city at night

city at night

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Eating in Roma

In my previous post I mentioned that the neighborhood of Roma Norte is now one of the "in" spots for dining in Mexico City.  I realized that during my first three days here all of the meals that Alejandro and I have had in restaurants have been in Roma. 

I already wrote about the superb meal of "chiles en nogada" that we had at "Angelopolitano" on Saturday night.  The restaurant is located in the northwest corner of Roma Norte on Puebla Street (quite appropriate, since it specializes in the cuisine of the state of Puebla).

On Sunday morning we headed out to find a place for breakfast.  We walked down Roma's main street, Avenida Alvaro Obregón, to go eat at a little restaurant called "Tamales Tamales".  We've eaten there before and really liked their tamales.  We were disappointed to discover that the place had gone out of business.  However we found another place nearby called "Tamales de Roma" where we had a  breakfast of.. (guess what?)...TAMALES! They were very good, although I think that those at the now defunct "Tamales Tamales" were a bit better.


 The tamales come wrapped either in corn husks or banana leaves.
(A side note for my non-Spanish-speaking readers... the singular of "tamales" is not "tamale" but rather "tamal".)

On Sunday evening we went to one of the more upscale restaurants on Avenida Alvaro Obregón, a Spanish restaurant called "Jamón Jamón".  Our meal was good, but not spectacular.  We each had a glass of sangría and a bowl of lentil soup.  We then shared a "ración" (serving) of ham croquettes.  We then ordered a board of Spanish serrano ham and a board of Manchego cheese.


Our bill came to over 700 pesos (around $60 US), which is a rather expensive meal in Mexico.  As I said, the food was good, but for that price I would have hoped for something a bit more memorable.  "Jamón Jamón" did not make it onto our list of restaurants that we visit again and again.

Last night we went to a place that definitely did make it onto our list of favorites... a little spot on Avenida Insurgentes called "La Casa de la Tlayuda".



 A "tlayuda" is a specialty of the Mexican state of Oaxaca.  You might describe it as Oaxaca's version of the pizza.  A large baked corn tortilla is covered with a variety of toppings.

To drink, we ordered Oaxacan hot chocolate.  It was served in bowls as it is in Oaxacan markets.


We both had the soup of the day... "crema de pimienta" (cream of red bell pepper).



We also ordered "pan de muertos", the traditional bread which is made for the Day of the Dead.





And then came our "tlayudas".  We had a table full of food!  Alejandro ordered his "tlayuda" with an extra topping of spicy dried beef, and I ordered an extra topping of chicken with Oaxacan black "mole".


The "tlayudas" here are folded over... I suppose so that there is room on the table!!

 
 Everything was delicious, and our bill for all that food was around $20 US!

After our meal, we posed by the decorations on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant.

 


"La Casa de la Tlayuda"... a highly recommended spot for excellent regional Mexican cuisine!!

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