Mexico City, Day 2 - food tour and art

On our first full day in Mexico City, we scheduled a food tour of La Merced market with Eat Mexico. We ate a good many things with our tour guide and fellow tour taker, a visitor from Germany. 

Brisket & chorizo tacos

I tried to write it all down - we had pork tacos with French fries, a rajas tamale, brisket tacos, native fruit, quesadillas with squash blossoms and huitlacoche, candy, mole, bugs, agua fresca, and a pork sandwich at the end. Oof!

I highly recommend this tour for anyone who wants to try a lot of food and is afraid they'll get totally lost in the market. (If we didn't have a guide, I think we'd still be in there!) We got to try so much and get a lot of history, culture, and current goings-on in the city.

Our German friend asked us what we were really excited to buy and bring home, and I hadn't been sure until we turned a corner and saw huge piles of beautiful dried chile peppers, of which I bought ancho and chipotle.

Chile peppers in La Merced

And yes, you did read that right up above, we ate bugs - chicatanas (ants) and chapulines (grasshoppers / crickets) are a traditional, tasty, and healthy protein in Mexico. I'm excited for them to take hold in the U.S., as they are tasty indeed.

Chapulines in the front, with fried fish

I also had to share a photo of the cute moles assembled by a mole maker. Our guide told us that the idea that mole has to be made of chocolate is a false assumption, that they are made from a variety of fruits, spices, and nuts.

Moles - we bought a spicy savory one

I also mentioned a term above that might be unfamiliar if you have not been to Mexico - huitlacoche. Unappealingly called "corn smut" in English, it is a fungus that grows on corn ears. It is savory and delicious.

Huitlacoche presented as it appears on corn

The market is also home to sellers of non-food items - my favorite was an area where fake flowers are made and sold. It reminded me of the fabric markets in Tel Aviv, Israel.

After a beer with our guide and best wishes for the road, we headed to some art spots around the city center. 

First up was the Abelardo Rodriguez market, which boasts some murals on its massive walls as tribute to workers and revolutionaries. 

The first art museum we visited was the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, which had a nice exhibit on Vlady, a Russian artist who lived and worked in Mexico. his colors were stunning.

A work by Vlady - you can find Lenin in there!

We fit in one more art museum before drinks - the Foro Valporaiso, an art collection in a stunning palace that is now run (and offered to the public for free) by a bank.

Before dinner, we visited a couple of traditional drink spots near the downtown - the first was Pulqueria las Duelistas, a bar that serves pulque, a fermented agave sap drink. It is a polarizing drink, as some folks love it, but others find its taste or texture unappealing. it is a little thick, but we were well advised to try a flavored version, and I enjoyed my mango (and Dave enjoyed his guava).

Dave also got some mezcal at Bosforo, a hip little bar. I like mezcal in mixed drinks, but drinking it straight was a little much for Val. If you like mezcal or want to try a variety of high quality ones, this is your spot.

For dinner, we visited Amaya, where Dave had ceviche, we shared a sweet potato dish, and we tried broccoli with a fried cricket aioli. I recommend the spot for sure, although we weren't terribly hungry after our completely beastly lunch on the food tour!