From Dave Cook’s long-running Eating In Translation: what barbacoa tacos look like en el otro lado. Check out the flower oilcloth! Look at that salsa caddy!
Yep, that’s the place that was on Chef’s Table! Who else cried buckets during this episode?
A Typical Coastal Yucatan Village Market
Where I’m living, the daily market borders the central plaza. With only 3 vendors selling food, the market offers a wonderful introduction to local, seasonal cooking in this part of the world. It is spacious & unhurried. There’s plenty of time to ask questions, and share recipes.
My haul this morning includes aromatic sour oranges, tiny plum tomatoes, fresh chaya greens, 2 kinds of chiles, juicy mangos, fresh cilantro, mint & chives, and a fat papaya. Today I didn’t wake up early enough for fresh pork.
After my shopping, I went across the street to the best loncheria of the 6 on the plaza for an empanada and a salbute, both garnished with cabbage salad, fried tomato sauce, & a pureed habanero chile salsa
Custom explorations of the Yucatan coast!
The coastal villages lining the Gulf of Mexico in Yucatan state possess a sleepy, timeless vibe. Arriving at the wrong time, it may seem everyone has deserted this dusty paradise. Other times will reveal a vibrant community of fisherman and families, bustling with activity between the pier & the plaza. Looks can be deceiving for any traveler, but especially here in the hot Yucatan.
Constant sea breezes take their toll on buildings, signs, and furniture. Locals are accepting of the slow deterioration. They know where & when to eat & shop. Where to find the most delicious ceviche when the octopus is abundant. Village residents know what time the wood-fired ovens cool & the bakers put out crusty pan frances. Home cooks know that the butcher rises before dawn to harvest only 2 pigs each day, and shoppers must make their purchase well before 9 am.
Send a whats app by clicking on the icon on the lower-left corner or a send me a message for pricing & availability!
Here’s what our tour looks like:
michelada beer cocktail 
how salt is harvested 
laguna rosada 
beachside eating 
handmade sorbets 
botanas at a cantina 
fishing village 
salbute y empanada 
BEACH TOWN FOOD TOUR (3 hours)
Our first stop will be Chicxulub Puerto, a small fishing village east of Progreso. We will visit the tiny Municipal Market, to learn about coastal Yucatan’s cuisine & ingredients. Then we will walk across the street to a tiny loncheria selling incredible empanadas, panuchos & salbutes. We will hit up a roadside coconut stand to fuel ourselves for the next leg of our journey.
Then we will travel 30 minutes by car to visit an active Mayan salt-making operation at the picturesque Laguna Rosada. We can see how salt is extracted manually, in a method virtually unchanged in 1300 years, & talk with a few of the 50 people who have the skills to extract it. A salty mudbath & the opportunity to take incredible photos are offered at no extra charge.
This stop will be followed by a quick tour of a nearby archeological zone, that a served as a local business center for traders who traveled to the region to purchase salt starting in the Late Preclassic period (100 BC-250 AD). The combination of the salt-making center side-by-side with the ruins really give you a perspective on Mayan life over the past millennium.
We will return to Chicxulub to take a short walk around town to enjoy some swimming, cold beers, a ceviche tasting & tropical fruit sorbet, before heading back to Progreso (15 min by car.)
BEACH TOWN FOOD TOUR (full day)
Our first stop will be the historic shipping port of Progreso. We will visit the 90-year-old Municipal Market, to learn about coastal Yucatan’s cuisine & ingredients. We will share a typical local breakfast, Lechon (roasted pork on french bread) from a restaurant opened in 1937. Lechon is traditionally paired with Coca-Cola, but we will try several tropical fruit juices and agua frescas instead.
Then we will travel 40 minutes by car to visit an active Mayan salt-making operation at the picturesque Laguna Rosada. We can see how salt is extracted manually, in a method virtually unchanged in 1300 years, & talk with a few of the 50 people who have the skills to extract it. A salty mudbath & the opportunity to take incredible photos are offered at no extra charge.
This stop will be followed by a quick tour of a nearby archeological zone, that a served as a local business center for traders who traveled to the region to purchase salt starting in the Late Preclassic period (100 BC-250 AD). The combination of the salt-making center side-by-side with the ruins really give you a perspective on Mayan life over the past millennium.
Then we will have lunch across the street from the beach at a family-owned seafood restaurant in Telchac Puerto. Cooling off, hydrating with ice-cold beers, and swimming in the sea will be on our agenda for the next couple of hours. We will sample ceviche & choose from a plethora of fresh seafood. Before we drive back west, we will visit a typical sweet shop that sells the most amazing cheesecake I have ever tasted!
Our last stop will be in Chicxulub Puerto, a fishing village located 30 minutes away. We will drink fresh coconuts & take a short walk around town to enjoy tropical fruit sorbet & sunset on the pier before heading back to Progreso (15 min by car.)
Send a whats app by clicking on the icon on the lower-left corner or a send me a message for pricing & availability!
Salbute y Empanada
Salbute (a fried corn tortilla) topped with relleno negro (turkey and hard-boiled egg cooked in a charred chile sauce), an empanada (turnover made of masa) filled with carne molida (ground pork) served with shredded cabbage salad, habanero salsa, and fried tomato sauce (not shown). This is one of my favorite A.M. spots. They usually run out of food around noon.
Can Oreo cookies be sustainable?
We are seeing intense pressure on food companies to adopt more sustainable supply-chain and production practices. But can an ultra-processed food ever be sustainably produced? Or, is a sustainabl…
Source: Can Oreo cookies be sustainable?
Merida Market Tours
Come with me on a personalized market tour of Merida. I love the buzzing energy of the market, witnessing the tapestry of relationships built over generations of merchant-vendor exchanges, and unearthing the best local & seasonal ingredients. My trips are comfortable, tailored to what you most want to experience. If you don’t care for the sights & smells of fresh meat or live animals, we can avoid those sections. If you want to eat the absolute best of the market food, we can chow down. If you are interested in seeing a bit of living history, that is guaranteed!
Here are a couple of ideas:
- stock up on colorful shopping bags
- visit indigenous fruit & flower vendors. Purchase homemade drinking chocolate, spice blends, melipona honey, hot sauces, specialty jams, recados, and natural candies
- get a basic overview of local handcrafts- embroidered clothing, woven hammocks & guayaberas
- explore the bustling fruit & vegetable market
- sample castacan- sliced, deep fried pork belly with the skin left attached
- taste small batch coconut sorbet
- eat indigenous foods that are relatively unchanged in hundreds of years
- assemble a picnic lunch or ingredients for a special meal
Making Mole from the Market
I love taking advantage of all the small production salsas moles offered in Mexican markets. You can usually find mole pastes- solids sold in ceramic cazuelas or plastic buckets- or mole en polvo (powdered). Ask for 1/2 kilo, and it will be given to you in a plastic bag- sometimes double bagged. 1/2 kilo is usually a good amount for 4-6 people. I LOVE leftover mole to serve over rice or as enchiladas!
Be careful where you store it. I have had oily Mole de Xico stain the contents of my suitcase through 3 layers of bags! Now I store my plastic bags of mole in a glass jar or plastic tub. A friend recently sent me a kilo of mole from Puebla VACUUM SEALED. That is just above & beyond & I love it!
Mole en Polvo generally needs to be fried in lard or oil (try coconut oil) and then reconstituted with chicken broth. Mole en Pasta doesn’t need to be fried, you can just start adding broth & stirring it until you have dissolved all the chunks. The sauce will thicken when it starts cooling.
mole poblano en polvo 
this mole has a special touch: candied sesame seeds! 
mole with chicken broth 
mole poblano con arroz y platano
Yucatecan Spices at the Progreso Market
A Cheap Lunch in Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen is one of the fastest-growing cities in Latin America. It’s absolutely bursting at the seams & it’s not pretty. Rampant over-tourism, unchecked development plus the latest round of violence & sargassum make it one of the last go-to places on any Mexico Lover’s list. However, you may end up there, waiting for the ferry to Cozumel, celebrating your cousin’s bachelorette or someone’s birthday. So I’ll share my cheap & decent lunch recommendation with you: Asadeo El Pollo
Onion, Tanned is an awkward translation for one of the most delicious condiments found on tables in Yucatan peninsula, Cebollas Curtidas. I make them all the time. chopping & slicing the onion as I like, then covering them with naranja agria, lime juice, or any fruit vinegar. Add salt & pepper, and some sliced habanero if you like it hot. These onions brighten up any dish, and help cut the fat in lechon, castacan or cochinita tacos & tortas.
Asadero el Pollo (gmaps)
20 Avenida Norte 652, Centro, 77710 Playa del Carmen, Q.R.
Open from 10am to 6pm 7 days a week
Old School Cantina Crawl in Merida
Join us for a cantina crawl of the old-school cantinas of Merida! Find some new favorites!
Merida has a treasure trove of classic cantinas featuring local drinking culture & flavors. Residents & visitors find that seeking the shelter of a cantina during the heat of the day makes the heat tolerable. A typical cantina offers plentiful cold beer, basic mixed drinks, and on-alcoholic limeades & soft drinks- each round is accompanied by botanas, snacks & small plates. Botanas are a great way to sample local dishes!
MANY cantinas in Merida still cater exclusively to men. Some of these establishments are known as bares de ficheras, referring to the fiches (tokens) collected by the women in exchange for a dance. Women present are employed by the cantina to encourage men to keep drinking.
What our cantina crawl looks like:
botanas! 
ice-cold draft beer 
*Teach’s cart* 
Papa Chivo: the patron of bartenders 
old-school cantina
enjoying a cold one with some botanas 
pasta tiles are everything! 
classic cantina doors 
*la cuenta* 
since 1956 
mural of famous yucatecos 
*beer helps you have sexual relations!*
Our customizable cantina tour can be combined with markets, street food, or shopping. We recommend visiting 3 or 4 cantinas in 3 or 4 hours to get a sense of the experience. Bring coins for the rockola!
MERIDA OLD-SCHOOL CANTINA CRAWL (4 hours)
We’ll pick you up at high noon & visit 3 cantinas in central Merida for 2 beers & accompanying botanas!