Mexico City

This was my first time ever in Mexico and it has taken me a while to find the right words to share with you about how special of a place CDMX is.

The reason for the trip was work, what happened while I was there was LIFE! I had only ever heard about how amazing Mexico city is from friends, and now after a brief 5 day trip I have scratched the surface of understanding what they have been talking about all these years.

TACOS TACOS TACOS! Yes there was rarely a meal that didn’t have at least 1 (dozen!!!) tacos in it. I will never be able to eat tacos outside of Mexico again, I got truly spoiled. PRO TIP: ORINOCO, in the Roma Norte neighborhood, had the best tacos ever. One of the hosts on my trip brought me there for my first meal upon arrival, talk about setting the bar high. She was explaining to me that most of us assume tacos are usually corn tortillas, but in the north of Mexico it is more traditional to use flour tortillas. An idea I thought of as only American until that moment. Here at Orinoco, they make the best flour tortilla tacos in the whole of Mexico. There we were waiting in line on the steep stairs right off the busy streets in the heart of Mexico talking about what makes this place so good. Looking at the small menu, me getting ready to fumble my way through trying to order in Spanish and trying to politely decipher some of the words I didn’t know. Thankfully my host was so gracious and just asked how hungry I was and if I had any aversions to anything. This was the moment where she understood a little bit about who I am, my response “i’m in Mexico for the first time, I want to eat everything and I eat everything”. Gracias Mónica! At Orinoco, the order is chicharron on a flour tortilla, hands down one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. A tall stainless steel canister of jamaica stood tall on our table, sweating from the heat of the room as it waited to quench my thirst from all the food that was about to come. We ordered everything.

Fine Dining: As part of this adventure I was very fortunate to eat at two of the worlds premier restaurants, Pujol and Quintonil. Both located in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico a few blocks from each other. I have had more than my fare share of Michelin starred dinners in my life, but experiencing what happens at these restaurants was a pivotal moment in how I think about food and dining. Pujol, has long been the first restaurant people think of in Mexico at this level, a strong pillar of dining in this part of the world. A truly stunning space and grounds, you can see a lot of similarities to other restaurants of this caliber. The dark long sleeve jackets the front of house team wears, the graceful way they move around the room attending to the vast number of guests and the synchronized way the plates get placed on the table. These details make the professional eaters of the world feel a sense of famialarity when they sit down. I have been following the food here for a while, and was looking forward to finally tasting some of the iconic dishes that they serve, they did not disappoint! There were plenty of surprising dishes and flavors for me in this meal but they were almost undercut with a preconceived expectation from staring at photos of the food for years and years. I do not mean to take away or undervalue the incredible hard work the team puts in each and everyday. I simply want to identify the double edge sword that is social media. While having access to everything at our fingertips these days is the new normal and expectation, I would argue that if you went into a meal like that not knowing anything about it, your experience would be 10x more meaningful. The mole madre was of course so unique and flavorful you could never have guessed what happens in your mouth by just the photo. Although if you had no idea it was coming out and your experience with it was truly a surprise, it could move some to tears. A wonderful experience overall, my critique would be that I didn’t really feel like I was in CDMX, it could have been in any major city in the world.

Quintonil, I am embarrassed that I did not know more about this restaurant before this trip came across my desk. An honest statement that I will freely admit now because after getting the privilege to not only be a guest in the dining room, but also work with chef Jorge Vallejo and his team has truly changed my life. Getting the opportunity to help in the collaboration of their 7 year anniversary was so special, 5 days working and eating with some incredible people. Cooking all day, eating all night, early morning visits to the biggest farmers market I have ever seen! Literally miles and miles of products this market could dwarf a lot of cities in the states. The hospitality and generosity bestowed to us was world class and so genuine, I can not give enough gratitude to him. The evening before the event we got to sit down and eat at Quintonil. This is where so much changed for me, the style of service is warm and personal like dining in someones home without being casual. The diverse space between the front dining room and the back “patio” dining room which can be open to the elements during nice weather I felt really represented a lot of Mexican restaurants. Capturing the essence of eating anywhere in the city but with the attention to details of a Michelin starred restaurant. A friendly face wearing a clean black apron adorned with colorful flowers is always around to assist with any question or request. A favorite service element that I think is crucial these days is having the chef team be a part of the dining room experience, bringing the food they spend all day creating out to the guests. This allows their pride and enthusiasm to really be conveyed and encourages the guest to ask more detailed questions if they desire. All this before the first plates arrived in front of us. The food chef Jorge serves is balanced in all meanings of the word, traditional/modern, light/heavy, spicing up your life/cooling it down with the following dish. The purity he demonstrates in his cooking was epitomized by one dish for me. A dish of mamey, caviar, and a cream infused with honey. Three outstanding ingredients on their own, but combined in such a way that you forget caviar as a luxury ingredient, you are filled with intrigue about the texture of the mamey (is this a piece of fish? is it sweet? is it a potato?) and all tied together with this outstanding cream. I can not say enough about this dish, simply brilliant! The rest of the meal left my head spinning trying to understand how these flavors that I keep eating get created. What are these base products that they use to coax such depth of flavor, is it only the bugs and insects? How does his process of making sauce differ from that of my classic French background? HOW DO YOU DO THIS!!!! I have never had so much pleasure being confused in my life. I will admit that as I mentioned in the Pujol paragraph, Quintonil had not been a restaurant I followed for years, I do not know the classic dishes they serve (if any?), so the genuine surprise during each moment of the dinner was very impactful. To me this is THE restaurant in Mexico, to any of you who go to Mexico, Quintonil is not a choice it is a requirement!

The context of Mexican cuisine had been a very narrow thought in my mind before this trip, I could not have been more wrong. The ingredients that are available to a chef here are so unique and diverse, the demand for good food is a constant. Wether you are getting something from the street carts, a small cafe, or dining in a restaurant, people have high and diverse expectations. This has sparked a new interest in learning the secrets of the flavors they are able to create. A journey of education that will require demanding research, I guess I’ll have to go eat more tacos!

Outside of food, there is an issue that is extremely noticeable, the disparity of wealth. I was staying in the true epicenter of Mexico, the neighborhood of Polanco. All the shops you have in every major city in the states where there, all the big international businesses have office space. The well off families getting driven around to lunch, or walking around without a care in the world. While if you were to keep walking, it wouldn’t take long until you were in some of the other neighborhoods, a closer representation of the realities of living in CDMX. The city is called home by more than 20 million people, words and pictures are not enough to convey the size of this city. You can look up any number of supporting facts pertaining to the mis match of living for most of the citizens. I admittedly did not venture outside of the protective bubble of Polanco and the few surrounding neighborhoods enough, but it doesn’t take long to see the vast difference. This is a struggle most countries have and I am not here to stand on a soap box to try and make you feel guilty, this was just a significant thing I noticed and wanted to share. I will say this, that despite the difference in wealth I saw so many wonderful values in the people here. The word family must mean something different in Mexico than in another parts of the world, the way they love, support, cherish, and prioritize their families is inspiring. Hard work is the bare minimum, good food is a requirement, sharing with those you care about is second nature.

Mexico I can not wait to return.