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 Entertainment | Restaurants & Dining | January 2007 
In Mexico City, Regional Flavors Unchanged by the Big City
 Mark Bittman - NYTimes
| | El Cardenal, in the neighborhood of Las Polomas de Chapultepec, serves breakfasts that might include hot chocolate or fruit drinks called jugos. (Adriana Zehbrauskas/NYTimes) |
Though the regions of Mexico retain their very distinct cuisines, Mexico City acts like a food processor, puréeing ingredients until you can't tell what went into the final mix. There are places like Fonda El Refugio, a classic old-style, semiformal restaurant, and the wonderfully authentic El Bajio, now with four outposts, considered by many to have the best food in Mexico City; both pick and choose favorite dishes from around the country.
Then there is Izote, which features Patricia Quintana's fabulous, decidedly modern and slightly internationalized cuisine. There are scores of brightly colored restaurants serving food so oriented to tourists' palates that they might as well be north of the border. And then there are literally hundreds of places with cheap, good and rarely distinguished food.
But on this trip I was looking for restaurants that shouted of their homelands, and the ones I've selected here have character, promise, good and sometimes incredible food, and distinction. They will not be mistaken for one another, nor for anything else. (They all also have full bars, real service and comfort; you can spend a couple of hours in each, happily.)
Casa Merlos
This is the culinary traveler's dream, a real find, one no visitor to Mexico City should miss. In a working-class neighborhood not far from the historic center, Casa Merlos manages to be lovely, unpretentious and unusual. The space is altogether pleasant, with a high ceiling, stone arches, a marble floor, stucco walls and large windows overlooking a little mezzanine. Almost everyone is a local, and almost everyone knows one another.
It's a family operation; as a stranger, I was introduced to three members, and a fourth — the father — lingered in the background. The mother and one of the daughters sat at various tables chatting; my evident interest in food, and the fact that one of my companions was a local chef, brought them to ours too.
The food is from Puebla (which makes it poblano), and includes some odd items like chapilines, which I ordered largely because I had never heard of them. As it turns out, I was told they're fried insects, which didn't keep me from eating them. Their sweet, smoky, bitter and intriguing flavor, combined with their pure crunch, didn't even give me pause; I was enjoying them too much. Another local specialty you don't see too often is the excellent chalupas, open small tortillas with very fatty pork, best eaten at the beginning of the meal when your appetite is still revved. (They reminded me of the lardo di Colonnata served in New York these days, at 10 times the price.)
So beguiling you could eat it when you have no appetite at all is the fresh, relatively mild chipotle, made from a jalapeño native to Oaxaca, stuffed with goat cheese, stewed pork, nuts, and raisins. The pepper is fried, then sauced with a deep, not-hot chili mixture. The famous mole poblano, served with chicken or pork, is equally delicious. Mole is often disappointing, but for those who still question whether the best Mexican dishes can vie with those from anywhere, this is the answer.
After the meal, I asked how the mole was made, and the mother-daughter team brought me a plate of the ground mixture of sun-dried chilies, almonds, chocolate, tortilla and who knows what else (it's got to be more than 20 ingredients) that make up the basic mix: It's sweet and savory, it's bitter, and it's got a kind of depth that can be achieved only by people who really understand chilies.
There are at least a couple of other worthwhile dishes: Manchamanteles (or tablecloth stainers, because they're so juicy), which are stews of meat and fruit. Mine contained chicken with ripe plantain, pear and apple, but they vary from season to season. And totopostles, which were delicious and reminded me of the Turkish kofte: meat (in this case pork) pounded with garlic and cumin, then shaped into a steak and grilled.
Casa Merlos has several rotating "festivals," celebrations of seasonal dishes. March features loads of manchamanteles; in April, you'll see pumpkin flowers stuffed with various mixtures; and in October 10 moles appear on the menu.
El Cardenal
This restaurant started in a poor neighborhood but has a new place in ritzy Las Palmas in Las Lomas de Chapultepec This is the one I visited — a beautiful space filled with ladies who lunch (or breakfast) and men in ties — and I'll head for the original next time I'm in town.
Start with the creamy, extraordinarily satisfying hot chocolate, poured from a jug. Or try one of the many jugos. I especially liked the mandarina and the guanabana (soursop), sweet, tart and not at all watery. One drinks jugos of all types in Mexico, and they can be thin and weak; these are anything but.
The sweet pastries, made with butter and probably lard, are irresistible: fig and coconut, an anise bun and the simple pan dulce are all supremely tender and tasty. If you get them served with nata — the equivalent of clotted cream — and you've had hot chocolate, you may be full. And happy.
But press on: The food shows strong influences from the state of Hidalgo, most notably the tortilla (omelet) con escamoles. These are the larvae of ants, but before you get too carried away with revulsion, let me remind you of caviar, which is also a weird little egg and is pretty good. So are these: white, small, with a soft but "poppy" texture and a subtle flavor that has hints of vanilla. In fact, in eggs it is too subtle, so you might, as I did, ask for a separate spoonful, simply cooked in butter, to really appreciate the stuff. There are other intriguing omelets, but you're not going to find this stuff at Zabar's, so why not give it a shot?
In any case, you must try the chilaquiles, which are the best I've ever eaten, perfectly cooked taco chips — still with some crispness, but tending toward tenderness, a difficult state to achieve — with onion, tomatillo, crumbled cheese, some spice and a lot of lime. The black beans with mozzarella-like cheese are also delicious.
The room is modern and tasteful, large and airy, with rust-colored walls and wood-and-leather chairs that match. Sun streams through windows facing the avenue, and there are windows on the other two sides, a courtyard and a small park. There is no better place in town — maybe in the hemisphere — to spend a good portion of the morning eating so much you need to take a nap.
D.O.
Just as visitors unavoidably find themselves on Fifth Avenue during the course of a few days in Manhattan, you will find yourself in Polanco if you're in Mexico City for more than a day or two; in fact, your hotel will probably be there. And there's at least one place (in addition to Izote and the new El Bajio) that's worth stopping in: That's D.O., short for denominacion de origen, the Spanish designation for distinctive regional foods. I wondered about including it here, because it's a stretch to call Spain a region of Mexico, and the chef, Bruna Oteiza, is a friend of mine. But for a drink and a few real tapas — the likes of which you'd have a hard time finding in the United States — it's fantastic.
You can get Jabugo ham here, the world's best, and some other classics: rabo de toro (bull's tail), a deep, dark, rich stew; various croquettes; little canapés of lomo (ham made of pork tenderloin) and piquillo peppers; or Camembert and anchovy (unusual and delicious). I like sitting at the bar, though the dining room is appealing, with big windows and an elegant, informal, black-and-white décor, and the main menu is alluring.
But the bar is of frosted orange glass, lighted internally, with a modern look and high-backed white chairs and old-fashioned chandeliers. And it's a bargain (some tapas are a buck) and, for some reason — at least on the nights I was there — not crowded, despite being among the most stylish places in the neighborhood.
Xel-Ha
I had two dreadful experiences trying to eat cuisine of the Yucatán before settling in at Xel-Ha the night before I left town. Lunch was at a downtown restaurant and entered the books as the worst meal of 2006; I'll spare you the details. An early dinner took place at a charming Yucatecan restaurant where the service was so bad we were forced to leave, though not until the server used the most novel excuse in history: "The chef just died," he told us, placidly. (I'm almost positive this was a lie.)
So on this night, McDonald's might have seemed terrific, and I thought of settling for tacos de carbón at a place I knew to be good. But from the minute I approached Xel-Ha I liked it, and I never stopped. First of all, it's in the heart of Condesa, which you might call the Lower East Side of Mexico City (though I'm quite sure I've never seen people juggling with fire at stoplights on Avenue B). Secondly, it's lively and, if not exactly gorgeous, unpretentious and cheery.
It was the tostado of turkey that made my evening, though: when a restaurant can produce turkey this juicy and delicious, there's someone in the kitchen who knows how to cook. Sopa de lima — lime soup — was rich chicken broth loaded with lime, some heat and tortilla chips; it was soothing. This was followed by some tacos with cochinita de pibil, the slow-roasted pork of the Yucatán (you're supposed to cook it in the ground, but I doubt they do that in Condesa); relleno negro, the classic pâté-like dish with black sauce, beautifully executed; and panucho cazón, essentially a shark sandwich. Suddenly I was liking Yucatecan food again. That's a good enough reason for me.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Prices are a rough average for a meal for two people with beverages.
Casa Merlos, Victoriano Zepeda 80, Obsevatorio; (52-55) 5277-4360. 250 pesos, or about $23 at 11 pesos to the dollar.
El Cardenal, Avenida de las Palmas 215, Lomas de Chapultepec; (52-55) 2623-0402. Breakfast, 150 pesos.
Maria del Alma, Cuernavaca 68, Condesa; (5255) 5553-0403. 400 pesos.
D.O., Hegel 406, Polanco; (52-55) 5255-0612. 600 pesos; less for tapas.
Xel-Ha, Parral 78 Bis, Colonia Condesa; (52-55) 5553-5968. 250 pesos. |
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