisp. It was a tad overcooked and a tad too salty though.

The fried fava beans were absolutely delicious, as was the mole verde.

The last main was the signature "Mole Madre" and "Mole Nuevo", an amazing dish with regards to contrasts in textures and flavor.

Chef Enrique Olvera's Mole Madre is aged like a mother sauce and fed when the quantity falls below 10 liters. At the time of our meal it had been aged 2,779 days....yes, that's over 7 1/2 years! Needless to say, there's a lot going on here; it's not spicy, but quite thick, slightly sweet, with a pleasant bitterness.....I've mentioned the Chinese suan-tian-ku-la-xian (sour-sweet-bitter-spicy-salty) metaphor for a flavorful, yet balanced dish the Chinese use. This was it. The Mole Nuevo, was more in your face, in terms of sweetness, spice, like a typical mole. what a wonderful, interesting dish.

Then we were provided with something to refresh our palates.

Before dessert......

Which is usually the Missus's department. Though I have to say; I loved the churros, light crunch, then melting away in your mouth. Not overly sweet, slight salt tones.....

In the end, this was an absolutely fabulous meal, perhaps one of our all time favorites. We loved the flavors, how the dishes were composed; it just suited us. In our Uber on the way back to our room, the Missus and I discussed our dinner. I think we've dined at some fairly notable places over the years. And in looking at one of those rankings things; I quickly noticed that we indeed preferred Pujol over that dinner at a place that has been ostensibly the best restaurant in the world and the place named the best restaurant in Latin America. Pujol, like our favorite restaurant just suits us.

And I'm sure we'll be returning......

Pujol
Calle Tennyson 133 Polanco
Mexico City 11560 Mexico

Thanks for dropping by and putting up with my lousy photos!