We arrived to Mexico City a couple hours late from storm delays in the US, but not having any missed connections we were calm amidst others who were no longer going to make it to Australia and Chetumal. A coworker had recommended Eduardo (+52 155 1391 8500 – 250 pesos from airport to hotel plus 50 peso tip), a taxi driver she had ridden with while in the city a year ago, and from LAX we called him to ask if he would pick us up when we got there about 5:30PM. It was the beginning of our semi-bougie experience in Mexico City — we had never called a private taxi before on a trip but felt really glad when we didn’t have to navigate Mexico City in our first few moments there.
We checked into our Holiday Inn (free with IHG credit card hotel points) in the adorable chill neighborhood of Santa María la Ribera, only about 20 min from the Centro Historico.
After a quick freshen up we walked to the corner of Insurgentes Avenue and Buenavista to hop on the Metrobus (6 pesos + 10 pesos for the rechargeable card) south toward La Roma neighborhood, where we ate an incredible dinner at Yuban, a contemporary Mexican restaurant recommended by our friend Deanna. 1) The Metrobus was amazing, fast, easy, cheap and has its own dedicated bus lane with central glass-walled bus stops that make it very easy to find where you are going. Having Google maps open helps too. 2) Yuban was delicious (and heads up the best “elevated” meal we’ve had — and we went to world-renowned Pujol). We drank steaming nitrogen mezcal drinks with spicy chile de arbo & rosemary, ate tender beef with yellow mole (amarillito), pork ribs with French onion broth & a soup with local greens. Wow, what a first meal! We walked a few blocks over to La Clandestina for some more mezcal drinks — the habanero cocktail was #1 and we bought a small bottle of Mezcal Enmascarado (bottle #7 of 1200 in the batch) — before hopping back on the Metrobus home for the night!
http://travels.lyonandrose.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img_0228.movThe next morning we woke up and went to coffee at Caminos a Comala a little artsy coffeeshop just across the street from our hotel. We had aeropress coffee and ridiculously good jamon serrano baguettes with little condiments in ceramic pots with spicy chiles and sweet pickled fruit (240 pesos for 2 sandwiches & 2 coffees).
We hopped on the Metro (5 pesos, can use the same rechargeable card as the Metrobus) to the Zócalo, where we joined the Free Tourswith pink umbrellas for a 2.5 hour donation-based walking tour of the Centro Historico, ending at Palacio de Bellas Artes. Meeting in front of the Catedral Metropolitana, Miguel our tour guide showed us Templo Mayor, we ate tlacoyo (blue corn masa) with beans & blue corn quesadillas w hongos (mushrooms) & Oaxacan cheese, saw the Museo Nacional del Arte, the beautiful post office (many of these European buildings were started in 1904 by Europhile president/dictator Porfirio Diaz), & Palacio de Bellas Artes. The tour ended at San Francisco de Assisi church which is sinking several feet, just like the rest of the city since it was built on lake beds that were drained by the conquering Spanish to keep the city from flooding (because they destroyed the more complex, thoughtful system of dams and canals built by indigenous folks).
After the tour we checked out El Cardenal & the old French style Bar La Opera. We ate delicious tacos de canasta at “Chuchos” (on Calle 5 de Mayo by the 7-11 and Sushi Roll, 1 block from Bellas Artes – tacos are 8 pesos each). We went into Bellas Artes (65 pesos) to see Rivera & Siqueiros murals. I knew about Rivera’s Rockefeller mural and had studied it in the context of political science and Latin American history in college, but actually seeing the mural is really something else, I was overcome with the detail and significance.
Across the plaza on the 8th floor Porfirio Cafe of the Sears building we had delicious xocoatl (Aztec hot chocolate) and gazed at the Bellas Artes building and the square below (a rec from Sofia’s Uncle Stephen!).
We took a walk through the amazing Alameda Central, the oldest city park in Latin America, and stopped when we saw dozens of elder men playing chess in front of Museo Mural Diego Rivera (35 pesos). We got to see the amazing ‘Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central’ mural that was in the old Hotel Prado that fell in 1985 earthquake and was moved to this spot — the museum was literally built to house the mural. It has a detailed description of 76 of the over 100 people depicted in the mural, and when considering its new home it was important that the mural stay close to the actual Alameda Central, the subject of the mural.
Around 4-5pm we hopped on the Metro at Hidalgo toward Coyoacan, the neighborhood where Frida Khalo lived and where her blue house museum is today. Sofia had already gone when she came to Mexico City 15 years ago and I felt okay not seeing it this time around, so we just walked to the main squares Jardín Centenario & Jardín Hidalgo and enjoyed the crowded Friday evening outdoor atmosphere. We continued the day’s unofficial “street food tour” with guacamole w chapulines (grasshoppers) & Oaxacan tamales at El Mezcalero, elote from market next door, and churros & hot chocolate from the corner over at Jardín Centenario. We sat in the park for a while and took a little camión bus for 5 pesos to the Copilco metro to be home by 10pm.
Our final day we enjoyed breakfast at Caminos a Comala again, and took the metro to TAPO (the main bus station) to buy the tickets we had reserved on the ADO app (more on how to buy ADO tickets on another blog). Tonight we were taking an 11pm night bus to Oaxaca on ADO Platino, the nicest bus money can buy so we could sleep comfortably. We then went to the Mercado de la Merced & Mercado Sonora which was a bustle of knockoff shoes, medicinal herbs, live animals, street food & nice people.
Margarita, who is from a small town in Puebla, making ramos in the Mercado de la Merced to be blessed for Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos)
After exploring for a while we hopped on a little bus headed to the Zócalo (technically Pino Suárez Metro since the bus was restricted from the Centro) and walked to the Palacio Nacional (free, enter with photo ID) to see the mural(s) depicting the history of Mexico by Diego Rivera. The large one on the stairs is amazing, however also amazing were the smaller murals showing scenes of life in Tenochtitlán (prehispanic Mexico City).
We ran back to the hotel to pack and check out and leave our bags at the desk, then walked a couple blocks to La Malquerida bar where fresh pulque is served until it runs out. We tried the natural and the curado (flavored with fruit, we got guayaba – 15/25 pesos each to go) and had a delicious snack at Restaurante “Don Pablo” across the street (40 pesos for a an entree).
We took an Uber to Polanco neighborhood, had a hot chocolate at Sucr’elle and walked around before our 6:30 reservation at Pujol, a much awaited splurge after seeing it on Chef’s Table & Ugly Delicious on Netflix. It was an amazing experience to sit at the bar and have tacos with pairings ranging from beer to wine to sake to tequila to mezcal (all Mexican produced of course) and just enjoy the food that came to us. Had it not been for Nan — our bartender / sommelier / server / bar guide — it would not have been as great an experience, though. She and our neighbor at the bar made for a little impromptu group that kept us there for hours, until we realized that if we didn’t rush out of there we would miss our 11pm bus! Eduardo grabbed us in his car and flew us to the hotel to get our bags & then to TAPO to catch the bus. Advice: if you go to Pujol, get an early reservation at the taco bar instead of the tables, stay forever in the terrace outside after the meal, chat with your neighbors and learn from the amazing skilled bartenders, (don’t take a night bus unless it leaves at 12 or 1am), and honestly—save your 2,995 pesos/person and go eat the food that was actually made ancestrally for centuries by [women, of course] in whose blood the food preparation lives (Sofia said this as we were in the taxi going to the bus, and I agree. There’s a way that you cannot successfully copy a food (or anything else) that someone else learns to make from the time they are a child. It just won’t be as delicious or true). I don’t think any one dish at Pujol was better than the blue corn masa quesadillas we ate on the street, or the mole negro made by women in the outdoor kitchen at mezcaleria Don Agave (in Oaxaca, see upcoming post). Yes, we went and we paid for the experience of fine dining which frankly I had never done before and will probably not do again for many years, and it’s different of course than eating a taco while standing on a busy street, but the taste of ancestral food cannot be (re)created in a kitchen factory (sometimes with the plates coming out simultaneously to everyone at the bar I felt like I was in a fine dining factory) and stripped of their original place. For a more nuanced exploration of food & “authenticity” & place though, watch Ugly Delicious on Netflix — I think chef David Chang does a really good job of furthering that conversation from his lived experiences, certainly more than I!
Nan from Pujol and the famous baby elote with coffee mayonnaise sprinkled with ant dust – best dish for sure
And with that, we spent 54 glorious, packed hours in Mexico City before heading to Oaxaca!