Oaxaca (V) - Cuisines and Colors, Mexico (January 2024)

Oaxaca is famous for its food. It is not just in the city or in the region, but it is famous throughout Mexico. Even in Mexico City, we found a lot of restaurants hanging placards saying "We sell Oaxacan Food." 

We tried to eat many types of Oaxacan dishes, but of course, we could not taste all types. 

The most famous of Oaxacan cuisines is Moles. There are seven types of moles: i.e. Negro (black and the most popular), Rojo (red), Colorado (dark red), Verde (green), Amarillo (yellow), Mancahmantel, and Chichilo. We tasted five of them. It had a little sweet taste to me.

Another signature Oaxacan food is Mezcal, a hard liquor made of agave. Oaxaca is famous for producing qiality mezcal. People easily get confused between mezcal and tequila. Mezcal represents all hard liquor made of all kinds of agave. Tequila is made only of blue agave produced in five states including Jalisco and Michoacan. We signed up for two different day trips and both of them included Mezcal Tasting.

Another drink well-known in Oaxaca is Tejate.  It is a non-alcoholic maize and cacao beverage traditionally made in Oaxaca. It originates from pre-Hispanic times and is very popular among the Mixtec and Zapotec peoples. We did not get to experience it. 

I do not remember this place, but the first restaurant where we had our first breakfast was quite pleasant and the food was delicious. 

Another restaurant where we had breakfast was Tierra del Sol. This roof-top restaurant was a bit disappointing primarily because of our high expectations. The food was okay but the service and ambiance were good.

Ancestral Cocina Tradicional is famous as a place where you can taste all seven moles plus mezcal, according to internet information. But, we ended up ordering our own A La Carte dishes. Their presentation was beautiful and the food was pretty good. The ambiance was pleasant. 

Obviously, we did not experience enough Oaxacan food, but we were able to have a good taste of it. - Jeffrey