MEXICO
Oaxaca City 2023 - Day 5
Last day in Oaxaca! But don’t you worry, we still managed to eat ourselves into a coma. Yet another early day (Justin is likely regretting let me plan so much for this trip) as our plan was to meet our tour guide at 9 AM. We did the Club Tengo Hambre tour called “Oaxaca Street Food Essentials.”
For some reason we thought it’d be a good idea to have coffee and breakfast first at Oaxaca En Una Taza and you’re probably wondering how we got to day five of this trip still thinking we’d need to eat anything before doing anything!
So we met Valeria, our guide. It turned out only we signed up for this day so we got a private tour! Valeria was an incredible guide and we had a great day with her.
We started at street stalls like Empanadas by Carmen (which incidentally we went to yesterday). Some of these street vendors had been selling food there for 50 years and were run by multiple generations.
We could see the food being prepared before our eyes.
Of course after stall 3 we were getting pretty full and Valeria had to emphasize that two people humanly could not finish all the food we were going to try today. It pained my heart to have to dispose of so much delicious food. I grew up in a “finish everything on your plate” type of family!
We strolled from stall to stall then move along to exploring markets. We got some of the best tamales of my life, tried black mole paste, and nibbled on some more Oaxacan appetizers.
Another stop was a chocolatier where we tried some chocolates and hot chocolate, Oaxacan style. Another drink famous in Oaxaca is called “tehate”. It’s an ancient beverage made from corn, fermented cacao beans, fruit pit, dried flowers, and in this case, literal ash.
I know that looks and maybe sounds kind of gross but it’s actually really light and refreshing. The creamy blobs that float on top are also fine to drink although if you have texture aversions they might be weird for you.
I won’t spoil the whole tour but those were the highlights. It was great! Do come hungry, do wear sunscreen as you walk around outside quite a bit. And if you have lingering questions about the history of the city or why certain foods are made a certain way, now was the time to ask! We got some great insight into how Oaxaca became so popular as a tourist destination.
We took the rest of the afternoon to rest and digest because we once again FOOLISHLY made a 6 PM dinner reservation. We headed over to Los Danzantes for our final dinner. It is a gorgeous space and our dinner was divine! But yes we ate way too much today and it became hard to enjoy everything.
I got the chicken soup:
And the chicken breast with red mole:
We also had mezcal cocktails that were wonderful and the mole sampler which was way too much food for two people.
So that was Oaxaca City 2023! I hope to return again soon to taste and see all the other things I was recommended. I also feel we could’ve done more touring related to mezcal. Let me know if there’s anything you suggest!