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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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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5ive Spice

A restaurant with a number in its name, which serves a fusion of Vietnamese and Mexican food, should be a disaster. Somehow, 5ive Spice has achieved an impossible feat, and defies all expectations its name and concept provide.

We honored our suspicious instinct on our first few visits, and ordered the truly Vietnamese options i.e. the pho. The broth is elegantly spiced, meaty but not fatty, and so fragrant. When you take a spoonful, you feel its healing and comforting powers. Slurp up the noodles, chew the extremely generous portions of meat, and sprinkle on as much cilantro, basil, lime, and chiles as your tastebuds desire. Every bowl is huge, but you'll finish every last drop. That broth is too good to leave behind.

When you do trust this place enough to venture further afield on the menu, you'll have a revelation that these two cuisines can indeed be successfully combined. Tacos filled with lightly pickled veg and lemongrass grilled chicken are terrifyingly addictive; and grilled corn, it turns out, makes a great accompaniment to a bright rice vermicelli salad (pictured above).

No alcohol is served, and the prices are incredibly reasonable. You'll be heading back for another bowl of healing pho as soon as the next rainy day arrives.

5ive Spice, 52 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217.

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B'klyn Burro

Compared to London, New York is a Mexican food haven. If you look hard enough you can find spectacular bursting burritos, freshly made tacos, perfectly smashed guacamole, bracing margaritas, and sweet agua frescas. In London, no matter how hard you search, the Mexican food scene just isn't going to revolutionise your life, although it may satisfy your cravings for black beans and avocado every once in a while. However, in this here huge place called the United States, New York Mexican food is deemed to be infinitely inferior to that which you can find on the other, sunnier coast. 

However, it seems that a small slice of that Californian-take on Mexican food has found its way to Brooklyn. B'klyn Burro has spent a few years floating around serving up over-flowing burritos in bars and out of other restaurant kitchens, and now finally has its own sunny, colorful, tiny little space in Clinton Hill. In the heat of Brooklyn summer, having a small slice of San Fran's Mission district 15 minutes from my front door is hugely appreciated. As long as you're willing to wait (making tacos to order takes time you guys), you'll eventually be served burritos and tacos better than anything I've ever tried in London or in NYC. I imagine this makes them close to the quality you'd get over on the other side of this vast country.

We snacked on tortilla chips while we waited for them to wrap up B's carnitas burrito and to hand press the corn tortillas for my tacos. The burrito was as huge as a hungry runner wants a burrito to be. Its warm filling was perfectly tucked into the wrap, and the slow-cooked pork, rice, beans, and salsa muddled together to create one comforting mouthful after another. The tacos, stuffed with avocado, deep-fried poblano peppers, cilantro, and salsa were so super fresh, grease-free, and light: a wonderful blend of crisp and soft, spicy and soothing. If this is what my diet would consist of  on the West coast (as I had suspected may well be the case), we need to move ourselves over there ASAP.

B'klyn Burro, 922 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238.

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