Mexico City Trip Report December 2023

I’ll put it on the list for next time :yum:

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I had a coffee and guava roll break at Panadería Rosetta, which is a short walk from Mi Compa Chava.

And then to counteract the caffeine, a couple cocktails from Licorería Limantour.

Oakland ($240)
SIN PENA MEZCAL, PUNT E MES, APEROL, COFFEE TINCTURE
I admit I ordered this in part because it shares a name with my hometown. Very good, it was a bit like a Negroni but with mezcal.

Jamaica Mezcal ($220)
7 MISTERIOS DOBA YEJ MEZCAL, HIBICUS AND CARDAMOM SYRUP, LIME
This was a little on the sweet side for me.

I walked around Roma Norte a bit. It was raining a little.

For dinner, I went to Azul Condesa, a restaurant from chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita. They also have two other locations in Centro Histórico.

Keeping with the name of the restaurant, the interior is very blue.

They had an English menu.

Escamoles, the Mexican Caviar ($388) Tlaxcala
Small white ant eggs. Served with guacamole and corn tortillas, ideal to make tacos. This dish is a great delicacy for Mexicans, almost impoissible to find outside the country.
I started with the escamoles, with which I made tacos with the included guacamole and fresh warm tortillas. This was very good. Escamoles kind of taste like a protein-y rice to me. The guacamole was very smooth.


Tamalita de Huitlacoche y Camaron ($230)
I forgot to take a picture of the menu description of this. It was a blue corn tamale with huitlacoche / corn smut and some nicely cooked shrimp in a tomato sauce with olives and capers. Good.

Buñuelos con Pato Rostizado ($450) CDMX
Seven fritters stuffed with roasted duck, served with mole negro oaxaqueño. This dish has become a classic, and we have served it since opening our first restaurant 22 years ago.
This was the famous buñuelos de pata from Azul. Delicious crispy packets of duck, with a delicious mole negro poured over it. There was some more mole negro on the side to add, and some blackberries on the side for an added touch of sweetness.


I also had a few servings of mezcal, which was served in a hollowed out calabash fruit shell (which is called a jícara - thanks Google) and came with the requisite orange slices with spices. They have an extensive mezcal selection broken down by agave type.

I didn’t have room for dessert, but did have some room for some bittersweet Mexican chocolates. This was a delicious dinner.

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For lunch the next day, which was a Saturday, I went to El Hidalguense in Roma Sur. El Hidalguense is a restaurant specializing in barbacoa, a dish of lamb that is slow cooked in pits. Barbacoa can also be made from goat or beef. El Hidalguense only opens from Friday through Sunday. Its owners, chefs Moises and Norma Rodriguez, live in Tulancingo, Hidalgo where the barbacoa is cooked. They bring the barbacoa to CDMX and open up the restaurant on the weekends (thanks Google).

Salsas and condiments

Escamoles Taco ($420)
Escamoles / ant larvae taco on blue corn tortillas.

Plato Hidalguense ($190)
I ordered a plate of accompaniments. There were some nice salty chunks of a fresh cheese that was a little tangy, cold nopales / cactus pads, radishes, and an avocado cut into slices. It’s probably meant to be shared :pig:

One can order barbacoa by the pound, but my waiter suggested for a solo diner to order the tacos rather than by weight.

Barbacoa Tacos ($240 for 3)
My tacos were also on blue corn tortillas. They were good. The meat was tender with a bit of smokiness.


Consomme ($85)
This was fine. A plain lamb broth with a little smokiness.

These were good tacos with good barbacoa, but not mind blowing IMHO.

On Saturday night I went to a performance of the Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernández in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Centro, which was a fun show! I definitely recommend checking it out. After the show I made a repeat visit to Taquería Los Cocuyos in Centro for dinner.


I had five tacos and una cerveza - longanisa / sausage, cabeza / head, cachete / cheek, lengua / tongue, cabeza / head meat, and campechano / mix. All were very good. Still some of the best dollar (a little bit more now due to exchange rates :stuck_out_tongue: ) tacos I’ve had.

I then a little bit later had a second dinner at Cantón Mexicali which is a Chinese-Mexican restaurant in the northern part of Condesa. I think this was my first experience with Chinese-Mexican cuisine. The restaurant takes its name from the city of Mexicali - the capital of Baja California - which historically has had a large Chinese population. Mexicali is right across the border from Calexico in California. Cantón Mexicali is open late, until 1am and I think I got there around midnight.

I started with a cocktail, the Chicali High Ball ($220) (115ml)
Baijiu, Mezcal, Ancho Reyes, Honeym Ginger, Lime
A highball with the Chinese liqueur baiju, which was quite refreshing.

Condiments - hot mustard, salsa macha / chili oil, soy sauce, ketchup, and limes!

Food Menu

My friendly waiter said that his favorites were the Mexicali Beef, the General Chicken, and the Lemon Fish.

I ended up getting the Mexicali Beef ($295)
Marinated beef (150g) stir-fried until crisp, mixed with fermented black bean sauce, broccoli, asparagus finished with lime.
This was kind of like a broccoli beef plus asparagus, with some salty fermented black beans. The beef was kind of crispy, almost with a deep fried consistency. I quite enjoyed it.

The side of rice rice / arroz blanco ($85) was ok, maybe a little on the dry side. It had green onion and sesame seeds.

Dessert

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I had a flight back home on Sunday in the evening and had lunch at Tacos Hola el Güero in Condesa, another repeat visit. Tacos Hola is a guisado tacos place, which has tacos filled with stews or stew-like fillings.


This time I had the higado / liver taco which had onions and was topped with guacamole, and a relleno verde taco, which was a chile relleno filled with cheese, topped with beans and guacamole. Both tacos were delicious and quite large. The liver was not very gamy and nicely cooked.

Then for a snack, I walked to the Puebla street location of Panadería Rosetta in Roma Norte, where I was looking for their dulce de leche bun. They were sold out of that though so I had a rol de cardamomo / cardamom roll ($50), which was good but not quite as good as the guava roll I had a few days earlier at the original location.

That’s it until next time!

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Wow. What a fabulous trip! Thanks for the prolonged report, very much appreciated!!

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What a great post!! Thank you for taking the time to post and share, with fantastic detail and photos. Those shrimp do look crazy good. Thanks as well for photos and details on the smaller taco places.

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