Mercado Lucas de Galvéz

An overwhelming number of smells, colors, and sounds hit you when you start getting close to Mercado Lucas de Galvéz. The streets around the market are packed with stands piled high with fruits, veggies, tacos, agua fresca, candy, and inside it's a more densely packed extreme. Locals bustle by, bags full, dodging each other, weaving in and out of the covered market and hectic streets. Follow them to find out where to get the best of everything, from limes to tortas to spice mixes.

We visited the market every day when we were in Mérida. It took a couple of visits to not be totally overwhelmed and unable to make a decision beyond "dos tacos por favor", to get my Spanish in good enough shape to talk to the pineapple-genius about which pineapple I wanted, and to figure out when we'd be hungry enough to actually cook a meal in our Airbnb, rather than eating from every taco stand we passed. Eventually we managed a "proper shop", and dinner that night was a triumph of homemade tacos, fresh margaritas, and leftovers for breakfast.

Mercado Lucas de Galvéz, Calle 65A, Centro, 97000, Mérida, Yuc., Mexico

P.S. For more of a glimpse into this amazing place, watch Samin Nosrat's acid episode on her Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat show on Netflix. You miss out on the smells, the noise, and the sense of overwhelm, but you get a sense for just how beautiful all the produce is, and understand why buying citrus fruits  in New York is now incredibly underwhelming.

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Hacienda Temozon

Our Mexico trip was now many moons ago. This blog has gone through another phase of abandonment, but I'm back. I have big news to share with y'all soon, but for now, I'm diving into my photo archives. I want to share some shots from our stay at Hacienda Temozon in June. 

We were the only people staying there during our off-season visit. On our first night they set up a candlelit, petal-strewn table: it was like this really was our honeymoon (which it kind of was —yes, three years late). The food was perfect—not trying too hard, and giving you a taste of the area's specialities. The staff were the kindest—they gave you space, but when you needed another michelada, they were ready and waiting. The space was, well, magical. We spent our days walking the grounds, lying by the pool, chasing iguanas, sipping margaritas, visiting the cenote, and only forcing ourselves away from this beautiful place to see the spectacular Mayan ruins at Uxmal. If you're visiting Mérida and want a few nights away from the crazy city, this place has my vote.

Hacienda Temozon, KM 182 Carretera Merida-Uxmal, 97825 Temozon Sur, Yuc., Mexico

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Wayan'e

A first trip to Mexico is essentially a challenge to see how many tacos you can eat in a week. So taco eating starts early in the day. And if we weren't at the market, we were at Wayan'e. Aguas frescas helped us recover from the super hot, super short walk, and tacos followed.

Our order: all the breakfast tacos available (which turned out to be the perfect amount—not all on the menu were available). They made our typical Brooklyn bagel breakfasts seem a little underwhelming: freshly pressed, super thin tortillas topped with softly scrambled eggs, fresh greens, rich black beans, a dash of chili, soft onions, a splash of hot sauce (danger! super hot!), and whatever other veggies they had on hand that day. So much work went into every taco, with no fuss, no pretense, no unnecessary fanciness. And yes, you're right, I was jealous of the other people having their breakfast meetings over this breakfast platter.

Wayan'e, 412,  Calle 59 408, Centro, Mérida, Yuc., Mexico

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Cars of Mérida

The other reason Mérida is so idyllic? The cars. Whether falling apart or newly renovated, a large number of the city's population travels around in vintage Beetles: the fumes don't smell great but their picturesque existence more than makes up for it.

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Marlin Azul

I went to Mexico expecting to feast on tacos everyday. And while I did do that, I also had the magical surprise of feasting on ceviche every other day.

After a food marketing shopping morning and a splash in the pool at our Airbnb, our tummies were rumbling again: ceviche time.

B claims to be allergic to shellfish so a seafood spot is often challenging. But a giant place of shellfish-free (yes, sadly we're sure, thanks for checking, Señor) ceviche was exactly what we didn't know we were craving. With an ice cold michelada (we alternated between margaritas and micheladas most of the week) in hand, a huge bowl of salted tortilla chips, and a giant platter of citrusy-packed, herb-filled, refreshing, super simple ceviche was holiday heaven. That taco breakfast followed by this ceviche lunch, and an afternoon ice cream stop made for the most perfect day of eating, snoozing, and discovering a city through its food.

Marlin Azul, Calle 62 488, Col. Centro, 97000 Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.

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