How To Eat Like A Local…Mexico City’s Best Street Food

Mexico’s street food is some of the best in the world. And well it should be, with a pedigree dating back to pre-Hispanic times – the Spaniards were reportedly amazed when they arrived to find ready-to-eat food they called antojitos (“little cravings”) for sale on the streets and in the markets.

Little has changed over the centuries and street food still plays a huge part in daily Mexican life. In the capital, Mexico City, thousands of stalls and taquerias sell tamales and quesadillas, elote (roasted corn on the cob), chapulines (roasted grasshoppers), and much, much more. The sheer variety can be overwhelming, however, so how do you navigate this gastronomic landscape when you can’t tell your tacos from your tamales? We decided to take a tour through the maze of options, following our guide Arturo, a young chef and all-round Mexican food connoisseur and enthusiast, through the central neighbourhoods of Cuauhtémoc, Juárez and Zona Rosa. Bearing in mind his advice to pace ourselves, we set off.

Tamales

On the corner of Río Lerma and Río Danubio in Cuauhtémoc we sample street food number one, a tamale. These traditional Mexican breakfast snacks, literally meaning “wrapped in a leaf”,were first made for warring Aztec and Mayan tribes. Pockets of masa (a type of starchy corn dough) are stuffed with sweet or savoury fillings, wrapped in banana leaves or cornhusks and then steamed. Arturo, fortunately, reminds us to remove the wrapper before eating. Tamales often go hand-in-hand with atole, a thick corn-based drink that is served lukewarm in a variety of flavours. We go for the champurrado, a chocolate-based atole that is tasty, but doesn’t have quite the same effect as a double espresso.

Tortillas

Stop number two is a tortillería. Tortillas, a type of thin, unleavened flatbread made from finely ground corn, are a staple of Mexican cuisine and have been for hundreds of years. Every neighbourhood in the country has one of these small, hole-in-the-wall outlets where a machine spits out freshly made tortillas onto a conveyor belt. Our particular spot, on Río Tigris, between Río Lerma & Río Panuco in Cuauhtémoc, makes up to 800kg of tortillas a day, costing just M$12 pesos per kilo; although Arturo says this is a little pricey compared to other neighbourhoods.

Pin this imageMany different fruit juices are available at roadside stalls. Image by Katja Gaskell / Lonely Planet

Jugo (fresh juice)

A short walk away our next stop is a fresh juice stand on the corner of Río Lerma and Río Sena, Cuauhtémoc. These juice bars are everywhere in the capital and range from mobile carts serving freshly squeezed fresh oranges to permanent structures such as this one. Juice options go from the single fruit to the more elaborate. I order a jugo verde (green juice), a combination of apple, celery, parsley and the ubiquitous Mexican cactus or nopal. Alongside is a food cart where quesadillas and tlacoyos are cooked on the spot. Quesadillas traditionally always contain cheese (which explains the queso part of the name) but Mexico City is the one place in the country where you can order one without. Even tastier, however, are the tlacoyos. These are flattened masa pockets filled with cheese, fava beans or refried beans and then topped with a variety of trimmings including nopal, sour cream and coriander. Best eaten straight off the grill, they are a popular Mexico City snack made almost exclusively by women.

Pin this imageTacos de Canasta stand. Image by Katja Gaskell / Lonely Planet

Tacos de Canasta

Our next port of call is Tacos de Canasta, La Abuela, further along Río Lerma on the corner with Río Rhin and run by the most convivial señor in the capital. He tells us that he’s been selling tacos for the last 18 years and shifts over 800 a day. At M$8 pesos a taco, business is good. Literally meaning “tacos in a basket” these are another favourite snack. Traditionally made with soft corn tortillas they can be filled with a variety of different flavours such as frijoles (refried beans), potatoes, eggs and pork. We opt for the cochinita pibil, gently spiced, slow roasted pork, and it is delicious.

Chilli Fruit

Fortunately there’s some walking to be done before our next stop, although we do pause briefly to share a cup of freshly sliced mango along the way at a fruit stall on the corner of Havre and Hamburgo streets in Juárez. As with much of the fruit and vegetables in Mexico, our mango is doused liberally in lime juice and chilli powder. “Why?” we ask. “Because it tastes good,” replies Arturo. And it does.

Pin this imageBurritos come with a variety of fillings. Image by Katja Gaskell / Lonely Planet

Burritos

Street stand number eight makes burritos, one of the few of its kind in the capital. Traditionally a food of northern Mexico (and far more commonplace across the border in the US), it’s an unusual roadside food to find in Mexico City. We share an enormous burrito among our group of four; a large flour tortilla filled with mushrooms, peppers and cheese. Arturo says that the sign of a good street food stand is the salsas that they have on offer, and this place, on the corner of calles Liverpool and Niza, has dozens of them of varying degrees of heat.

Carnitas

By now we’re heading towards the Zona Rosa, a neighbourhood popular for its nightlife and the location of our final two tasting venues. The first is on Río Sena, between Río Lerma and Paseo de la Reforma, and sells carnitas, meaning “little meats”, pork that’s braised or simmered in oil or lard until tender. Most carnita stands use the entire pig so you need to be confident of your animal parts when ordering unless you want to end up with the stomach or intestine. Arturo orders for us and we’re quietly relieved to find chopped pig’s calf on our tortilla (and not uterus, another possible option), sprinkled with diced onion, chopped coriander leaves and salsa.

Tacos al pastor

Fittingly enough, our final stop on the corner of Río Guadalquivir and Río Lerma is home to one of the most popular varieties of tacos on offer in the city - tacos al pastor (“in the style of the shepherd”). Similar in style to the kebab, these thick strips of pork sliced off a spit and placed on a corn tortilla are thought to have originated in the 1920s with the arrival of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants to Mexico. Toppings include onions, chopped cilantro and pineapple. And, despite how much we have already eaten, we devour them.

Tips on choosing your street snack stand

• Look for places with a crowd waiting to be served. Anywhere that kids/labourers are eating is usually especially good.
• Make sure the stand looks clean and that, whoever handles the money, isn’t also preparing the food.
• If it smells bad, walk away.
• Don’t be late! Mobile street stands open early morning and close when their stock has sold out.

My gastronomic odyssey was organised through “Eat Mexico”, a company founded by Lesley Tellez and Jesica Lopez Sol in 2010 which focuses exclusively on discovering the best street food that the capital has to offer through a handful of tours.

Katja Gaskell is a travel writer based in Mexico City. She is the co-founder of globetotting.com, a website that discovers the best in adventurous family travel and the author of Lonely Planet guides to Australia, China and India. She’s also partial to a taco or two. Say hello @katjagaskell    

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/travel-tips-and-articles/mexico-citys-best-street-food#ixzz3DKIlJw6p

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Top 10 International Street Food Cities

Contributed by Melisse Hinkle 

 and chock full of flavor, street food gives hungry passers-by a lot to love in locales around the world. But local open-air fare is also a key ingredient of any city’s culture. While the offerings can sometimes seem tailor-made for adventurous epicureans (chicken feet, anyone?), the options in any street-food-friendly city are virtually endless. From award-winning food stalls to gourmet food trucks and hot dog carts to noodle shops, it’s easy to see how street food has staked its claim on cities across the globe. Here are our picks for the world’s top 10 street food cities.

Hong Kong, China

With a bustling international food scene, Hong Kong offers up everything from sweet tofu soup to dumplings all from street-side stalls. Long under British rule but now part of China, the city is famous for everything from snake soup to egg tarts, and serves up an interesting mix of Cantonese delicacies and Western favorites. Markets like those on Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei, the Ladies Market on Tung Choi Street and Kowloon City are popular places to peruse Hong Kong’s street food scene and taste test items like hot pots, curried fish balls and skewers of stinky tofu (your nose will guide you to that one). The city’s dai pai dongs – open-air street food vendors – have been dwindling since the 1980s when regulations tightened, but places like noodle shops and markets still thrive. Some of Hong Kong’s food stalls like dim sum canteen Tim Ho Wan on Sham Shui Po even made the most recent Michelin Guide – a significant honor from a guide that’s notoriously stingy with its stars, reserving them mainly for high-end brick-and-mortar restaurants. Internationally praised barbeque pork buns for $5? We’ll take it.

A street food vendor in Hong Kong (Image: Tracy Hunter)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Food stands are a staple in Rio de Janeiro. Vendors offer everything from cod fritters to feijoada (rice, beans and pork) and salgadinhos (salty aperitifs). The scene has stretched to the city’s waterfront and its suburbs. Beverages are popular street-side buys here, especially drinks like fruit smoothies and suco de acai (acai juice). Sweet treats like tapiocas (crepes) and churros filled with chocolate or caramel are also popular. Stroll the boardwalk of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches to find 24-hour food stands. Street meat called churrasquinhos, hot dogs known as cachorro quente and cheese bread (pao de queijo) are all common street food fare in Old Rio. An added bonus? Vendors in this Brazilian city are known for being friendly and good natured.

Food stands typically line beaches like Ipanema Beach (pictured here) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Image: over_kind_man)

Paris, France

Paris may be famous for decadent sit-down mid-day meals, but its street food offerings are extensive. After all, who can resist that wall of Nutella jars practically calling your name from every Parisian crêperie? The city’s iconic street food specialty is the heavenly crêpe. The thin pancakes are typically made to order and filled with your choice of ingredients, which could be anything from a savory combination like ham and cheese, or a sweet specialty like that heavenly chocolate-hazelnut spread paired with slices of banana. But the French city’s street food scene goes beyond its network of street-corner crêperies. Sandwiches from bakeries, falafel in the Marais district and Indian specialties like samosas are all served street side. A surprising amount of food trucks – many of them dishing out traditional American favorites like burgers – are also popping up around Paris. Just be a little discerning with your selections in popular tourist locales, such as the areas around the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre.

Crêperie in Paris (Image: mekanoide)

Boston, Mass., United States

Humble hot dog carts, step aside. Gourmet mobile meals are all the rage in several U.S. cities, including Boston where more than 50 food trucks (up from 15 in 2011) roam the city, planting themselves – on any given day – in one of 30 locations. The trucks also converge on various neighborhood markets in the spring, summer and fall. Each truck has cornered its piece of the foodie market, and cuisine ranges from local specialties like lobster rolls (from the Lobsta Love truck) to Vietnamese favorites (from the Bon Me truck). The buzz around the treat-dispensing trucks is also a reflection of a growing food scene in this New England city. Truck chefs host food festivals and cooking contests, and, on occasion, even end up launching wheel-less meals from restaurants inspired by their food trucks. On the flip side, some brick-and-mortar restaurants are now sending their meals on the road.

Mei Mei Street Kitchen serves a customer from its food truck in Boston. (Image: weeklydig | Emily Zendt)

Istanbul, Turkey

Food stalls and street-side snack shops are ubiquitous in this Turkish city. Specialties include kebap (little pieces of broiled or roasted cow, sheep or chicken meat), döner (meat roasted on a vertical spit), lahmacun (Turkish pizza), sokak simit (a large, crispy bagel-like bread roll with sesame seeds) and an array of flaky pastries. Neighborhoods like Karakoy, Ortakoy and Taksim feature plenty of street food vendors, and the city’s Grand Bazaar is another hot spot for street food. Down at the waterfront, vendors stand aboard boats and offer up fish sandwiches that will only set you back about three Turkish lire. Seasonal favorites like corn on the cob in the summer and roasted chestnuts in the winter are also popular inIstanbul.

Lahmacun in Istanbul, Turkey (Image: Augapfel)

Mexico City, Mexico

Affordable and authentic are two frequently used adjectives for street food inMexico City. Thousands of food stalls and taquerias line city streets dishing up Mexican favorites like tostados, carnitas, tamales and quesadillas. But the key street dish in this city is tacos al pastor – thinly sliced pork that has been spit-roasted and bathed in chili sauce, paired with chopped onion and coriander, then rolled into a small tortilla. Try the carts in the city’s main square, Centro Historico’s Zocalo, or the Colonia Roma neighborhood. For a treat, head to the cart on the corner of Delicias and Aranda streets, which offers blue-corn tlacoyos – grilled corn patties with beans, cheese, cactus, cilantro and salsa.

Chicken quesadilla from a street food vendor in Mexico City. (Image: goodiesfirst)

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Often over-shadowed by Vancouver and Toronto in the street food arena, Ottawaboasts a growing mobile meal scene, with 44 food trucks and carts already hawking their yummy goods and about 20 inventive newcomers ready to hit the streets in May. New trucks include the Urban Cowboy, which will dish out self-proclaimed “innovative Texan street food” and  the Ottawa “Streat” Gourmet set to feature local, seasonal eats. New specialty carts will serve everything from frozen yogurt to churros and baked potatoes with toppings. These additions will join the city’s perennial street food favorites like hot dog and sausage carts, BeaverTails (fried pastries with your choice of sweet or savory toppings) and poutine (french fries topped with gravy and cheese curds).

Poutine is a Canadian favorite, often served by food trucks or via street-side windows. (Image:blue.tofu)

Marrakech, Morocco

The heart of Marrakech‘s street food culture is Djemaa el-Fna, which daylights as the city’s main square, but moonlights as an impressive spread of about 100 open-air food stalls. Adventurous foodies can sample the traditional sheep’s head, while those with more reserved tastes can bite into offerings like fried eggplant or couscous-based dishes. If the food isn’t enough of a draw, the market also features performers, snake charmers and tarot card readers. Overflowing bowls of olives and barrels of spices are mainstays in the city’s souks, or markets. Rue El Kassabin is another key spot to savor street food in this city. Known for its slow-roasted lamb called mechoui, the area serves up a variety of other street food fare including bean soup, escargot, sausage sandwiches and Moroccan-style macarons.

Food stalls in Djemaa el-Fna – the main city square in Marrakech, Morocco (Image:scott.presly)

Berlin, Germany

There are plenty of international favorites served street side in Berlin, but two dishes are the main players: currywurst and the döner kebab. Currywurst is essentially a deep-fried pork sausage covered in ketchup and dusted with curry powder. Curry 36 in the Kreuzberg district is the go-to local food stand for many lovers of this dish. You can order it with or without the skin. Devout currywurst fans typically pair the sausage with fries topped with ketchup and mayonnaise.  Stands selling döner kebabs – gyro-like Turkish sandwiches – also pepper the city. Berlin’s markets serve up a mix of international street food, including items like pickled herring on bread, falafel sandwiches and Turkish pastries. The city also just launched “Street Food Thursdays” at the Markthalle in Kreuzberg. The weekly event will feature a line-up of street food favorites for several hours every Thursday.

Curry wurst in Berlin (Image: og2t // ou gee tew tee)

Fukuoka, Japan

Other Japanese cities may be more famous, but Fukuoka is famous for its street food. Located on the northern shore of Kyushu, the city boasts more than 150 transportable food stalls known as yatai that open around dusk, then pack up and vanish at the end of each night. The stands dot the city, but large groups of them are located near Tenjin Station and on the southern end of Nakasu Island. Specialties include tonkotsu ramen (a noodle dish featuring broth made using pork bones and fat), mentaiko (spicy pollack roe), hakata gyoza (pan-fried dumplings filled with cabbage and pork), iwashi mentaiko (Japanese sardines stuffed with mentaiko) and tempura (seafood and vegetables fried in a light tempura batter). The perfect pairing for many of these dishes? A glass of sake.

Ramen shop in Fukuoka, Japan (Image: witpim)

(Main image: spaztacular)