Well, this was one of those trips, and after a good week with colleagues old and new, I flew Friday early afternoon down to Oaxaca City - not sure what to expect. It's tough really because so many people have said so many great things about Oaxaca, particularly on the food. Oh the food. It's ridiculous how well known this random city in Mexico is outside of Mexico, mainly because it is known as that culinary capital. I heard this line repeated so much, there was definite a risk that it would become too high of expectations.
As I wrote this after the weekend is over, sitting in 30-degree, snow-on-the-ground Chicago, I can luckily say that it was not. Oaxaca met, if not exceeded, those self-same expectations. The food was incredible, but honestly as much as that was the city itself, the wonderful city center, the great ruins and sites up in teh hills surrounding it, and the people, a combination of other tourists and locals that are seemingly super happy to be known for being such a well-reputed tourist hotspot.
First thing to confirm, the place is safe. Even for someone who thinks the talk of danger in Mexico is generally a bit overstated for tourists, Oaxaca is another level. You can roam anywhere in teh large 20x15 city center old town at 2am and feel at peace. Mainly because many of those blocks have a lot of other people still mingling from bar to dance hall to taco stand to hamburguesa stand. And the other roads, which are quiet, are serene and fully, safely at peace.
Anyway, let's get to the good stuff - Oaxaca is stunning. In a valley between mountains on all sides (which is, quietly, like 90% of Mexico), the views around the city are amazing, with these backdrops of peaks. Then you have that city center, with just gorgeous street after gorgeous street of pastel colored houses and stores and restaurants and coffee shops, and bars and more. Most of these are quite deep, with each block being basically a square, and all sides somewhat meeting in the middle. So many of them have open terraces in the back or middle. These are just lovely spaces integrated so well with the land.
Then let's get to the sites that aren't food - so we have some really nice, small museums (small because basically all buildings are just portions of these blocks) showcasing old pre-columbian artifacts, textiles, art and so much more. The pre-columbian one is the best, all of it being the personal collection of an old Mexican historian. There is one large museum, called the "Cultures of Oaxaca" which is a large, sprawling testament to Mexico from the 700 BC days through past Mexican Independence. It is only this big because it is built into the abbey and cloister around the main Cathedral, with incredible views of Oaxaca, the mountains and the large, cactusified Botanical Gardens.
And then teh shopping is great, the artifacts, most of which being these colorful, painted statues of animals that are vibrant and so purely Mexican. So much of Oaxaca is just a place where it is incredible to spend time. Many of the streets are pedestrian only for large stretches of the day, with these beautiful little flags and streamers hanging above you for whole stretches of blocks. There was one main drag of three straight blocks with these and large statues (the gift kind, but blow up to 15 feet tall). There was so much life - it helps that this was still close enough to Dia De Los Muertos that imagery, pageantry and so much decoration was still abound.
Ok, enough dancing around, let's get to the damn food. I arrived Friday evening, and my first thing I ingested was actually a flat white from the coffeeshop that was at the front of my AirBNB (way in the back enar the open terrace - at first strange, but became somewhat normal when I realized how these things work. That flat white was great - coffee is also great down here.
The first real food was at Levadura Del Ollo, a really well reputed (and now Michelin starred) restaurant serving classic old Oaxacan and ancestral cuisine, many of which either cooked in, smoked in or just served in really incredible clay dishes. the food was magical, from the best tamale I've ever had (smoked in one), to a great true classic empanada with the most brilliant mole negro, to a finale of confit pork rib. It was all impeccable, presented brilliantly and with so much care. It earns its Michelin Star.
As did my last meal in Oaxaca, at Los Danzantes - also Michelin starred, if a bit more even well reputed. It was hosed fully in an open terrace at the middle of a block, in just a perfectly serene, stone setting. The food was excellent as well, a bit more modernist, more tweezery than Levadura. If anything, I liked Levaduro a bit more, but that doesn't mean Los Danzantes wasn't incredible. My main of another pork rib, but this with a burracha sauce (who knows, it's great!) was quite good, but the star was a roasted, glazed earthy carrots starter served over a pink mole. This was a mindblowing dish. Less mindblowing, but still great, was their mole sampler of five diferent moles served with delectable little plaintain balls. Quite filling (this is where it hurst when you're dining alone) but still excellent.
I did have some lowkey meals as well. Firstly was my ingestion of various tacos, the best place being a fairly oddly named taco stand/cart that was on the way from the one EDM spot in the city and my AirBNB, so it became my go-to place at 2am, and it was great. The salsas they gave were stunning. My other lowkey meal was at the 20 de Noviembre market, the main food market, where there are about 50 different small restaurants, all serving classical, old-school Oaxacan food. This is the food they talk about when they say Oaxaca is the culinary capital. Sure, the Michelin stuff is great (and neither of the two I went to was all that expensive), but its based off of dozens of these types. The one I went to served a "Classic Oaxaqueno Platter:" This $10 dish was amazing - a perfectly grilled thin piece of steak, another thin piece of pork, a sausage, all of it with a great spicy sauce, then oaxacan stringy cheese, adn finally two moles with tortillas drenched in said mole. This random as place in a food hall had mole that would come close to Pujol.
Ok, and now let's get to the final meal, which was at Crudo - a Japanese spot with Oaxacan ingredients. The chef Ricardo opened it three years ago - got featured on Somebody Feed Phil, and has created somethign amazing, Sitting in the "private room" with seven others, you could easily be in Kyoto. The food was immaculate, the ingredients so Oaxacn, the flavors so Japanese. They also had great sake (including one interesting one from Mexico). One of the more interesting parts was the chef mentioning he didn't really have much Japanese training. He came to the US illegaly and worked first as a dishwasher and then his way up before being deported in 2010, but in the end it was probably the best move. He worked then for a famous Japanese restaurant in Mexico City, and then opened up Crudo.
They've now expanded the restaurant with some really nice decor in larger rooms, serving largely the same type of omakase menu, but not by the main chef. All in all, Crudo was great. Yes, it isn't truly Oaxacan cuisine, but still so true to this country, and the refinement of food as a product in Oaxaca. Just amazing.
Anyway, as I leave Oaxaca, I am so glad I came and more than anything, can't wait until I come back. I can largely probably make two CDMX trips a year to our office there, and I should probably spend a few weekends in CDMX itself (another amazing city, food included). And there are some other places to visit in Mexico, but Oaxaca is high up my revisit list, and I'm already thinking through where it will land on my cities ranking.
