New York - It’s hard to stand out in the crowded field of food publications. But Swallow Magazine may do just that with its latest issue, on Mexico City, which includes a scratch-and-sniff feature that also brings you the smells of the sprawling metropolis.

Each issue of the award-winning, New York based magazine - this is only the third since it made its debut in 2009 - is a dive into the food and culture of one place, and it can seem more like an advanced college course than a magazine. The first was on the Scandinavian food scene and the second featured points along the Trans-Siberian railway. Its size, heft, and look give it the feel of a coffee-table book.

This time, said James Casey, the magazine’s editor, they decided to include the ambitious olfactory project, put together by Sissel Tolaas, a fragrance expert and artist. Mr. Casey had reached out to Ms. Tolaas after he heard of a project she had done that reproduced the smells from over 200 Mexico City neighborhoods.

This issue of Swallow includes 20 scratch-and-sniff stickers throughout that are imbued with the aromas of one of the city’s many colonias, or neighborhoods. Not all of the odors are pleasant.

Reproducing the smells in the magazine was a complex undertaking for their printers in Singapore, and is partly the reason it took more than a year to publish.

"You can only bring someone so far through a publication or a Web site," Mr. Casey said. "You can show them the sights. And online, you can let them see sounds or let them see videos. But ultimately, with the smell project, we felt like we were bringing them one step closer to the city in a different way. Smells are an unavoidable aspect of traveling."

The issue explores Mexico City’s high and low eating, from restaurants with cosmopolitan chefs to the ubiquitous taco stands. There is an interview with Enrique Olvera, the chef and owner of the celebrated restaurant Pujol, and another with a man who goes by the name Babyface, a former wrestler who runs a popular food stall outside Arena Mexico, the capital’s answer to the W.W.E.

Throughout, Swallow grapples with the question of what Mexican food is, and how modern chefs are reinventing the country’s cooking traditions. "We need to make Mexican food a little bit lighter, more in tune with modern tastes," Mr. Olvera said in the magazine. "It’s already so flavorful. It’s like a bomb in your mouth."

Gabriela Camara, the owner of Contramar, a popular seafood restaurant, told the magazine that another challenge chefs face is how to compete with street food, which is prevalent and delicious in Mexico City. "How do you take something from a food culture that’s really strong and make it stand out?" she asked.

The magazine will cost $30 and will be available at some newsstands in mid-April, and can be ordered through swallowmagazine.com.