tacos

Roasted chicken tacos in the Zona Rosa

July 27, 2009 by Lesley Tellez

On Saturday, Crayton and I were about to catch a pesero to City Market — the Mexico City gourmet market of all gourmet markets, or so they say — when we realized we were both hungry. Not super hungry. Just a little bit.

Thanking the lord that we lived in a country where one can satisfy that kind of hunger perfectly (and cheaply), I suggested we hit Gili Pollos, a roasted-chicken joint on the corner of Sevilla and Chapultepec. The name is a play on a Castilian Spanish word that, loosely translated, means “dumb ass.”

I’m a fan of clever word play. And I’ve been curious about Mexican roasted chicken lately. Unlike in the U.S., where most people buy roasted birds at the supermarket, in Mexico there’s an entire industry of rosticerias, or specialized chicken-roasting joints. Many are open-air, and the birds roast slowly on rows of spits, their skins turning a crispy, dark-golden brown.

Gili Pollas has a certain nostalgic charm, too. The workers wear paper hats, and there are black-and-white checkered floors inside. We grabbed a table underneath the awning above, which overlooked the bustling Avenida Chapultepec. The chicken tacos were 13 pesos each — kind of pricey for one taco, I thought.

“Do you want onion?” a young guy in a paper hat asked us.

“Oh yeah,” I said.

And then he set this in front of us:

It was enough meat for two tacos, easily. And it had onion, and cabbage. Both drenched in chicken drippings. Next to the plate was a bowl of pickled jalapeños for garnish, and red salsa.

The meat had bones, so I picked off a few chunks and placed them in a tortilla. (No idea if this is the proper way Mexicans eat them or not, but who cares.) Threw in some jalapeños and salsa, and gobbled it up in few minutes. The chicken was succulent, and the skin — it was crispy and perfect, and worth the trip alone.

With happy and full stomachs, and only $2 lighter in our pocketbooks, we crossed Chapultepec and caught the pesero to Del Valle.

I highly recommend the place, if you’re ever in the neighborhood. There’s also an outpost in the Centro, at Isabel la Católica and 5 de Mayo.

Gili Pollos
Corner of Avenida Chapultepec and Salamanca, in Colonia Juarez (Zona Rosa)

My first, self-organized Mexico City street food tour

July 10, 2009 by Lesley Tellez

Just around the corner from my house, there’s a line of street food stands maybe six deep. They’re so close, we can hear the dudes rolling out their steel carts in the wee morning hours. At various times of they day, you can find chocolate and rice atole, plastic cups brimming with yogurt and cereal, sandwiches (some made with American-style bread, others on bolillos); flautas, carnitas tacos, tacos de suadero. And sunglasses and ties, too.

It’s a travesty that I haven’t tried any of it yet. So yesterday I grabbed my friend Alice, a street food fiend, and we hit the streets for our first-ever Mexico City street food tour.

Here were our rules:

Keep it manageable. We’d only visit stands near Cuauhtemoc, which is my neighborhood. On the next tour, we’ll delve into other areas. (Like the stands on the south side of Plaza de Insurgentes. GOD they look good.)

Share. We’d split every item, as to keep tummies hungry for more food.

Be efficient. We’d keep the tour to 1 1/2 hours. (This was my rule. I had to be back to continue working on a story.)

Street food essentials to have in my purse:

Here’s how it went to down. Pics and details after the jump.
…

Falling in love with birria at La Polar

June 14, 2009 by Lesley Tellez

Birria is a spicy meat stew from Jalisco. It’s usually made with goat, but sometimes with lamb or mutton.

I’d always roped it into my “I’ll pass” category, along with pozole and menudo, which have never lit my fire for some reason. But then two days ago friends invited us to La Polar, a cantina near our house. It’s probably among the best-known places to get birria in the city, and it’s always recommended in guidebooks and local magazines.

So we went, and ordered tacos and avocado, and a few orders of birria. The menu had no description, so I was expecting meat wrapped in wax paper, like when you order carnitas in Quiroga. Instead it was a gigantic bowl of stew.

When I tasted it: LORD. The meat fell apart in my mouth, and the broth was spicy and chipotle-tinged. I wanted to slurp gulps of it. Instead I held back and picked at my tacos, since I wasn’t technically hungry, as I’d already had dinner like an hour before. (Did I forget to mention that? But sometimes you have to just eat when the opportunity presents itself, and worry about everything later. This is why my pants are getting tighter.)

La Polar also had live mariachis, and a table full of Mexicans singing at the top of their lungs. I loved it. Wish I would have brought my tape recorder, but alas, it was in my other purse. This gives you a good idea of what it was like, though:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPsMIkGYxFk&hl=es&fs=1&rel=0&border=1]

On the way out, we saw mariachis playing foosball in the parking garage.

My dad’s favorite spots in Mexico City

June 8, 2009 by Lesley Tellez

Gotta hand it to my dad. He lives in San Diego and drives a convertible, but he decided to spend his vacation in a chaotic megapolis with me. It was his first time here.

It took him a few days to get used to the rhythm, but he ended up embracing the chaos here. He tried arrachera tacos and beef brains, and went with me to the tianguis. He took the Metro and the pesero. He even learned how to cross the street like a Chilango… kind of.

Yesterday he followed my lead when I ran across the street as the light was changing, and scolded me once we got to the other side. “Lesley! You can’t just run across the street in front of cars like that. The laws of physics are the same as they are in the U.S.!”

Unfortunately, he also suffered from stomach ailments, so maybe no arrachera tacos next time.

Here are a few pictures of some of the spots he liked best:

Coyoacán

Drinks at Condesa DF. I’d never been here before, but sipping a Jamaica Margarita on their rooftop terrace is now one of my favorite things to do.

A tour of the Centro Histórico with More Mexico, where we:

Ate fantastic buttery sweet bread at the original Sanborns, inside the Casa de los Azulejos. (Or…er… I ate it, anyway.)

Checked out the cool national mail palace, which is a functioning post office.

Learned about the history of Mexican art at the Museo Nacional de Arte.

Teotihuacán

The view from Chapultepec Castle. “A must-see for any visitor,” my dad says. “To get a true picture of the size of the city, you need to go up there and look.”

Thanks for a great visit, Dad.

An overdose of Vitamina T

February 20, 2009 by Lesley Tellez

The cab driver I tipped two pesos yesterday told me “Vitamina T” is what chilangos call that especially yummy group of street foods — tacos, tostadas, tamales, tortas. (Not sure if tlayudas are in there or not.)

Funnily enough, a Mexico City guidebook I bought had a whole section on Vitamina T. And while I usually don’t eat much of that stuff, last night we were hanging out in the Centro, and after two beers we were kinda hungry. So we stopped at Cantina La Mascota. My guidebook had said the food was wonderful, and I think Anthony Bourdain filmed part of his Mexico City show there.

They were only a half-hour from closing, but the waiter said they still had some food left. He ended up bringing out a tray of carnitas, plates of pork in a spicy tomato sauce and a stack of hot corn tortillas. OH GOD. It was so good. As I dug into my fourth taco, I thought, “I may not like myself in the morning.” Then I continued sopping up the sauce.

They had a great jukebox there, too. This song got all the waiters smiling and bobbing their heads. (Gracias to Joy for being a great DJ.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8o02aHRQbg&hl=es&fs=1]

Is it weird that I’m suddenly obsessed with tacos?

February 13, 2009 by Lesley Tellez

I’ve been making them at home all the time lately, probably because produce is so abundant and my tiny kitchen suits meals made with one pan. These are spinach and oyster mushroom, with a sprinkling of tomato. Bought all of it at the tianguis.

You can’t really tell, but the tomatoes are a deep, dark red. [insert dreamy sigh]

Next step: Finding sriracha.

My first Mexico City tacos

January 31, 2009 by Lesley Tellez

The start of a beautiful relationship.

These came from a place in el Centro around 9:30 last night. They’re tacos de cachete, or beef cheek. I’m on a mission to try every part of the cow. Next stop: “tacos de nana,” or uterus.

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