Mexico Food Guide: Tacos, Mole, and the Dishes That Changed My Life

Mexico City's Pujol restaurant has been in the World's 50 Best Restaurants for over a decade. But the most extraordinary meal I have eaten in Mexico cost 45 pesos and was served on a plastic plate at a street stall at 11 AM. This is the beauty of Mexican food — the genius is distributed across every social and economic level.

The Taco Taxonomy

Tacos are not all the same. Understanding the categories transforms your experience:

Tacos de canasta (basket tacos): The breakfast taco. Warm corn tortillas filled with mashed potato, bean, or chicharrón (fried pork skin), stored in a woven basket (which steams them gently). Eaten on the street, standing. Costs: 10-12 pesos each.

Tacos al pastor: The Lebanese-influenced taco — vertical spit of marinated pork shoulder (similar to shawarma), shaved thin with a long knife, served on a small corn tortilla with onion, cilantro, and pineapple. The tacos de pastor tradition comes from Lebanese immigrants in Puebla in the 1930s. El Huequito in Mexico City's Centro Histórico (since 1959) is the institution.

Tacos de guisados: Braised filling tacos. Mexico City is the capital of this style — breakfast and lunch stalls where you choose from 8-12 slowly braised fillings (picadillo, rajas con crema, frijoles negros, ropa vieja) and a woman fills your tortilla to order. Coyoacán's market and the stalls around Mercado de San Juan.

Tacos de barbacoa: The weekend ritual. Lamb or beef slow-cooked in an underground pit (or pressure cooker, in the modern version) overnight. Served Sunday morning with consommé broth, cilantro, onion, and salsa. Hidalgo state is the spiritual home of barbacoa; in Mexico City, the markets of Tepito have excellent versions.

Mole: The Soul of Mexican Cuisine

Mole (from the Nahuatl molli) is not a sauce — it is a tradition. There are seven canonical Oaxacan moles, each a distinct dish:

Mole negro: The darkest, most complex. Made from charred (blackened) chiles, chocolate, tomatoes, spices, and dozens of other ingredients. The preparation takes three days. The result is an entirely savory, deeply complex sauce that tastes like nothing else. Enrique Olvera's version at Pujol, prepared from a continuously maintained mother mole updated daily, is the most famous version in Mexico City.

Mole verde (pipián): Made from ground pumpkin seeds, tomatillos, and fresh herbs. Brighter and fresher than negro.

Mole coloradito: A red mole — tomatoes, ancho and mulato chiles, chocolate, banana, spices. Served over chicken in Oaxacan restaurants.

The best place to eat all seven moles is Oaxaca city — specifically at Casa Oaxaca or any of the markets surrounding the Mercado 20 de Noviembre.

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Oaxaca: The Food Capital

Oaxaca state, in southern Mexico, is considered Mexico's finest food region. Beyond mole:

Tlayuda: A large, partially dried tortilla topped with black bean paste, string cheese (quesillo), tasajo (dried meat), and chapulines (toasted grasshoppers). The classic street food of Oaxaca.

Chapulines: Toasted grasshoppers seasoned with lime and chili. A high-protein, sustainable snack eaten here since pre-Columbian times. They taste like crispy, spiced popcorn.

Mezcal: Oaxaca produces 80% of Mexico's mezcal (as opposed to Jalisco's tequila). Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal comes from this region. A guided mezcal tour through the villages of Mitla and Tlacolula includes visiting the palenques (mezcal distilleries) where families still use stone tahona wheels and clay pot stills.

Chocolate: Oaxacan chocolate is thick, coarse, and mixed with cinnamon and almonds into a drinking chocolate (chocolate caliente) that has nothing to do with the Western hot chocolate tradition. Mayordomo and Guelaguetza chocolate shops on the main market street.

Street Food Safety in Mexico

Eat where locals eat: High turnover, fresh ingredients, genuine price points. If the tacos cost 60 pesos each and have an English menu, you are paying tourist premium for average quality.

Water: Drink only bottled water or agua de garrafón (purified water). Aguas frescas (fresh fruit waters) from market stalls are made with purified water at reputable stalls — ask.

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