(from 2012-02)

Day 4, Lunch:  We decided to try a “comida corrida” or fixed-price lunch.  These are common in Oaxaca and all over Mexico.  Comida corridas always come with a drink (usu. fruit juice, sometimes pop), soup/rice, sometimes a salad or vegetable course, a main course, and dessert.  Some don’t offer a choice as to what you’ll get for each course, but in the few we tried, they did. We went to “Comida Económica Isabel,” where the cost was $60 MX, about $5 US.

This place was recommended by my guidebook.  Apparently I’m not the only one with that guidebook, since it was filled with turistas! 

The location was really nice, an open-air building filled with plants.  Here’s B looking forward to our meal:

Here we’ve just received our first course. I had cream of vegetable soup, which tasted of neither. And I still don’t understand why a plate of rice is typically served at the beginning of these meals. Since it’s spread out on a plate, it goes cold really fast. The only thing I could think of was to pour most of it into my soup.

One thing to note is my beverage, agua de tamarindo.  Absolutely delicious and refreshing, the sourness of the tamarind matched perfectly by the sugar used to sweeten it.

Here’s my main course, chiles gratinados de pollo.  The menu said “peppers,” but I got just one, stuffed with chicken, topped with w/cheese, then heated under the broiler, aka “gratinado.”

This was yummy, the pepper soft and with just a hint of heat, and the chicken tender and flavorful.  Two notes:  on top of the pepper, what looks like a Kraft American single topped with queso fresco probably was exactly that — it wouldn’t be the last time we saw that combination.  And the salad has large chunks of chayote, which I see all the time in Latino markets where I live, but have never tried before.  Kind of like if cucumbers were kissed by apples (….).

B’s entree was ensalada de nopales, cactus salad.  I’ve shied away from raw cactus, which I’d heard was slimy and kind of tasteless, but this was also very good, better than my pepper.

For dessert, I had flan napolitano and B had ice cream.  Both good.  Other than the soups, this was a pretty good meal, and definitely a bargain, although we had a better comida corrida later….

Less than two feet from our table was an aquarium.  This turtle is expressing his displeasure over my comments about the soup  🙂

Day 4, Bar break.  We tried out El Baresito, very low-key/chill/relax.  Bruce had a cafe helado (literally, “iced coffee”) which turned out to be a blender drink with whipped cream on top, whereas I had a beer and a mescal.  Mescal is a lot like tequila, but is brewed from a wider range of Agave species (tequila can only be brewed from Agave tequilana), so mescal has a wider range of tastes than tequila, if your palate is sufficiently learned.  Mine isn’t  🙂  This time, instead of the near-ubiquitous peanuts, our free bar snack was strips of raw jícama with a light dusting of chile powder.

Day 4, Dinner:  The legendary Tacos Alvaro!  I didn’t think anything could top our previous night’s meal, and…or but….. 

Tacos Alvaro has been around for ages, and although it’s mentioned all over the web as the “go-to” place for the best tacos in Oaxaca, B & I were the only güeros (Mexican slang for “fair-skinned”) in the place.   Here it is from the street, and a taste of the decor:

As soon as we sat down, these were brought to our table:

Mostly recognizable, including the chile salt and smooth guacamole, but we never did figure out what the green powder was, or what to do with the crispy fried tortillas, so I treated them like poppadums. The red things are lightly-vinegared onions, but very mild and crunchy, and an excellent addition to what was to come.

B got the plato mixto for $55, a mixture of pork, beef, bacon, “jamón de pavo” (literally, “turkey ham,” but we both doubted whether that translation was correct), cheese, and veggies:

I got a bowl of pozole, a hominy soup with a light pork broth, your choice of white or red pork (I went with the white, since “red pork” seemed a little scary), scallions, chopped onions, radishes, and a few vegetables I couldn’t identify. It’s supposed to be the best pozole in Oaxaca, and it really was delicious. Plus, as I discovered later, the leftovers make a pretty effective hangover cure 🙂

Also three tacos ($8 each)….al pastor (mixed pork/beef), lengua (tongue, probably beef) and trompa (pig snout).

They look a bit sad sat there on the plate (despite the pefectly cooked tortillas)!  But open them up, add a bit of pico de gallo, some pickled onions, maybe a bit of chile sauce or guacamole and a squeeze of lime….I’ve already used this word so many times, but they were delicious!

That was our third very good meal in a row….could our winning streak continue?

Day 5, Lunch:   We went to the 20th of November Market, a few blocks south of the main square, and I had to try tejate, a very traditional drink from prehispanic times, made from a variety of ingredients including dried flowers.  Here’s the señora who made mine…first she adds some sugar water from the red bucket, then stirs the slurry in the wide green bowl with her hand, scoops out some with the bowl, and pours it into your cup.

And what you get is this:

The guidebooks said I wouldn’t like it, and it does look fairly unappetizing, but it was good!  Well, at least ’til I got to the lumpy bits 🙂   Imagine walnuts blended with water and milk, and slightly sweetened, but chilled and very refreshing in the heat of Oaxaca.  Definitely a case of not judging a book by its cover.

Then B & I continued into the “Carne Asadas” hall in the market.  This was definitely an experience….neither of us knew the protocol, and I think we both overthought it (I certainly did.)

There are two types of stands here, vegetables and (raw) meat. Every vegetable stand is identical to every other vegetable stand, and every meat stand is identical to every other meat stand. So first you go to one of the vegetable stands and pick out which vegetables you’d like grilled, for example baby onions or peppers. Then you go to a meat stand and pick out your meat, which is grilled for you, preferably by a cute Mexican boy:

Then you’re brought a range of accompaniments, like pico de gallo, avocado slices, guacamole, etc. to choose from, all in 6″ square styrofoam dishes, around $8 – $12 MX per dish.

Then someone brings tortillas ($5 if you’re Mexican, $10 for güeros), and…………you chow down.  What B & I couldn’t figure out, and I think made us both a little uncomfortable, was how some random vegetable stand and equally random meat stand handled the coordination.  In retrospect, we shouldn’t have worried — I’m pretty sure our hosts would have made sure we got a good meal (which it was) in any case.

Day 5, Dinner:  We stumbled upon a little place that looked good, but wasn’t.

Only three days left in Oaxaca  🙁      Could the food get better?  Yes it could, and did 🙂

-R