Travel Like Bourdain
Mexico
Twenty-two million people, the greatest taco culture on Earth, and the best museums in the Americas.
The Forgotten Atlas — Field Report
Twenty-two million people, the greatest taco culture on Earth, and the best museums in the Americas.
Mexico City is one of the largest cities on Earth and one of the most consistently underrated as a travel destination. The default perception — dangerous, polluted, overwhelming — was never accurate for visitors exercising normal urban awareness and has become less accurate with every passing year. What Mexico City actually is: a city with one of the greatest concentrations of world-class museums in the Americas, a food culture that contains multitudes, neighbourhoods that range from Aztec ruins to French-influenced boulevards to brutalist housing projects, and a creative energy that has been attracting artists and intellectuals from across the world for a century.
Mexico City is one of the great cities of the world. I do not understand why everyone does not already know this.
Anthony Bourdain
The taco culture of Mexico City is its own world. Not the tacos of Mexican-American cuisine — the tacos al pastor, rotating on a spit since the Lebanese immigrant community brought shawarma technique in the early 20th century; the tacos de canasta, steamed basket tacos sold from bicycles in the morning; the tacos de guisado, with their daily changing stewed fillings. The city's markets — La Merced, Mercado de Jamaica, Mercado de Medellín — are each a full day of eating. The high-end restaurant scene in Polanco and Roma is world-class. But the street food is the point.
The Museo Nacional de Antropología is the finest pre-Columbian museum in the world and one of the greatest museums anywhere. The Palacio de Bellas Artes contains the murals of Diego Rivera on a scale that photographs cannot prepare you for. Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul in Coyoacán is a complete biography in a building. The Zócalo — the main square, built directly over the ruins of the Aztec Templo Mayor — is the symbolic centre of a civilisation that never fully ended.
Stay in Roma Norte or Condesa. Three days minimum. Five days to do it properly. The altitude (2,240m) is not extreme but you will notice it for the first day.
Art deco buildings, the best restaurants and coffee shops in the city, street markets, and the energy of a neighbourhood that has been gentrifying thoughtfully for twenty years.
The bohemian neighbourhood where Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky both lived. The market, the main square, the cantinas — all excellent.
The colonial and Aztec heart of the city. The Zócalo, the Palacio Nacional, the Templo Mayor ruins, the street food vendors who have been in the same spots for decades.
The canals. The trajineras (flat-bottomed boats). The floating gardens that are a remnant of the Aztec lake city. Go on a weekend and join the party.
The original tacos al pastor. Operating since 1959 in the same location in the Centro. The trompo (rotating spit) is the first thing you see.
The most celebrated seafood restaurant in the city. The tuna tostadas and the red-and-green grilled fish are the dishes that made it famous. Book weeks ahead.
Chef Enrique Olvera's flagship. The mole madre — a mole that has been continuously cooking and feeding for years — is one of the great dishes on Earth. Book months ahead.
The best market for prepared food in Roma. Colombian-influenced stalls alongside traditional Mexican. The perfect breakfast and lunch destination.
A late-night taco stand in the Centro that serves every offal cut imaginable. Open until 4am. The tacos de sesos (brain) are extraordinary if you can face them.
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