Nine Plus Days - Mexico City Trip Report, Part V
By kukuburra
(Reposted from Chowhound.)
"The next morning we walked toward LA MERCED, the giant market district east of the Zocalo. On the way we stopped at some interesting sites, including
the place where Cortes met Moctezuma, and eventually found ourselves on the main avenue that runs through this wholesale district, a street where the
word "bustling" is woefully inadequate. We looked around us at the massive amount of business taking place and recognized that we had no clue how to
find the produce stalls. One kind gentleman offered to walk us towards it, winding through many hundreds of stalls selling everything else imaginable,
before opening up into the largest produce market I've ever seen. The size of many football fields, this place was incredible. Stacks of nopales 20
feet high, giant baskets of chiles, jumbo burlap sacks of tomatillos. This was ground zero for food gawking, for sure. We wandered the aisles,
chatting with people here and there, taking pictures and just generally being blown away by the sounds, smells and colors on display.
After having worked up an appetite we walked back west in the direction of Mercado San Juan to eat at MARISCERIA EL CAGUAMO, a stand specializing in
seafood. We had a caldo de camaron and a ceviche c-cktail to start. The broth in the soup really tasted like a fresh blast of the sea. The c-cktail
had a zing of acid and a bit of heat but was also incredibly soothing and satisfying. We also had a flaky, fresh seafood empanada and a fried filet
topped with avocado, mayonnaise and salsa. Yet again we found ourselves proclaiming that we were eating some of the best food on the trip! Amazing.
We visited Mercado San Juan (actually we had strolled through once before, but they were shutting down) and it's a testament to how massive the other
markets had been that this one, which would easily be the best food market in most cities, felt almost quaint.
Now we get to a complicated part of the story. For dinner this night we had our long-awaited reservations at the highly-recommended DULCE PATRIA. We
dressed to the nine (lovely dress for the wife, jacket and tie for me) and took a cab out to swanky Polanco neighborhood (this was our only cab ride
of the trip, other than to and from the airport.) Dulce Patria is a lovely space with a very fine energy. But I have to say we did end up feeling
underwhelmed. Most of the diners were in jeans and some in ragged t-shirts. The food was good, but after what we'd been eating on the street and in
unassuming fondas, it was less than a revelation. We like to try to have a "fine" dining experience on trips to see how the local food is being
adapted to that environment. The perfect example is La Degustation in Prague. We LOVED the food in the Czech Republic, but I'm not going to lie: It
doesn't necessarily display a variety of textures, colors and flavors. La Degustation, through innovation and global influence, added a brightness
that other places didn't necessarily have.
But in Mexico every taco on the street that costs a buck has the full range of culinary wonders: From sweet to spicy, soft to crunchy, chilled to
piping-hot, often all in one bite. Dulce Patria didn't add to that. If anything, being so disconnected from the people actually making the food took
away from it a little. Most of the dishes were GOOD, but none were transformative like the mole at Mi Lupita, the c-cktail at El Caguamo, the salsa
verde at Margarita. And we missed the smells, sounds and sights of being so close to the cooking itself, sharing those grins with our dining
neighbors, laughing with the staff at our sad attempts to communicate in Spanish.
But what did we eat? Our apps were a tasty selection of tiny empanadas stuffed with different indigenous ingredients (huitlacoche, machaca, epizote
and squash blossoms) that came with some really lovely salsas, and a plate of "corn chicarrones" which was nothing to write home about. We ordered
soups: The tortilla soup "with literary arrangement" was very nice (although not that different from the tortilla soup at Cafe El Popular in taste
despite the "literary arrangement," and a squash blossom soup that was comforting but lacked that little something extra to put it over the edge. I
ordered pork stew adobo for an entree, which was a perfectly cooked and tender cube of pork topped with a crispy slice of skin but was surrounded by
less-than-exciting slices of vegetables, and my wife ordered arrachera steak with tamales. It was a perfect medium rare but without the tamales, I'm
afraid it would have resembled the kind of fajita platter you get at standard TexMex restaurants. The tamales, however, were nice. They also treated
us to a little ornate chair covered with small treats for dessert.
We also had some frosty c-cktails at the start (I think I had one created with horchata and mezcal) that were really cool and Mexican wine suggested
chosen by the somelier to pair with our entrees.
Now, this meal at Dulce Patria cost about a quarter of what our dinner at La Degustation did, and really was a steal for how much we ordered, so it
was a good value, for sure. And if it were located in Baltimore it would be a treasure. But when we return to the DF someday I think we might skip the
fine dining altogether and stick to the more modest stuff. That was where we had all our favorite experiences."
(To be continued.)
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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