Tequila, it makes me happy

Sun 23, Mon 24 Feb 2014

The jet lag was still going strong, and we woke at 1 pm disorientated and confused.

We made our way to the old town and picked a busy little cafeteria for brunch. Ceviche was on the menu, so we'd definitely be giving that a go. We ordered a ham and cheese torta (big sandwich thingy), a chorizo torta, and octopus in its own ink.

"Taco or Torta?" the waiter asked. I managed to cobble together, "Sin Taco, Sin Torta" ... no bread.

"¿Qué?" The thought of having a dish not wrapped in, served on top of, or sandwiched between a tortilla or two was unfathomable.

After a lot of pointing and head-shaking, he understood what we were asking for but continued to look perplexed.

When our food came, our tortas were huge, and our pulpo was served ceviche style.

Thinking we were entering the Grand Palace, the top attraction of the old town, we were most disappointed by the exhibition of Egyptian, Chinese, and North American artefacts. All of the interesting descriptions were in Spanish, so we had no idea what anything was or why it was in the exhibition. It was also most frustrating that there was nothing Mexican on display... if we wanted to know about the Ming dynasty, we would've gone to China. The only highlight was catching a couple of gay adolescents snogging in between two of the exhibition rooms. This obviously didn't embarrass them in the slightest, as we caught them going at it again about 5 minutes later.

Back in our room, we realised that we had, in fact, gone to the Museum Historical, so luckily the Palace wasn't shit, and we could check it out another day.

In the old historic town, there is a place called Plaza Garibaldi. This square has been home to Mexico City's Mariachi bands for over a hundred years.

We took a tube and walked the short distance to the square through one of Mexico City's less appealing areas.

Before getting serenaded, we went to the Tequila and Mezcal Museum, which has been newly erected—I think they tried and failed to spruce up this dodgy area to try and entice tourists.

The museum, which fills one side of the square, is compact and informative.

In the museum, there is a wall of tequila bottles. Here were some of our favourites:

The icing on this educational cake is that after you've read about the plant source, production, and marketing, you get to sit on the roof terrace (which looks out over the square) and sample a shot of each. The tequila was delicious, the mezcal totally different and full of smoky flavour—a little too strong for our palates but interesting all the same.

What this bar lacked, however, was a Mariachi band. Down below, there was laughing, singing, and stacks of atmosphere. We politely declined a look at the menu and headed to one of the bars that's been in the square since the first Mariachis performed in their rags back in the early 1900s.

Jamie ordered up a beer and a tequila shot.

This tequila was served with an intensely bitter lemon and a Bloody Mary-esque spiced tomato shot. You were supposed to sip them in succession, causing a sense explosion for your taste buds.

My margarita was the best I'd ever had and would officially become my drink of choice in Mexico. In no time at all, an authentic Mariachi had approached us to set a price for a song. His big smiling face couldn't be refused, and we soon broke rule number 2—no sombreros.

We didn't want to linger in this rough area too long after dark, so we made our way to the tube in time for sunset, dodging the locos that lined the pavement.

On our first day, we'd seen a massive queue outside a taco bar. We didn't know if it was famed for taste or price, but we decided to give it a go. Luckily, the evening queue was substantially less. When it was our turn, we placed our order and handed over some dosh in return for a token. The chefs took our token and dolloped two tacos onto our plates. Mimicking fellow diners, we found a spot where you could top up your taco with guacamole and extra spices.

A relaxing beer on our rooftop terrace, in total darkness, ended our busy day.

The next day was spent wandering the backstreets, eating horribly dry flatbreads, and shopping in the world's weirdest farmacia.

A highlight was the weird skeleton statues that sit on street corners. Mexico has an amazing perspective on death...

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