Mexico 2023: Thankful for Thanksgiving in Mexico City (and the nice Friday after it, too)

Thursday morning - THANKSGIVING! - we started the day out by bouncing back to the Historic Center to take care of a few things we weren’t able to do the night before — churros at El Moro and tacos at Los Cocuyos!

Since my last visit a year and half before, Los Cocuyos had moved down the street to the space that used to be a Huequito and now offers traditional stand-style taco ordering and eating as well as seating with menus. It’s a big win to get to read the translated list of meats, even if I know I’m going to be loading up on suadero and campechano tacos. And also, a new taqueria called “Los Originales” has opened in the old Cocuyos space. Interesting. Very interesting.

To make the trip real special, we grabbed an uber to south of the south of the city for a visit to canals of Xochimilco. Not exactly what my Mom and Dad saw on Somebody Feed Phil, but a fun little excursion. I had visited once on my mission so it was nice to be back and remember what it was all about. I think it’s a lot funner if you’re with a ton of people and committed to a long afternoon of day drinking—though the guy who seemed to be having the most fun that day was an Australian bloke flowing solo.

After that we Ubered up to lovely Coyoacan for lunch at the famed (and well known to tourists) Tostadas Coyoacan, Christmas shopping, chapel visiting, walking around, and wall-posing.

Then we Ubered back to our place with a really great, talkative driver who may or may not have actually thought that Liz was my daughter? After a little resting at the crib, Liz and I visited La Increible bookstore and Taqueria La Hortaliza. La Hortaliza is now Netflix famous, so by the time our our mid-afternoon visit, they were fresh out of just about everything. The taquero made us beef, onion and potato tacos as that’s what he was snacking on and it was an one-course absolute Jiro Dreams of Sushi (but of tacos) experience. Decades and decades of experience = just a simple little bite turned out soooo good and the conversation was informal but lovely. Great time. Great, great time.

As evening fell, we walked over to Roma Norte for a Thanksgiving blow out meal at Rosetta. So lovely in there, but I gave up on taking pictures pretty quickly on account of the darkness.

FRIDAY! We got up and walked back to Roma Norte for breakfast at Panaderia Rosetta and learned that if you get there after 8 you’re going to have a wait. But then also a great breakfast. What a nice almost last meal of the trip.

Then we walked back through Roma to the west side of Condesa and did a bit of the Ave Amsterdam loop and crossed Parque Mexico. I wound up getting a surprise final taco from Tacos Hola Guero, a famous guisado spot. My chorizo and potato taco, it was such a pure little bit of heaven. Thank you, family, for letting me have one more taco. No, not letting, for encouraging me to! You help me achieve all my dreams.

Then, that bittersweet thing where you pack up your Air BnB. We were out of there with a little time to spare so we did a little more souvenir shopping in the neighborhood and I got an absolute terrible lime ice from famous Niveria Roxy. Don’t order lime! Order something nice, like coconut or strawberry.

And then, back to the airport, back into the air (look carefully at the left side middle of that second photo, can you see the pyramids?) and back to Chicago. Just. Like. That!

SATURDAY We had Sweetgreen (there’s a Sweetgreen in Oak Park, how crazy is that?) and then Liz and I headed back to Ohio. How Thankful I am I got to spend Thanksgiving in Mexico with Liz and Mom and Dad. How Thankful I am that Mexico is so wonderful and they are so wonderful, too. How Thankful I am that God and Gordon B Hinckley sent me on a mission to Mexico City and now I get to love it forever. How Thankful I am I got to dig a little deeper into my mission haunts with my folks there to see where I had been sending my letters from. Let’s all do it again! Soon!