CDMX 2022 (7/8) – Food Adventures

In their food culture, Mexicans didn’t seem to shy away from any edible ingredient. As such, our trip to CDMX provided a great opportunity to try a wide range of new foods. I had taken notes for unfamiliar dishes and ingredients that we were interested in, and the list was long.

Molleja

I had plans to try a large diversity of tacos in Mexico, and would have done more if those 36 tacos on the first day didn’t punch us so hard in the face. A full page of my notebook was dedicated to taco fillings.

Los Cocuyos allowed us to try many on this list. In addition to old favorites like suadero, lengua, tripa, and cabeza, I ordered ojo (eye), sesos (brain), and longaniza (sausage). The problem with tacos, however, was that with everything finely chopped it was impossible to tell apart multiple new meats.

We did, though, definitively enjoy molleja, thymus gland and pancreas. Apparently there’s an English word for it called sweetbread, which I had not heard of before this trip. It had an excellent balance between flavor and texture, so good that both of us re-ordered it.

Score: 10/10 Wish our taco trucks have this

Chapulines

Although I’m all about trying everything edible, I generally draw the line at bugs. At least I have zero interest in the freak show stunt variety where people put cockroaches and scorpions in their mouths. Grasshoppers, though, were a pretty big part of the Mexican cuisine that I figured warranted an exception.

At La Gruta, we ordered three sopes with guacamole and grasshoppers. Compared to the other varieties we later saw in the markets, these were gigantic grasshoppers. The look was a huge turn off and Phil cringed real hard. Good thing I had asked Ken about it just a couple days earlier and he described this staple as “just like chips”, which helped me deal with it mentally.

Picking these grasshoppers up and eating them individually actually wasn’t bad, at all. The main off-putting aspect was the lime juice covering them (not used to sour chips, I guess). After half a dozen of them, I felt sufficiently warmed up to bite into an entire sope covered with these insects. Crunchy protein was all it was. Though occasionally one would fall from the sope and land on the table, and it’d still make me jump seeing a big bug next to my phone.

Score: 3/10 I tried it you can have the rest

Flor de Calabaza

Squash (often pumpkin) flower was a delicacy in Mexico, often served in a quesadilla. We tried that once, and later had another chance to have it in a soup. It was quite different from the vegetables Americans ate, but immediately reminded me of jin zhen (lily) flowers found in many Chinese dishes. Compared to the stuff that I ate growing up, flor de calabaza was larger and much meatier.

Score: 9/10 Delicious

Huitlacoche

The formal definition of corn smut is anything but appetizing… per Wikipedia, it’s “a plant disease caused by the pathogenic fungus Ustilago maydis that causes smut on maize and teosinte.” It’s also illegal in the U.S..

However, as a food ingredient, it’s really just a fungus – e.g. mushroom that happens to grown on (and kill) corn. We had this in a quesadilla and enjoyed it. We didn’t know enough to appreciate its “truffle-like” properties but wouldn’t hesitate to order again.

Score: 7/10 I’m not big on mushrooms but these were decent

Soup #1 – Caldo Tlalpeno

Phil had been preparing to get food-borne illness while traveling so he was constantly on the lookout for caldo tlalpeno, a hearty chicken-based stew that supposedly could sooth the ill stomach. He was very happy to get a bowl after those tacos beat us up.

Score: 9/10 Didn’t try it myself but Phil gave high praises

Soup #2 – Pancita

I remember reading about and craving Mongolian innards soup covered in hot oil as a 10-year-old, so I was quite eager to try this spicy beef tripe soup in Mexico. It didn’t disappoint.

Score: 8/10 Yummy, though a full bowl of tripe got a bit tiring to chew

Soup #3 – Pozole

A soup made with hominy (dried & processed maize) and other ingredients, topped with fresh cabbage and onion. It was a great comfort food for a cold rainy day, though it was spicier than I expected. Phil got a vegetarian version while I had surtido, miscellaneous chopped pig parts. Both were excellent.

Score: 9/10 Raw veggie toppings provided a necessary balance to the heavy flavor of the soup

Guayaba

At the hotel breakfast one morning, we came across this mysterious yellow fruit. I got a few pieces to be adventurous. After just a couple bites, I realized it was guava, one of my favorite fruits. It looked quite different from its pink Hawaiian cousins and green Asian cousins, but the flavor was unmistakable. I looked it up and learned that guava had originated right here in Mexico. Like tomato, chili, and many other things that I grew up eating, the Spanish had exported this plant from the New World and later spread it as far as Asia.

When I had an opportunity at La Merced market the next day, I bought a kilo for 12 pesos. It was about 25 cents per pound. Damn. Back home in California I’d splurge from time to time and buy guava for $5 a pound. If we weren’t leaving the very next day, I would have filled my backpack with this fruit.

Iguana & Armadillo

At Mercado de San Juan on our last day, we had the opportunity to try all sorts of actual Mexican delicacies and gimmicky exotic meats. This was a time when I found the menu overwhelming… the ingredient list covered things that I’d consider too unappetizing or unethical. But the opportunity to try something new was too tempting. We got two quesadillas to share – one iguana and one armadillo.

Iguana had been on my to-eat list for years since I learned about these animals being raised on a farm as food. Phil absolutely hated it but I thought it was alright. The meat came in fairly long fibers and was on the chewy side. The flavor wasn’t particularly strong.

Armadillo was the kind of thing that people in North America would eat but you’d never hear of it being tasty. Phil preferred it, perhaps because it was minced with a texture more similar to what we regularly eat. I thought its gamey flavor was extremely off putting, though.

[Update] Phil thought I had our preferences backward. I think I was right, but it’s also kind of a blur. Both of us agreed that both meats were pretty nasty.

Score: 1/10 These were worse than grasshopper

CDMX 2022 Trip Index