Around the World in 80 Bites: Mexico City

I am fortunate to live in one of Latin America’s biggest metropolises – Mexico City. A teeming mass of humanity, traffic and color, this city is a shining star in the desert, a modern city steeped in tradition, and is emerging as one of Latin America’s greatest food nexuses thanks to inventive young Mexican chefs and a renewed appreciation for Mexican cuisine promoted by the likes of Rick Bayless, Diana Kennedy, and other international food connoisseurs. It is fast becoming a foodie haven. 

Not only does Mexico City have an overabundance of vitamin T (tacos, tlacoyos, tortas, tlayudas…) and a cuisine that has been dubbed world patrimony, it’s also long been a landing place for immigrants from all over the globe. With them they have brought their customs, their accents and most importantly (to me) their food. While most ethnic food here has been passed over with the Mexican culinary wand – spicy salsas, chiles, tamarindo – there are still a hearty helping of cuisines from around the world offered up for your eating pleasure.

So maybe you can’t afford a round-the-world plane ticket but for the price of one flight to Mexico and less than 7 dollars in cab fare you can get yourself to any of these Mexico City restaurants to eat.

A taste of Russia in Mexico city, next. 

A Taste of the Old Country

Mexico’s European influence goes way beyond the Spanish. This country has been a refuge and a destination for waves of Lebanese, Jewish, Polish and Russian immigrants, each crafting their own assimilation with mariachi music, Catholicism, and Day of the Dead. It shouldn’t be surprising then that you can still find borscht, hot-off-the-spit shawarma, and tabbouleh that will remind you of your old country roots. 

If you can’t afford a ticket to Moscow, take a $5 cab to Kolobok in Mexico City’s Santa María de la Ribera neighborhood. You’ll find midnight-colored Russian bread at their outdoor counter and your Russian grandmother’s recipes inside: pelmeni, goulash, beet salad, and Russian beers that will make you sleep like a baby. If you’re looking for Polish food, head to Specia and order up creamy beet borscht, blintzes, and stuffed cabbage. Their mafia-style dining room looks out onto Amsterdam circle in the art-deco clad Condesa neighborhood.

In downtown Mexico City, in La Merced neighborhood (the heart of the city’s commercial center) you’ll find Biblios, where you’ll find pita, Turkish coffee, baklava, and imported spices and nuts. There is also the revered Al Andalus restaurant on Mesones street with its tangy ground beef-and-rice stuffed grape leaves, smokey baba ganoush, and fresh-baked pita (if you ask nicely they may even let you into the baking room to see their yawning brick oven). Or head uptown for a shawarma at Shuky’s Centre, a kosher deli and grocery store in what is known as Mexico City’s little Tel-Aviv just north of Las Lomas.

Next, heading south in Mexico City… 

Eating Your Way South

If you can’t get to Mistura, the renown culinary festival that takes place each year in Lima, Peru, just take the metro to Polanco and feast on chef Diego Muñoz’s perfectly tart tiradito de atún. The restaurant, Astrid y Gastón, is an offshoot of the original in Lima. Their prices are not as light as their ceviche de cinco elementos, but the food is worth every expensive bite.

In La Roma, Mexico City’s hip and multifarious central neighborhood, Central and South Americans and those that long for their cuisine, head to the Medellín Market. Appropriately nicknamed after, according to a recent survey, one of the best cities to live in South America, the Medellín market is where you can find arepa flour, yerba mate, Peru’s Inka Cola, Cuba’s Bucanero beer, and a whole listed of imported ingredients vital to any Central or South American feast.

Smack dab in the middle of the market is Banquetes Viant Comida Cubana, a lunch counter stand that sells heaping plates of exquisite moros y cristianos, deep-fried plantains, and Cuban-style chicken cooked in hearty tomato sauce. Right down the aisle is Helados Palmeiro with nata-flavored (among the many) Cuban ice cream, by far the best ice cream in the city.

Outside the market along Medellín street are several Colombian restaurants that you will recognize by their ubiquitous yellow, blue, and red decorations. While I still insist my neighbor’s bandeja paisa is the best in the world, Pollos Mario does a pretty good job. The dish is a little of everything – blood sausage, chorizo, fried plantains, beans, machaca, a white-corn biscuit, rice, avocado, and a fried egg. Their sage-flavored chorizo is nothing like the Mexican version you will eat at the taco stand and the buñuelos are worth the grease. The weekend specials are sancocho de pescado or lechona, roast pig with peas, onion, yellow rice and spices).

Next, a taste of Asia… 

An Asian Sazón

While most ex-pats living in Mexico City will tell you that the cream cheese sushi and bland Chinese food continuously let them down, there are a few places that stand out for their authenticity. Restaurant Dalian on Calle Humboldt has a cafeteria-style dining room in the middle of a Chinese shopping center. The menu is in Chinese with (some) Spanish translations and offers hundreds of options, including spicy beef and veggie stir-fry, fried rice, and paper-thin pork dumplings.

You would never think to look for Bangkok, the Thai restaurant set in an Mexico City’s Galerias Plaza de Estrellas but its fans think it’s the best Thai food in the city. Ask for the curry picante if that’s how you want it because it comes with only a hint of spice and definitely get some Nam Tok, grilled beef with sweet Thai chili sauce, red onions, handfuls of mint and slices of perfectly ripe tomatoes.

If you want to cook for yourself or pick up some to-go food, stop by the Asian market Mikasa on San Luis Potosí in Roma Norte. On the weekends they have a lively outdoor buffet that while sometimes disappointing (dried out barbeque), is always interesting (quail eggs wrapped in bacon). Inside you’ll find kimchi, sushi, seaweed, Thai tea, fresh tofu and all types of prepared foods.

In one weekend in Mexico City your taste buds can travel to half a dozen countries in between bites of mole, chiles rellenos and tacos al pastor. And if you happen to live here, you can enjoy a gastronomic landscape that encompasses all the flavors of this region of the world and beyond. It’s the perfect place to start collecting stamps in your culinary passport.