Eating & Drinking in Oaxaca de Juarez

***This is a post for people who come to visit us to refer to when wondering what foods and drinks to experience in Oaxaca!***

Oaxaca-specific food you should try to try:

·      Tlayudas, large tortillas topped w/ asiento (a sort of lard), quesillo (Oaxacan stringy cheese), and other toppings, usually meat of some sort- tasajo, cecina, etc. see below. Usually folded over but sometimes open-faced [get these at Cenaduria El Ajo, just down the street from our house]

·      Memelas/memelitas, thicker round/oval pieces of masa with beans and cheese, can get topped with meat as well, open faced. If your order memelitas, you often will get three.

·      Tetelas, triangular-shaped pieces of masa filled or topped with beans and other fillings

·      Nieves, the Oaxacan version of ice cream; very typical varieties are tuna (made w/fruit of nopal, not fish!), leche quemada (burned milk), tuna and leche quemada are typically served together, beso oaxaqueño, beso de angel, various fruits, various non-fruits.  You can generally get several flavors in your cup [get these in the Mercado Benito Juarez, fonda “Chonita”- we’ll show you the place, especially fantastic is their maracuya; also Nieves Manolo for a fancier type, their tamarind is very good as are their milk-based nieves and their namesake & proprietary flavor]

·      Chapulines, grasshoppers, usually toasted and seasoned w/lime and chile [any mercado]

·      Mole—any of the 7 (or more) traditional types, mole negro, mole coloradito, mole Amarillo, mole chicilo, mole rojo, estofado, mole verde, manchamanteles [Los Pacos has a 7-mole sampler that is very well known. Perhaps slightly less well known but wonderful is the degustación of moles at El Escapulario, I think you can choose 5, they will help you pick which ones you want]

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·      Oaxacan tamales (tamal de mole), tamal wrapped in banana leaves, with mole negro and usually chicken [the Mercado near our house has a great tamal lady we can take you to]

·      Empanada de Amarillo, tortilla with chicken and mole Amarillo [this is almost strictly a street food, ladies around the larger markets will be selling them, they will call out “Amarillo” or maybe “Empanada de Amarillo”]

·      Tostada de chileajo, a mixture of veggies and a mole of chiles and garlic. Sometimes also with barbacoa. Not always available, even at places that have it on the menu.

·      Sopa de guias (usually just “guia(s)” on a menu), soup made from all the parts of the squash plant, squash, squash flowers, and vines, plus corn, sometimes masa dumplings, other veggies and herbs, always served with tasajo on the side [served at El Fortincito, a traditional Oaxacan restaurant near our house, at least in season]

·      Oaxacan meats you’ll find on/in many of the above: tasajo, thinly pounded steak; chorizo oaxaqueño, variably spicy sausage; cecina enchilada, pork marinated with chile; barbacoa, bbq, usually of chivo (goat) or borrego (mutton)

·      Sopa de piedra, a fish/seafood soup which uses a red-hot stone to cook the ingredients

Beverages:

·      Chocolate (de leche o de agua), always hot. Made from chocolate ground with spices. This is what “chocolate” refers to here, it does not refer to the candy chocolate, by and large.

·      Tejate, a cold drink made from fermented corn, cacao, and flor de cacao (not the flower of cacao plants at all), and mamey pits;  somewhat chalky consistency. [Daniela loooves this drink. It’s very refreshing on a hot day. Might be an acquired taste but you should try it as it is an ancient zapotec drink and quintessentially Oaxacan, you won’t find it any where else in the world; only at mercados]

·      Jugos, fruit juices, freshly squeezed or pressed. A classic combination is papaya and naranja but all the juices are good and unbelievably cheap given what you’d pay in the EEUU. [Jugeria Angelita in the Mercado by our house is great. They also make amazing smoothies, licuados, blended fruit juices…a dizzying array of options listed]

·      Atole/champurrado, hot drink made from corn, champurrado also has chocolate, sometimes it is called Atole de Chocolate.

·      Mezcal, distilled agave drink [talk to Eric about where to sample]

·      Pulque, a fermented agave drink from prehispanic times [La Mezcalerita serves it on their lovely rooftop terrace; also La Biznaga]

Other food that’s fantastic here but not exclusively Oaxacan:

·      Queso en salsa, a breakfast meal, a hunk of cheese in a bowl of (usually) red sauce [have this at our Mercado]

·      Chilaquiles, also for breakfast, usually served with tasajo; other great breakfast foods include enfrijoladas (tortillas with bean sauce, cheese, sometimes filled with meat); entomatadas, similar but with a red sauce

·      Tostadas, as mentioned above there are the Oaxacan ones with chileajo but there are also lots of other options [one of the fondas at Mercado Pochote has great, slightly non-traditional take on tostadas)

·      Tamales generally, usually found in varieties like Amarillo, mole, salsa verde (all usually w chicken, sometimes pork)

·      Tacos in the meat aisle of the Mercado 20 de Noviembre, pick your meat, have it cooked in front of you, then served with your choice of toppings (nopales, guacamole, grilled onions, salsa, limones, radishes, etc) and tortillas

·      Pozole, prehispanic soup made from hominy

·      Tortas, sandwiches with a variety of meats and veggies [we can take you to our favorite torta truck, in Parque Conzatti]

·      Street food: torta de tamal (a tamal inside of a bread roll); hamburguesas and hotdogs (Mexican style, with lots of crazy toppings); elote, corn on the cob with mayo, cheese, chile (or off the cob as esquites); platano frito, fried plantain/banana; papas fritas, potato chips made fresh; tacos, tlayudas, empanadas, quesadillas, etc.

·      Fruit: papaya, platanitos (small bananas), maracuya (passionfruit), maracuya de la sierra, guayaba (guava), duraznos criollo (small local peaches), ciruela (plum), fresas (strawberries), ajuacate (avocado- several varieties), límon (limes, we don’t have lemons here) [in season, por supuesto, all at any of the mercados, if you don’t know what something is, ask but be aware that they may well offer you a taste, which you should take! not-washed bit of fruit be damned…it won’t kill you]