Journey Jotters

On Wednesday of our trip, our last day in Mexico City, we took a trip to Teotihuacan in the morning. We had pre-arranged a food tour through Tasty Bites ahead of the trip. We chose them as they had a Vegan Street Food tour. And I found an article by a visitor with good reviews. The company ran regular tours from Tuesday to Saturday starting at 130 pm and private tours were scheduled between 130 pm and 4 pm. We scheduled ours for Wednesday as we thought we would finish the Teotihuacan tour by then.

We paid $45 per person for the tour. We didn’t have to print out any confirmation but had to show the tickets on our phones. We were supposed to meet our guide 15 mins ahead of the start of the tour, around 115 pm. The meeting point was not far from our Airbnb in Roma Norte.

As it turns out, we started late for Teotihuacan and the Uber ride back to Roma Norte took over an hour. Robert, the owner at Tasty Bites, had sent us an email that Victor would be our food tour guide and details on how to contact him. I emailed Robert to see if we could change to a later tour or to a private one. But they did not have openings either way. If we missed the start of the tour, we would have to join the group at the second point on the tour.

As luck would have it,  we made it to the tour just a couple of minutes late. Victor had picked up the other guest, a young adult who was visiting Mexico City with her family, but being vegan had decided to do this tour. All six of us walked all over the Roma Norte area for the next 2 hours. The weather was just perfect for an afternoon stroll and Victor kept us busy with stories about life in the city. Originally from NJ, he had decided to move to Mexico City, where his family originates from. He was a chef by trade and was working as a consultant in the food industry and leading tours as well.

Our first stop was at La Pitahaya. We sat outside at the tables sipping on the hibiscus flavored agua fresca with ginger and cinnamon. It was paired with a tortilla made from beets, amaranth, and flaxseed with a potato filling. It looked and tasted awesome! Especially after the long trip to Teotihuacan and back!

As we ate, we learned more about Victor, his experience obtaining a driver’s license in Mexico City, and learning to drive in the crazy traffic. We talked about ourselves and the other guest talked about how she had become a vegan and was enjoying it.

Our walk to the next point was pleasant. The traffic at that time was not overly much. The route we took had sufficient trees and provided enough shade. And the walk provided enough of a stimulus to taste and drink the next set of delights.

At the next stop, Forever Vegano, we again chose to sit outside enjoying the cool air. This time, Victor ordered another drink, this time, a tropical coconut flavor with two tacos. The tacos were on whole wheat with breaded and fried cauliflower with chipotle mayo, avocado, purple cabbage and pico de gallo. The ingredients were fresh and just sufficient to saturate the palate without overloading.

We then walked to a different portion of the neighborhood, where the streets became busier and soon we were at a street food stand called Pan d’Monium. It’s a food stall offering vegan foods like burgers, pizza, hot dogs and fries. And was quite popular with the local crowd. We ate half a burger each and the patty looked like a slice of real meat but tasted very good. By now, we were full, having quenched our thirst and assuaged our hunger. But we walked on to the last stop, which was a torta and vegan taco place called Gatorta. Our tour companion had heard a lot about this place and was very eager to try it.

At Gatorta, we enjoyed a Milanesa torta or sandwich. Made from seitan, it was loaded with tomato, lettuce, avocado, and onion. Although we had walked quite a bit, we were just not hungry enough to do justice to this torta. We did, however, share one of the brownies that they are famous for.

We had spent two hours walking all over the neighborhood and were not even aware of it. Victor was a pleasant tour guide and kept us entertained all the time. Our tour companion shared some stories from prior trips to Mexico City. The terrain was easy to navigate and did not require any extra effort on our part. We were just thrilled to be able to try a section of creative Mexican cuisine.

On the whole, we had a great time on the tour.

Pro-tips:

If you are planning to go on a food tour, I would recommend:

• booking the tour ahead of time.
• working up an appetite.
• wearing comfortable shoes and clothing for the walk.
• our companion brought along her camera to take photos of all the foods we tasted as she is a foodie. We stuck with our smartphone cameras.