M was also for Mexican: Mexico! (Part 1)

While this doesn’t count towards my “London dining adventure,” the food eaten during my trip to Mexico in December/January can’t go unwritten!

This will be part one of four (that makes it sound fancy, right?) on a series of posts about stuff I ate in Mexico. And I figured I should start with tacos.

I ate a respectable 27 tacos during my week in Mexico. Not as many as I had planned, but only because there were so many other foods to get in my belly. (Lest you think I wasn’t stuffing my face at every available opportunity.)

Mexico City is a must for taco-lovers. Tacos al pastor were apparently brought there by Lebanese immigrants in the 1930s. And as far as I’m concerned, when a kebab meets a taco, only good things can happen.

But no one wants to hear about the history of tacos, so here are some pictures.

El Tizoncito was our favorite taco place, hands-down, largely due to the seats facing the grill (note: there are two El Tizoncitos on the same road and only one has grill-side tables!). You can see how enthralled my parents are with the grill-master, who was another reason we loved this place. That and they served these things called alambres where they mixed together diced meat, cheese, bacon, onions, and peppers before serving them on a warm corn tortilla. I don’t speak Spanish so I’m not sure what it means, but I’m just going to assume the translation is delicious.

Alambres.

The first place we had tacos (bonus points for being open on Christmas day!) was El Califa,

Dad’s beer selection struck me as odd. El Califa had solid tacos, but our preference was usually a little less orange / less seasoned, like the surprise hit, La Tropicana in Puerto Escondido.

La Tropicana also had amazing tacos al pastor (our second favorite spot of the trip), especially since we weren’t expecting Puerto Escondido’s pastor to stand up to Mexico City’s. Always trust a taxi driver’s dining recommendations.

If we had to have a least favorite taco spot, it was probably have to be El Farolito. This place was far less lively than El Tizoncito and El Califa.

But, El Farolito made up for that with an airport location that surpassed all expectations of airport food. I had been having stomach issues the day before, not consuming my full potential at our second visit/eat-a-thon to El Tizoncito, but arrived at the airport early in the morning feeling much better and very hungry.

The remains of my airport tacos.

So…I demolished six more tacos in one sitting. An excellent way to start the New Year and end our brief trip to Mexico.