Mexico 2023: Thankful for Thanksgiving in Mexico City (and the nice Friday after it, too)

Thursday morning - THANKSGIVING! - we started the day out by bouncing back to the Historic Center to take care of a few things we weren’t able to do the night before — churros at El Moro and tacos at Los Cocuyos!

Since my last visit a year and half before, Los Cocuyos had moved down the street to the space that used to be a Huequito and now offers traditional stand-style taco ordering and eating as well as seating with menus. It’s a big win to get to read the translated list of meats, even if I know I’m going to be loading up on suadero and campechano tacos. And also, a new taqueria called “Los Originales” has opened in the old Cocuyos space. Interesting. Very interesting.

To make the trip real special, we grabbed an uber to south of the south of the city for a visit to canals of Xochimilco. Not exactly what my Mom and Dad saw on Somebody Feed Phil, but a fun little excursion. I had visited once on my mission so it was nice to be back and remember what it was all about. I think it’s a lot funner if you’re with a ton of people and committed to a long afternoon of day drinking—though the guy who seemed to be having the most fun that day was an Australian bloke flowing solo.

After that we Ubered up to lovely Coyoacan for lunch at the famed (and well known to tourists) Tostadas Coyoacan, Christmas shopping, chapel visiting, walking around, and wall-posing.

Then we Ubered back to our place with a really great, talkative driver who may or may not have actually thought that Liz was my daughter? After a little resting at the crib, Liz and I visited La Increible bookstore and Taqueria La Hortaliza. La Hortaliza is now Netflix famous, so by the time our our mid-afternoon visit, they were fresh out of just about everything. The taquero made us beef, onion and potato tacos as that’s what he was snacking on and it was an one-course absolute Jiro Dreams of Sushi (but of tacos) experience. Decades and decades of experience = just a simple little bite turned out soooo good and the conversation was informal but lovely. Great time. Great, great time.

As evening fell, we walked over to Roma Norte for a Thanksgiving blow out meal at Rosetta. So lovely in there, but I gave up on taking pictures pretty quickly on account of the darkness.

FRIDAY! We got up and walked back to Roma Norte for breakfast at Panaderia Rosetta and learned that if you get there after 8 you’re going to have a wait. But then also a great breakfast. What a nice almost last meal of the trip.

Then we walked back through Roma to the west side of Condesa and did a bit of the Ave Amsterdam loop and crossed Parque Mexico. I wound up getting a surprise final taco from Tacos Hola Guero, a famous guisado spot. My chorizo and potato taco, it was such a pure little bit of heaven. Thank you, family, for letting me have one more taco. No, not letting, for encouraging me to! You help me achieve all my dreams.

Then, that bittersweet thing where you pack up your Air BnB. We were out of there with a little time to spare so we did a little more souvenir shopping in the neighborhood and I got an absolute terrible lime ice from famous Niveria Roxy. Don’t order lime! Order something nice, like coconut or strawberry.

And then, back to the airport, back into the air (look carefully at the left side middle of that second photo, can you see the pyramids?) and back to Chicago. Just. Like. That!

SATURDAY We had Sweetgreen (there’s a Sweetgreen in Oak Park, how crazy is that?) and then Liz and I headed back to Ohio. How Thankful I am I got to spend Thanksgiving in Mexico with Liz and Mom and Dad. How Thankful I am that Mexico is so wonderful and they are so wonderful, too. How Thankful I am that God and Gordon B Hinckley sent me on a mission to Mexico City and now I get to love it forever. How Thankful I am I got to dig a little deeper into my mission haunts with my folks there to see where I had been sending my letters from. Let’s all do it again! Soon!

Mexico 2023: Quite the Wednesday in Mexico City

Wednesday I woke up plenty early because I was a man on a mission. The mission? Get my family chilaquiles tortas for breakfast. The line at La Esquina de Chilaquil gets awful long so I decided to get there awful early. The reward? A nice walk through Condesa as it was waking up and being first in line (and the only person there) for quite a while.

These are pictures from my walk over and the absolutely empty torta stand set up.

Dad walked down to join me shortly before the stand opened up and was there to catch all the excitement as they began slinging sandwiches stuffed with soft, salsa’d tortilla chips and chicken milanesas.

And then we walked on back to the house and enjoyed breakfast with everyone. We also picked up some water. Look at this great photo of Dad, the provider, holding the water!

Well fed, it was time to get our day going! We walked over to Chapultepec Park, passing Thanksgiving decorations and other neat stuff along the way.

Chapultepec Park Visit Part 1: Getting to Chapultepec Castle — this means entering the park, walking through some of the park, seeing a bear, seeing a beautiful squirrel, and hiking up the hill to the castle.

Chapultepec Park Visit Part 2: I hadn’t been to the castle in about 6 years and I think a visit to Chapultepec Castle every 6 years is a good amount to do it. It’s cool! There’s really lots to see and discover.

C.P. Visit Part 3: Walking down the hill, through more of the park, and over to the zoo. Saw another beautiful squirrel, got a little panda preview and saw other neat stuff.

C.P. Visit Part 4 — The Zoo! We were there just to see the panda, but we of course saw a beautiful leopard and the tiger on the way. Since my last visit to the park one of their pandas died so just one is left now. Sad. And when we got there the panda wasn’t out in her enclosure! Sadder! We could tell she was being observed in her private space but we couldn’t get over there. It was pretty sad. Or just disappointing. We almost left but Liz was like “Let’s go back and check one more time!” And guess what…a few minutes later the panda came out! She ate a little, we saw her poop, and then she came RIGHT over by the window and chomped on an apple just a few feet from us. It was incredible! In my 4 visits I had never before seen her be any closer than the middle of the enclosure but this time she was just right there right by us! And you know what we learned? Panda ears are real real cute and pandas eat apples real real slow.

Ok and after that we were done with Chapultepec Park! We walked on out and back to Condesa for two lunches — one at Tacos Don Juan and another at El Pescadito across the street. Both were so great and at Don Juan not only did we get tacos but a hamburger as well because I LoVE Mexico City hamburgers!

From there — back to the Air BnB, a little break, and then an Uber over to Polanco for museum time.

In Polanco we dropped Mom and Dad off at the Museo Soumaya (the fun is the first time we went to the Soumaya back in 2017, Mom and I were like “oh Dad would love this” so it was a little bit of a little dream come true to get him over to it) while Liz and I checked out an anniversary show at the Museo Jumex across the way. The show was curated by the head of the New Museum in New York (I used to live there) and it definitely had big New Museum vibes (I know from when I lived there).

Then we went over to the Soumaya and met up with Mom and wound up going to show her the giant grocery door across the street before coming back to find Dad.

Then. Oh boy. We got an Uber to take us from Polanco to the Centro to grab dinner and maybe dessert, too, before our Ballet Folklorico appointment BUT, WOW!, the traffic!! Easily an hour and a half in bumper to bumper rainy traffic all the way over. It was a trying experience. BUT it lead us to a McDonalds dinner in a shopping center. That’s pretty nice!

Rejuvenated by our meal, we went over to the Palacio de Bellas Artes for that evening’s performance of the famous Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. And guess what? It was thrillingly stupendous! You really owe it to yourself to see the BF in DF someday! I would go again at the drop of a hat dance.

From there? A much easier Uber ride home in the rain and right to bed with all of us, a nice big Thanksgiving day waiting for us in the morning.

Just one more Mexico City post after this, I promise!

Mexico 2023: a Monday Afternoon and all of a Tuesday in Mexico City

From a chapel to a chapel! The drive back to the city was not swift, we endured a real dog of a traffic jam that had us editing our plans BUT one thing we did not edit was a little visit to Tlalnepantla, the final area of my mission. Unlike San Juan del Río, I recognized a lot of Tlalnepantla and I did know how to get to my apartment. I almost didn’t need a map driving around there, except new overpasses had been built, so I actually needed a map very much. Anyway. First stop, our chapel. Isn’t it good looking? I did some good work in Tlalnepantla, finally kind of decent at my Spanish, finally kind of decent at being a missionary, had a lot of friends in the ward, worked with some great missionaries, met a lot of characters and good people. Hooray for Tlalnepantla!

And here’s where I lived back then. Or, actually, I didn’t live in one of these buildings. But I lived in a building exactly like them on the other side of those ones. I was a little turned around when I got to the old complex and was like “That’s definitely the building! No, wait, that one, that one’s definitely it!” (gets back into car) “Oh wait no actually it was that one!” If you’ve read the story of my speedy departure from Mexico, just imagine me being lowered down from the roof into one of those fourth floor windows. It was really something!

From there we drove to our Air BnB in Condesa and the intensity did not let up! Boy was I glad to pull into our building’s parking lot. And boy was I glad our building had a parking lot! Our Air BnB abounded in quirks but also was very comfortable and a nice size and perfect for our trip.

Ok, now. Time to get down to business! Walked through Condesa right on over to an Orinoco to share the magic with Mom and Dad. And, as always, Orinoco delivered (to our table [although it took a while]). Just when you think to yourself “maybe Orinoco isn’t so magical? maybe I’ve been remembering it too fondly?” BOY does it remind you that it is quite the place. What a start to the Mexico City eating!

After returning our rental, we made our way back to Condesa on foot with a few stops along the way. First up: Taqueria Gabriel, which I had stumbled across on Instagram. I ordered lightly, just two tacos: a tripas and a campechano. The tripas was excellent. The campechano nearly knocked me out of my seat. Best taco of the trip (in a trip packed full of great tacos). I look forward greatly to coming back to Taqueria Gabriel and going absolutely buck wild.

From there we walked down Reforma and towards Roma (passing a promising looking taqueria that Liz has since been doing some good internet research on) and getting one more dinner at Tortas al Fuego, which we had visited on our last trip, but back then I didn’t realize it was, what, three stories worth of good taco eating plus a bustling outside stand? When we got home I was awfully worn out but went up on our roof to have a little look at what I could see from there.

TUESDAY: Up and at ‘em! We had things to accomplish and we caught an uber downtown around 8 in the morning. First stop? Breakfast at El Cardenal which was absolutely killer. On our last visit we’d eaten there during the Sunday brunch crush, it’s less than ideal. But on a calm weekday morning? It’s the life! A nearly 4 star experience from service to food to beverages and back.

After breakfast, we enjoyed a bit of a Zocalo/Zocalo area walk around.

And then we took a guided tour of the National Palace and the Diego Rivera murals found therein. First we gathered in a building across from the palace. Then we went into the palace.

Then we made our way through downtown over to our two lunches, with stops at the National Cathedral, Pasteleria Ideal, Blue Tile House, the Postal Palace, and Fine Arts Palace (for buying tickets!) along the way.

Lunch #1: Cochinita Pibil panuchos (which are bean-filled, fried tortillas topped with meat [in this case, the cochinita pibil]) from Tacos de Oro! I’d been meaning to get over here for years and it was so nice to finally get there and find that it was very worth the wait … and from there we walked over to…

El Huequito! Where I consumed one of my favorite things of the trip: An Ice Cold Orange Crush, just when I needed the sugar and the cold the most! From there we went over to the Ciudadela market and, well, walking around downtown Mexico City is taxing. A lot fewer photos were taken. And from there we took a perhaps mildly ill-advised subway ride up to the Basilica of Guadalupe (or I should say up to the walk to the Basilica of Guadalupe) — It all seemed (to some of us) like a good idea at the time, we survived, that’s what matters the most a month later.

From the Basilica we went over to the Mexico City Temple, enjoyed a nice session, Christmas decorations, downtime at the visitors center AND a man asked us to watch his baby while he used the bathroom. Ha!

And for Tuesday night’s grand finale, we had dinner at al pastor wonderland El Vilsito, what a wonderful party that was! (And nearby Tacos Tony looked quite promising itself…next time, Tony!)