Apologies, I’ve been slacking on the blog. It seems I very much prefer going on adventures to create new blog content over actually writing it down. I’ll do better.
The intent of this post is to convey how incredible of a place Oaxaca is. Shouldn’t be hard to do. The birthplace of mezcal and mole, ‘nuff said. For those who don’t know, Oaxaca (aka Oaxaca City) is located in one of the southernmost states in Mexico, which shares the name Oaxaca and has some incredible food, culture and history. For this part of the adventure, I met up with one of my best friends from Tulane, a legend by the name of Dan Stracco for 2 weeks in Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido. Stracco is a more accomplished world traveler than myself and actually did a similar trip about 6 years ago which started the inspiration for my trip. It was great spending some time with him and he imparted some good travel wisdom which I’m sure will do me well as I continue this adventure.
I really enjoyed spending time just walking around the neighborhoods of Oaxaca and checking out the brightly painted colonial architecture as well as street art around the city. Another thing I loved about Oaxaca was how friendly all people were. Walking around the city people passing would regularly greet you with a “buenos Dias” or “buenos tardes” which was pretty amazing. It was also nice that it wasn’t overrun with tourists like Tulum and Cancun. There were definitely other tourists there, but it felt much more authentic than some of it’s more touristy counterparts.
Oaxaca is also very well known for their art and textiles. Beyond looking at random street art, I really didn’t delve into this much, I was mostly focused on food and mezcal. So let’s get to the good stuff.
I wasn’t a big mezcal guy before coming to Mexico, however now I get it. Mezcal comes from the agave plant, similar to tequila (which is actually a type of mezcal, the more you know). The difference between the 2 comes in how the booze is extracted from the fruit after harvesting. Tequila is made by steaming the agave pina or fruit, whereas the agave is typically cooked in a wood fire pit for Mezcal, which gives it a more smoky flavor. We got the opportunity to do a mezcal tasting, which was a really cool experience. They started it by quizzing us on what flavors we most enjoy (ie. favorite beers, wines, cocktails). From there, our mezcal “barrista” provided us mezcals that matched our preferences. I was absolutely blown away by how much the flavors differed across the various mezcals we tried, from very smoky to very smooth with lots of different flavors in between. The last one I tried was actually distilled with onions, green chiles, salt, oregano and cilantro in it’s last step, which made it taste more like a meal than a drink. Muy bueno.
Last but not least, let’s talk about the food of Oaxaca, which is the best in Mexico. Oaxaca is known for being the home of mole and they have 7 different kinds that accompany various dishes. I didn’t try them all, but I did have several of them, most of which were very tasty although I did have one which pretty much tasted like dirt. Not really sure I understand the appeal of that one, but I’m also not sure I’m qualified to be a mole critic haha. Another meal that Oaxaca is well known for is the Tlayuda, which is effectively a quesadilla on steriods and very delicious. It is made of Oaxaca string cheese and beans on a tortilla-type of bread and can come with various different meats such as chorizo, cucina, or tasajo. There are also cuts of meat we enjoyed in Oaxaca that are unique to the region, such as the previously mentioned cucina and tasajo. Cecina is a thin cut of pork that is referred to by locals as a dried meat, but it’s not exactly dried like jerky. It is cooked and has a unique texture and is absolutely delicious. Tasajo is effectively the beef variety of the same thing and was also very good. Another meal I really enjoyed was aguachile, which is effectively a type of ceviche made with shrimp, cucumbers, onions and green chiles that was incredible, very spicy and refreshing after being out in the sun. I’m actually not sure whether aguachile is actually a Oaxaca dish, but it’s the first place I had it and it was incredible, so I’m giving them credit.
Another amazing tradition in Oaxaca is the cantinas, which is a bar you can go to during the day to order beer and they will continuously bring you various snacks to eat as long as you keep ordering beers. You can effectively eat for free! The snacks range from nuts to chips and various salsas, meats, etc. Excellent way to spend an afternoon if you ask me. Of course you can also find great tacos, tamales and tortes in Oaxaca, as you can all over Mexico and I certainly ate my fair share of those as well. Last but not least, we have to talk about chapulines or roasted crickets, which is a fun little snack once you can get over the fact that you are eating bugs. The chapulines are roasted and well seasoned and if you closed your eyes and ate them you could mistake them for potato chips or some other spicy/salty snack. They are actually very good for you as they have much higher protein content than typical salty snacks we indulge ourselves on.
If you’re looking for a relatively close international vacation or remote working destination where you can truly experience some great culture and feast your brains out, I’d highly recommend looking at Oaxaca. I’ll definitely be back.
- Oaxaca Rundown
- Hurricane Avocado
- The van with wings
- Oaxaca: Monte Alban
