Two Reasons to Taste Mexico

Adventurous culinary experiences worth keeping Mexico on your radar.

BY DAWN GARCIA

Mexico has long been a land of intrigue, from its sprawling beaches to its endless culinary renderings. Here are two reasons to head to this endless barrage of beauty and cuisine that unlocks something truly extraordinary.

REASON NO. 1: GASTRONOMY TOURS

$90–$185 per person / Vegetarian options available / CLUBTENGOHAMBRE.COM

If you want to plan an entire trip around food and eating, Club Tengo Hambre (CTH) is the only place you should look. This supper club is unlike anything you’ll experience. With an explosive Valla de Guadalupe wine scene and culinary masters and foodies from Baja California to Mexico City at the helm, there is a culinary tour waiting for you to sink your teeth into. Created by Bill Esparza, Jason Thomas Fritz, and Antonio and Kristin Díaz de Sandi, CTH is a highly respected and revered culinary destination for anyone with a desire to make their taste buds sing.

The CTH team says its primary goal is “to celebrate both the social aspect of food in bringing people together and the rich culinary scenes that make Baja California and Mexico City among the world’s greatest destinations for food lovers.”

You will be enthralled in Mexican cuisine that extends from shore to jungle, city epicenters to unknown villages. Meet local taqueros, brewers, restaurateurs, and mezcal makers. Those who venture with an open palate will awaken more than just their taste buds.

Tours happen in Mexico City and Tijuana (Baja). CTH also offers tours in Los Angeles (but go to Mexico instead). In Mexico City, there are three different three-and-a-half hour food tours. On the Street Food Essentials tour, you explore six different culinary stops, eating regional specialties and menus you can’t get anywhere outside the city. A second city tour takes you through the markets to explore street food, sweets, and pulque, tapping into the pulse of “market geeks, food lovers, and sweet tooths who want to explore the best of Mexico City,” according to CTH’s website. A third tour, After Dark, takes taco lovers and cantina frequenters through a supper club with a plethora of taco renderings, a pulqueria, and a historic cantina. In Tijuana, choose from three different “daycations” exploring street food and craft beer, Valle de Guadalupe wine and food, Best of Tijuana (a progressive seven-course outing), or a seafood and craft beer tour.

REASON NO. 2: ACRE BAJA

Cabo San Lucas / ACREBAJA.COM

Luxury treehouses, villas, a forest bar, and am impeccable restaurant are four things you’ll be enamored by at ACRE Baja. Twelve treehouses, all eco and green, tower in the property’s trees, are designed with every luxury in mind, including one deluxe unit with a suspended bridge. Each unit has a private terrace, outdoor shower, king-size bed, mosquito nets, a bathroom, and high-speed internet (though wouldn’t it be nice to unplug for a few days?). While ACRE doesn’t have a spa, it is a wellness center in its own right, and you can book massages and do body work poolside or on your treehouse terrace.

When it comes to dining, ACRE has some of the most sensual, crave-worthy, fresh cuisine you may have tasted. Imagine slipping into a bowl of cuisine that takes hold of you so intensely, upon first taste, you find yourself completely submersed. That is what Chef Kevin Luzande and Chef Oscar Torres have done. Starting with a sumptuous cocktail crafted by mixologist Danielle Tatarin that lures your senses through bright fragrant inclusions or smallbatch mezcal, the transition into the restaurant makes it a culinary love affair. Offering plant-based cuisine; freshly caught, responsibly and sustainably-sourced fish; and local meats and fowl, the culinary team creates food that can only be described as sublime. With a vegetable and herb garden on the property, everything is fresh. An example of dishes Luzande and Torres curate that will take your breath away are the beets on beets dish made with beets cured with limes and cayenne, then crisped, baked, fried, and paired with sprigs of parsley and house-churned goat cheese, and the freshly cured squid colored with tinges of saffron and cardamom.

The fare will open up the senses and prepare the palate for an extraordinary submersion into local, authentic cuisine. When you’ve moved on to dessert, be prepared for a foodgasm. To give you a small taste of what you can expect, imagine a bowl of sorbet that oozes guava and hibiscus with hints of plumeria and undertones of geranium. Fresh blooms are nestled atop a foamed concoction of lime, and geraniums dance like clouds as the guava sorbet situates on the guava crisp housing it’s entire foundation. It is in every way a sexy and seductive finish to a rather curious meal. Un cine con la pasion y amor …

Mexico has become a sought-after travel destination. Whether you explore the tropical bliss of Riviera Nayarit along the Punta Mita shoreline, head to Cabo San Lucas to take a boat out to the famous ocean arches (and if you do, stop and eat at SUR Cabo), fulfill your desires to swim in one of the most beautiful waterfalls such as Agua Azul in Chiapas, or spend a day in Tijuana, you will have endless culinary choices wherever you go. The beauty of the nation is that it is rich in lush land and seascapes, jungles and dessert, oceans and hidden finds, but most of all it’s the people that make visiting Mexico (VISITMEXICO.COM) a travel must.