Good food is easy to find in Tepoztlán, Mexico, located just a couple of hours south of Mexico City on the highway to Acapulco. There is a generous variety of restaurants catering to tourists and weekend visitors. Local food focuses on rolled tortilla sandwiches with pork, chicken, cheese or vegetables. Hot peppers are available if you like. Grilled meat dishes and traditional Nahua-style meals are also plentiful, but pizzas and burgers are rare. The local dishes are considerable, abundant and tasty. The streets in the central area of the city and the colorful and exotic market located behind the main square (also called Zócalo), are full of select places to dine on any budget. Here are a few to try to get you started:
Xochipilli Vegetarian Restaurant located at Ave. Revolución No. 10
A beautifully decorated place with tempting meatless specialties. It’s a bit on the “touristy” side, but the service is good and the menu is varied enough to be a worthwhile stop on your agenda. Prices for local delicacies range from 20 pesos to around 50 pesos for a more substantial fare.
Los Colorines Restaurant located at Tepozteco No. 13
A Tepoztlán landmark with its bright pink exterior that is hard to miss. It is decorated in a Mexican colonial style and has a menu of typical Mexican dishes. Blue corn tortillas are a specialty here and make their enchiladas interesting to look at and taste like. Prices are moderate for most entrees, ranging from 30 to 50 pesos for most. If you are a chocolate lover try the “Chicken in mole sauce” or chicken in mole sauce. Chocolate is an important ingredient in mole sauce. This dish is popular throughout central and southern Mexico all the way to the Yucatan.
In the market
Tepoztlán’s most unique food can be sampled in the spacious Central Market located immediately behind the Zócalo (main square). As well as the usual vegetable, meat and poultry stalls, there are family stalls serving dishes you’ll have to see and taste to believe they’re hanging from one doorway to the next. The food at all of them looked good, but of the several tried, here are two we’d recommend to start with:
Mexican Snacks Irma – Edith located in the Central Market of Tepoztlán:
You’ll hardly know where to start with the multitude of “Quesadillas” served here. These are hot tortilla sandwiches heated with the ingredients of your choice, alone or mixed, inside. They cost from 5 to 12 pesos each (:50 cents to $1.20 cents) and are simply wonderful. Fillings include cheese, squash blossom (it’s a bright red flower whose blossoms are cooked and eaten!), sausage potatoes, mushrooms, nopales (these are a type of cactus commonly known as nopales in the southwestern US). USA), chicharrón (fried pork skin) and tinga – a mixture of shredded chicken, peppers and spices. The very dark looking tortillas are made with blue corn, a regional specialty of Mexico.
The tacos (forget Taco Bell forever) are served with thinly sliced fried beef, sour cream, and spices and are called “Tacos de Cecina.” If you don’t want yours, I’ll take them! How about washing it all down with an Ameyal tropical fruit drink? There are kiwi, tamarind, Jamaica (a drink made from dried hibiscus flowers that is popular in the West Indies), tangerine, and peach, called durazno in Spanish and considered an exotic fruit in Mexico.
Doña Lucia’s located in the Central Market of Tepoztlán:
Here you will be hammered even more by flavors, aromas, images and sounds that will indelibly mark your senses. Start with Cecino de Yecappistla: blue corn tortilla chips, thinly sliced fried beef, locally produced cheese and spices. Just the enticing aroma will drive you crazy. How about the triangular “Itacates”, a cake that is served as a kind of sandwich with melted cheese? Don’t get away without trying at least one “Flor de Chompancle” quesadilla, also called “Flor de Colorines” by some locals. While you’re at it, you can snack on some “Chapulines” (they’re fried grasshoppers), they’re offered for free. Don’t cower on us now! Proof. I absolutely guarantee you: you will never forget the experience.
A mystical place in itself, Tepoztlán is home to dozens of artists, poets, writers, and mystics. There are also frequent sightings of UFOs (called UFOs in Spanish) in the area. Several notable cathedrals adorn the city. The most prominent of these is the Ex-Dominican Convent of the Nativity which also has a museum on the premises. The side streets are steep and tend to go up, especially to the west of the main square. The sheer thousand-foot cliffs that border the city to the north are an astonishing sight. But don’t just take our word for it. Come see for yourself.