Choosing the best street food stands, roadside trailers and single food vendors in Oaxaca for indulging in safe, scrumptious and typical Oaxacan fare, is a daunting dilemma. But the task is important so that tourists have an opportunity to eat outside of the restaurants most commonly recommended in guidebooks.
The commonly held belief that eating food on the street or in the markets of Oaxaca will result in gastrointestinal problems, is a fallacy. Eating in Oaxaca can result in stomach ailments just as easily from frequenting the likes of Casa Oaxaca, Los Danzantes, La Olla and La Biznaga, as from any of the temporary stalls which are regularly patronized by Oaxacans.
Residents of Oaxaca follow the same common sense rules and guidelines to ensure that they remain healthy when eating on the street. Accordingly, encountering a busy nighttime food stand, a bustling morning market serving breakfast to shoppers and stall owners, or a lunchtime trailer with locals queued up, provides reasonable assurance that the food is safe, as well as tasty and truly Oaxacan.
Selection Process for Enumerating the Five Best Street Food Eateries in Oaxaca
Temporary restaurants are scattered throughout downtown Oaxaca and the suburbs, usually but not exclusively on street corners. Some serve a variety of dishes prepared fresh on the spot, such as tacos, tlayudas, tortas and grilled meats. Others hawk what they have made at home and brought to their designated spot. Some set up on weekends, but most are open every day.
While there are well over 100 reliable street corner food vendors in Oaxaca, five are enumerated, to ensure that all bases are covered: downtown and suburbs; prepared versus made fresh on the spot ; breakfast (desayuno), lunch (comida), dinner (cena) and their different peak hours of operation. While there are acclaimed nighttime street stalls throughout the suburbs of Oaxaca, the stand on Calle Mexico 68 is usually selected because if visitors are going to stay outside of downtown, they will likely be in a northern suburb (San Felipe, Guadalupe Victoria, Loma Linda, Reforma), which are close to Mexico 68.
Lunchtime at La Hormiga: Torta Trailer at Conzatti Park, North End of Downtown Oaxaca
While La Hormiga does a brisk breakfast business with locals on their way to work, lunch hour is perhaps the best time for tourists to sample its tortas; sandwiches on a crusty Portuguese-style roll, known as either a bolillo or telera, depending on the shape. There are four branches of La Hormiga, including the suburbs. If you’re not staying near the north end of downtown Oaxaca, ask your host for the closest location. The selection is impressive: egg, jam, bean, all the usual Oaxacan meats, stuffed chile, Hawaiian, Cuban, and the list goes on, as the appended photo illustrates.
Nightly Tlayudas & Tostadas on Calle Mexico 68, Colonia Olímpica / San Felipe del Agua
It serves not only residents of the northern suburbs, but also inner-city dwellers who are more than content to drive to Calle Mexico 68 between 8 p.m. and midnight, sometimes later, for great, outdoor grilled arrachera (skirt steak) and costilla (pork rib). The action is brisk; someone grilling, another chopping, a compañero taking orders, another on cash, still another filling tlayudas or tostadas with meat and one’s choice of chiles, veggies, bean purée, cheese, or the works.
Tlayudas on Libres, Midtown Downtown Oaxaca No Matter What Time of Night
Tlayudas on Libres has been an institution for decades, mid-downtown on Libres between Murguía and Morelos. When staying downtown, it is the place to go because it is an easy walk towards the east end. Hours are usually 9 p.m. to 4 a.m., but it is open later depending on business. Until evening the street looks like any other, with vehicular traffic and pedestrians but awnings are erected, grills are lit, narrow ledges and benches are set up, and smoke begins billowing as tlayudas are prepared. Foot traffic stops to order and cars and trucks double park as the crowds arrive.
Tlayudas on Libres includes indoor space for a more relaxed setting. In addition to tlayudas (either veggie, or with cecina, tasajo or chorizo) there is other standard Oaxacan fare such as marinated pata (pig feet), and drinks such as hot chocolate and atole. While not licensed, you can bring your own beer or mezcal.
Taco Stand in Colonia Reforma for Desayuno and Comida
The taco stand on the northeast corner of Emiliano Zapata and Naval Militar, a major intersection in Colonia Reforma, opens for business at 7 a.m.. Its menu is restricted to memelitas, empanadas, tlayudas, quesadillas, and of course tacos. It's just one of those stands noted for quality street food which seems to always have middle-class traffic, throughout the morning, afternoon and into the late night..
The Downtown Oaxaca Tamale Ladies
While several tamale ladies are found in their usual spots on the streets of downtown Oaxaca, the three on the north side of Calle Abasolo, about a block away from each other between Pina Suárez and 5 de Mayo are noteworthy. They are located close to many popular hotels and bed & breakfast establishments. They set up by 7 p.m. and are gone by about 11 p.m. The selection is broader on weekends, but generally one finds steaming hot cornmeal tamales wrapped in corn husks (banana leaf in the case of mole negro tamales) with flavors and fillings such as sweet (with pineapple and raisins), rajas (marinated chiles), chepil (with ground squash seed), verde (a tangy green sauce and chicken), amarillo (mole amarillo with chicken) and of course mole negro made with chicken.
When Selecting Street Food in Oaxaca
Don’t necessarily restrict yourself to the foregoing locations, but rather use them for guidance, especially if you’re initially a bit uncomfortable with the entire concept of street food in Oaxaca. Small roadside stalls abound and as suggested, you can’t go too far wrong using the traffic they receive as an overall guide.
Alvin Starkman - Alvin Starkman runs Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast. He is a paid contributing writer for Mexico Today (http://www.mexicotoday.org).
