2022 Mexico City E-Book

Andrew Delaplaine

• Herausgeber: Gramercy Park Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 43

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Andrew Delaplaine is the ultimate Restaurant Enthusiast.

With decades in the food writing business, he has been everywhere and eaten (almost) everything.

“Unlike the ‘honest’ reviews on sites like Yelp, this writer knows what he’s talking about. He’s a professional,  with decades in the business, not a well-intentioned but clueless amateur.”

= Holly Titler, Los Angeles

“This concise guidebook was exactly what I needed to make the most of my limited time in town.”

= Tanner Davis, Milwaukee

This is another of his books with spot-on reviews of the most exciting restaurants in town. Some will merit only a line or two, just to bring them to your attention. Others deserve a half page or more. 

“The fact that he doesn’t accept free meals in exchange for a good review makes all the difference in his sometimes brutally accurate reviews.”

= Jerry Adams, El Paso

“Exciting” does not necessarily mean expensive. The area’s top spots get the recognition they so richly deserve (and that they so loudly demand), but there are plenty of “sensible alternatives” for those looking for good food handsomely prepared by cooks and chefs who really care what they “plate up” in the kitchen.

For those with a touch of Guy Fieri, Delaplaine ferrets out the best food for those on a budget. That dingy looking dive bar around the corner may serve up one of the juiciest burgers in town, perfect to wash down with a locally brewed craft beer.

Whatever your predilection or taste, cuisine of choice or your budget, you may rely on Andrew Delaplaine not to disappoint.

Delaplaine dines anonymously at the Publisher’s expense. No restaurant listed in this series has paid a penny or given so much as a free meal to be included.

Bon Appétit!

Leseprobe

2022

Mexico City

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The Restaurant Enthusiast’s

Discriminating Guide

Andrew Delaplaine

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Andrew Delaplaine is the Restaurant Enthusiast.

When he’s not playing tennis,

he dines anonymously

at the Publisher’s (considerable) expense.

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Senior Editor – James Cubby

Copyright © by Gramercy Park Press - All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Introduction

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Getting About

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The A to Z Listings

Ridiculously Extravagant

Sensible Alternatives

Quality Bargain Spots

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Nightlife

INTRODUCTION

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I love Mexico City, even though the first time I traveled there, with my mother, we almost brought her back in a box. She had made the mistake of using the ice cubes in her hotel room fridge to make a drink instead of pouring bottled water into the ice trays.

Boom!

You’re sick as a dog.

But that was many years ago. Generally, I’ve had nothing but wonderful times in Mexico City.

When I think about what Mexico City was and how it came to be what it is today, my mind still boggles.

You have to remember that the whole city is built on a drained lake bed. When there was still a lake, around 1325, it was established as the Aztec capital called Tenochititlán. The island in the middle of the lake was reached by way of a series of causeways. This was what Hernan Cortes found when he showed up in 1521. He promptly destroyed it.

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Mexico has a rich and bloody history, not unlike all the other countries in the New World where the indigenous populations where slaughtered or enslaved. (But one has to remember that Cortes didn’t do anything to the Aztecs that the English settlers didn’t do to the Indians.)

The altitude is high, over 7,000 feet, so if you come from a low-lying coastal area, be prepared for some difficulty in breathing. And while the government has made enormous strides in cleaning up the famously polluted air in Mexico City, it’s still pretty awful. You have to pray for good air. But you can never be sure of it.

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There are things about Mexico in general that you want to be aware of if you want to travel wisely—and safely. The State Department says 14 of the 31 states (and Federal District, or Distrito Federal, or D.F., which is Mexico City) have no travel warnings. The others you want to avoid because of the drug-related gang warfare that’s an ongoing reality in Mexico, responsible for ripping the country apart. (Americans are really to blame, since we’re the ones buying all the drugs.)

One of the reasons Mexico City is so much more safe than other parts of the country is that everybody wants to be able to come here and visit it in peace, and this includes a lot of the high-end drug dealers, many of whom have houses and families here. They don’t want to come here and duel it out on the streets the way they do elsewhere.

Of the 20 top foreign locations for Americans, 4 are in Mexico: No. 2 is Cancun, followed by No. 3, Playa del Carmen, Cabo san Lucas / Los Cabos at No. 11 and Puerto Vallarta at No. 15.

One good thing about Mexico City is that it has been sidestepped by the drug cartels so there’s no sense of the overwhelming violence that occurs in other parts of Mexico.

You will find the Distrito Federal (Federal District, another name for the city) to be quite a beautiful, handsomely laid-out city.

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Lay of the Land

At 571 square miles, D.F.—as Mexico City residents, or chilangos, call it—is vast, but visitors gravitate to a few key neighborhoods.

Centro Histórico: Anchored by the Zócalo plaza, the historic center is a mix of monuments and bustling commerce.

Roma: Hipsters, artists, and boutique owners have revived this once-bourgeois neighborhood of Art Nouveau mansions.

Condesa: In Mexico City’s answer to New York’s West Village, shops, restaurants, and apartments radiate out from the Parque México.

Polanco: One of the city’s poshest districts keeps expanding north: “Nuevo Polanco” is being colonized by galleries and shopping malls.

Getting Around Safely: Taxis are plentiful, but you may feel more secure having a private car. From Journey Mexico at www.journeymexico.com

For the latest safety information, go to the U.S. State Department at travel.state.gov.

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CASH & DEBIT CARDS.

Notify the companies whose cards you use that you are going to Mexico. Transactions might be blocked if you don’t. Have them send you alerts or call you if any charge looks suspicious. When using ATMs, try to avoid street side ATMs in favor of ATMS inside a bank or other business.

Have credit card numbers and other information written down in a safe place.

You’ll need cash because a lot of places don’t accept plastic. But get your currency converted before going to Mexico because you’ll stick out as a foreigner by getting it done at the airport when you land. (The rates are high there too.) A lot of currency exchange booths are not in secure areas, so beware.

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YOUR DRESS.