What to eat in Mexico City
Mexico City eats standing at the counter: tacos al pastor at night, tlacoyos at the market, pozole on Thursdays, chiles en nogada in autumn, churros and mezcal.

[ ] Eat tacos al pastor
    Pork marinated in chillies and achiote on a vertical spit with a pineapple on top, shaved into a corn tortilla. A Lebanese shawarma legacy that became the city's signature.
[ ] Try a tlacoyo
    An oval patty of blue corn masa stuffed with beans or cheese and cooked on a comal, topped with nopales, cheese and salsa. Pre-Hispanic street food that still lives in the markets.
[ ] Try pozole
    A soup of large nixtamalised hominy with meat, served with radish, lettuce, oregano, onion and lime on the side. You assemble the bowl yourself, and half the pleasure is there.
[ ] Order a quesadilla
    A folded corn tortilla with a filling, griddled or fried. In Mexico City cheese goes in only if you ask, and that is a genuine local custom rather than a joke.
[ ] Eat chilaquiles for breakfast
    Tortilla pieces drenched in green or red salsa with crema, cheese and onion, often topped with egg or chicken. The morning-after breakfast.
[ ] Try a tamal
    Corn dough with a filling steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf. A street breakfast that Mexico City eats inside a bread roll, a combination called a guajolota.
[ ] Try cochinita pibil
    Pork marinated in achiote and bitter orange juice and slow-cooked in banana leaves until it shreds. A Yucatán dish that became routine in the capital.
[ ] Try mole
    A thick sauce of dozens of ingredients — dried chillies, nuts, spices, chocolate — cooked for hours and served over chicken or turkey. Not a chocolate dish: the chocolate is one component among thirty.
[ ] Try chiles en nogada in season
    A poblano chilli stuffed with meat and fruit under a walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. Strictly seasonal, served only in late summer and September.
[ ] Get esquites or elote
    Corn either as kernels in a cup or whole on a stick, with mayonnaise, cotija cheese, chilli and lime. A street classic sold by metro stations and in parks.
[ ] Have a comida corrida at the market
    The set lunch in a market kitchen: soup, rice, a main, tortillas and an agua fresca at a fixed low price. It runs from two to five.
[ ] Have churros with chocolate
    Ridged strips of fried dough in cinnamon sugar, dipped in thick hot chocolate. Eaten late at night and early in the morning rather than after dinner.
[ ] Get pan dulce
    Sweet bread from a bakery: the sugar-topped concha, oreja, polvorón. You take a tray and tongs, choose yourself and pay by the piece at the till.
[ ] Drink an agua fresca
    A diluted fruit drink from big glass jars: rice horchata, hibiscus jamaica, tamarind, lime with chia. It costs very little and replaces fizzy drinks.
[ ] Drink café de olla
    Coffee brewed in a clay pot with a cinnamon stick and unrefined piloncillo sugar. Spiced and sweet, served in a clay mug.
[ ] Try mezcal
    A spirit distilled from roasted agave with a pronounced smokiness, sipped rather than shot. Tequila is a subset of mezcal, made from blue agave only.
[ ] Try pulque
    A low-alcohol fermented agave sap: viscous, sour and alive. Drunk in pulquerías, often flavoured with fruit, and it cannot be kept.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/food-mexico-city