Mexico City – The Food

December 29 – January 11, 2018.

I had been advised before we went to Mexico City to eat street food. Street food is everywhere in CDMX, on sidewalks, in parks, and every time you emerge from the subway. You can eat food from one of these numerous stalls standing right there on the sidewalk or sometimes on a stool at a narrow counter that runs the length of the stand. If you don’t want to stand on the street you can also ask for your food “para llevar” (Literally in order to take). If you are getting food to go, your food will come wrapped in paper or on a disposable plate. If you eat on the street you get a sturdy plastic plate covered with plastic or paper – so you mess is easily disposed of and the plate stays clean.

You can order just about any kind of food at these stands, flautas, sopes, quesadillas, tamales, hamburguesas (hamburgers), and at least a dozen different types of tacos, including pastor, barbacoa, a la plancha, campechano, guisado, de cabeza. You can also get tacos with French Fries on top, but you aren’t going to hear that much about most of these items from us since we are vegetarians.

Being a vegetarian on the road where you are unfamiliar with a lot of the food and when you only habla un poquito Español (Speak a little bit of Spanish) can be a tad daunting. But I’ve learned to point at things and ask, “Que hay dentro?” (Literally – What is there inside?) and to point at items on a menu and ask “Que es?” (What is it?). I can also communicate that, “Somos vegetarianos” (We are vegetarians). So far we have been pretty successful ordering non-meat items.

This past summer I did a bit of research on vegetarian options in Mexico City and found 3 vegan taco stands. We only made it to one, Gatorta – Torteria vegana. It was a treat. Even Wayne seemed to really enjoy it.

Besides Gatorta we ate in several different Mexican restaurants around the city, tried some Mexican junk food in the park, and had pizza more than once. I missed out on trying Elote – Corn on the cob coated with mayonnaise, cheese, and chili. I only saw it at a couple of street stalls and I wasn’t hungry either time. Wayne missed out on eating Chapulines (fried grasshoppers). We only saw it our first day out in one location and he wasn’t feeling quite adventurous yet (Since then I have seen them everywhere in other cities).

I wish I had more pictures of the food that we ate to show you – although we ate out at least once every day, I rarely remember to take pictures of it until it is almost all gone. But I assure you most everything we ate was muy rica (very yummy) Ñam ñam (Yum yum!).

* Click on pics to enlarge and open into a slide show.