December 2024 - Mexico City: Annette Schiller and I spent the holiday season in Mexico City with Diego Mozyninho Paz and Katharina Katharina Schiller.
Mexico City Postings
While in Mexico City, I posted on facebook on a daily basis. This is the aggregation of these postings. it is the first in a series of more specific postings:
Lunch at Rosetta (#34 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2024 and 1 Michelin Star) in Mexico City
Omakasa Tasting Menu at Em, with Chef Lucho Martinez (1 Michelin Star) in Mexico City
Henri Lurton: Making Wine in Bordeaux (Château Brane-Cantenac in Margaux/ Bordeaux @Grand Cru Classe 1855) and Mexico (Bodegas Henri Lurton)
Dinner at a hip, Michelin-recommended Roma Norte, the Greenwich Village of Mexico City, Restaurant: El Tigre Silencioso
Everyone is here for the
Taco al Pastor - Dinner at the Michelin-recommended Taqueria El Vilsito, which Shares Space with a Car Repair Shop (Michelin Bib Gourmand)
Tapas and Spanish Wine at the San Juan Food Market in Mexico City: Roberto Castro's Las Tapas de San Juan
Al-fresco Lunch at a Pop-up Taqueria on Mercado de la Lagunilla in Mexico City, which feels like a Transplant from Brooklyn
10-course Tasting Menu at Limosneros (Michelin-recommended) in Mexico City
Seafood Dinner at Camarón Buchón in Narvarte, just around the Corner where Diego and Katharina live in Mexico City
Schiller's Favorite Wine Bars in Mexico City
Wednesday December 18, 2024
We took it easy the first day by exploring the neighborhood.
Mexico City is huge. It belongs to the top 5 biggest cities in the world, surpassed in the Western Hemisphere by Sao Paolo.
The neighborhood were Katharina and Diego live - Narvarte - is an upper-midle income area, outside of the expat and tourist area, and thus not covered in the tourist guides.
But we had outstanding private guides that took us to the "natural no intervention wines" bar @artenda.vinos a block away from their apartment that even carries the wines of Gernot Kollmann Weingut Immich-Batterieberg in Germany. But, course, we had a low Intervention Baja California wine from Mexico.
For dinner, we went to a seafood restaurant - Barracruda - in the Narvarte neighborhood.
Mexico City - Thursday December 19, 2024
We spent an extensive amount of time at the large street market in Katharina Schiller and Mozyninho Paz 's neighborhood (once a week on Thursday), with a focus an doing food shopping and having lunch. Typically, Mexican markets have comedor sections where you sit on benches eating basic food cooked up on the spot.
In the afternoon, we spent some time on the roof-top terrace of Diego and Katharina`s apartment.
In the evening, we started to explore the wine bar scene of Mexico City, first at LOUP BAR one of the leaders in terms of natural, low intervention
wines. I was surprised see only very few wines from Mexico on the
impressive wine list of natural, low intervention wines from all around
the world, but mainly Europe.
Also
in the touristy Roma district, at the @local1 wine bar, the share of
Mexican natural, low intervention wines was higher, but still low.
Overall,
my initial impression is that when people talk about Mexico City as a
center for natural, low intervention wines, it is about wines mainly
from Europe, including France and Germany, such as Gernot Kollmann 's Weingut Immich-Batterieberg wines from the Mosel and less about local wines from Mexico.
Mexico City - Friday December 20, 2024
Today, we went for lunch to ROSETTA of Chef @Elena Reygadas, which is listed as #34 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2024 and has 1 star in the MICHELIN Guide. Rosetta is in the chic Roma district housed within several rooms of a beautiful mansion. The focus of Chef Elena Reygadas is on seasonal ingredients sourced from small producers, with her trying to revamp traditional Mexican dishes. The ambiance is casual with us having a table on the sidewalk. Overall, the meal was very good but in terms of sophistication not at the level I am used to at restaurants with a Michelin star in Germany and France.
We took our after lunch coffee at MAQUE CAFÉ, one of the numerous nice coffee shops in the Roma district.
Although wine producing in Mexico started when the Spanish conquistadores came in the 16th century, the level of wine production remains low. For many centuries wine in Mexico was only allowed to be made for church services.
Today, wine output accounts to 2500 hectares, equivalent to 2.5% of Germany's production. Most of the wines are produced in Baja California, which is a peninsula south of California. There is a lot of talk about natural, low intervention wines, with @Bichi in Baja California considered to be the pioneer of this movement. They regularily participate in RAW WINE in NYC. They farm 10 hectares by themselves and increasingly operate as a negociant.
Mexico City - Saturday December 21, 2024
We went to Coyoacan, known for its cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. The Museo De Frida Khalo Coyoacán is here as is the former home of Leon Trotsky.
Dinner there was Guccomole and Cochinita pibil (Yucatan's marinated, slow-roasted pork), with Mexican beer.
Good Night.
Mexico City - Sunday December 22, 2024
We
went to the German Lutheran Church in Mexico City. The church was
founded by a German immigrant family 60 years ago, who continues to
support the church in the 6th generation. Pastor Stefanie Hoppe (from Potsdam) led the service.
At
Plaza Garibaldi, we enjoyed the mariachi music. This is the place to go
to catch mariachi bands in their silver-studded finery, playing
ranchera, the regional Mexican music dating back to at least the 18th
century.
Katharina Schiller took us to her favorite pulqueria, Pulquería La Antigua Roma, a small neighbourhood bar, where we had an extraordinary time with the locals. This pulqueria is known for its good jukebox.
Pulque,
occasionally known as agave wine, is a mildly alcoholic Aztec brew in
its myriad flavors. It is one of Mexico's most popular drink, alongside
tequila and mezcal.
Originally, women were not allowed in the main room of pulquerias. Still, today, at Pulquería La Antigua Roma there is a separate entrance with a sign "Departamento para damas". The ladies room is still there.
The
day ended dancing with the locals in the Alameda Central park next the
Palacio de Bellas Artes, the impressive Art Nouveau cultural center.
Mexico City - Monday December 23, 2024
We went for dinner to restaurant Em Roma Norte, an intimate restaurant with minimal interior decor and a semi-open kitchen, where MICHELIN Guide starred Chef Lucho Martinez offers an innovative cuisine that brings together unexpected flavor pairings with French, Japanese, Native America and Mexican elements, including edible ants from Oaxaca. Chef Lucho uses Mexican ingredients only, with a strong focus on seafood.
You have a choice between a la carte and a 8-course tasting menu. We chose the latter (as most other guests did).
As for wine, the 4 of us had 3 bottles, a Philipp Wittmann German dry Riesling, a Mexican dry Riesling and a Mexican red wine. Most Mexican wines come from the Baja California area.
There are 2 seatings, at 5:45 pm and 9 pm. We chose the early seating and left the restaurant at 9:05 pm.
The bill was around US1000, with each bottle of wine around US100.
It was an amazing and memorable evening, definitely at the Michelin star level - perhaps even above 1 star - that culminated in the kitchen with a group photo with Chef @Lucho Martinez and his staff.
Before going home, we stopped at Si Mon wine bar, which has, arguably, the best selection of Mexican wines in Mexico City.
Mexico City - Bodegas Henri Lurton
Annette Schiller and I drink the wines of @Henri Lurton - Château Brane-Cantenac in Margaux/ Bordeaux @Grand Cru Classe 1855 - on a regular basis.
We also had the privilege of meeting Henri many times in Margaux/ France and Washington DC/ USA, with Ombiasy Public Relations and Wine Tours. Last time we met Henri at a tasting with Panos Kakaviatos, he told us about his venture in Mexico.
Yesterday, before dinner at Em we found Henri's wines at the Vino Dcl Contre next door.
Looking forward to taste his Mexican wines tonight at the Christmas dinner.
Mexico City - December 24th
In Germany, December 24th is the gift giving day. In my family in Germany, we would go to church at 5 pm, followed by dinner and gift giving.
That's what we did in Mexico City this year with Katharina Schiller and Mozyninho Paz.
We had Silesian Bratwurst (brought over by Katharina from Metzgerei Heininger in Frankfurt) and Mexican wine of #bordeaux #star Bodegas Henri Lurton Château Brane-Cantenac
Mexico City - Wednesday December 25, 2024
Katharina took us to the Riz-Carlton Hotel which has a spectacular rooftop bar and restaurant in the 38th floor. The view was breathtaking.
The Riz-Carlton is at the Paseo de la Reforma, one of the city's main avenues with impressive high-rises, quite different from the area where Katharina and Diego live.
At the
end of the Paseo de la Reforma is the Bosque de Chapultepec, a vast
park where we enjoyed a fantastic Mexican folklore ballet performance at
the Chapultepec Castle in the evening...
... before finishing the day in a
traditional Mexican salon (where in the old days only men were allowed)
with a Corona beer.
Mexico City - Thursday December 26, 2024
The focus of today was on the Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México where you are literally walking on centuries of layered history.
The large Zocalo, now the city's central square, was once the focal point of the Aztec empire.
The iconic Catedral Metropolitana, the largest church in America, was built by the conquistadores atop the Templo Mayor using most of the templo's Aztec stones in its construction.
After a break at the Plaza Santo Domingo...
we spent some time in the Museo Vivo del Muralismo , including many paintings of Diego Rivera, arguably the world's most famous muralist (and on-off partner of Frida Kahlo).
We had to cancel the planned visits of Bar la Opera, the popular Parisian-style brasserie and the roof-top bar of the Torre Latinoamericana, Latin America's tallest building when constructed in 1956, because too many people had the same plans.
Instead, Katharina introduced us to another pulqueria, the Pulqueria Las Duelistas.
Again, guave pulque dispensed straight from the barrel, graffiti-art
murals, a juke box, lots of fun and the pissoir in a corner of the
tavern.
Over
time, the Aztec drink has gone from a quaint rural drink to a mark of
Mexican resistance against the beer of the foreign elites.
We ended the day in Roma Norte, the Greenwich Village of Mexico City, at the hip El Tigre Silencioso. Although MICHELIN Guide
recommended, Annette and I agreed that the ceviche and the pulpo we had
a couple of days ago at the simple neighborhood-restaurant far away
from the expats and tourists, where Katharina and Diego live, was
better.
For
the "one for the road" we went back to @Si Mon, also in Roma Norte,
reportedly the best wine bar in Mexico City for Mexican wines.
Mexico City - Friday December 27, 2024
Today, we went south-west to San Angel and Coyoacan.
In San Angel, a wealthy and artsy neighborhood, we visited the 2 stand-alone homes of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, which are connected by a narrow walk-way in the upper floor.
Back in the neighborhood were Katharina and Diego live, Narvarte, we had dinner at the famous Taqueria El Vilsito. It shares space with a car repair shop and is extremely basic, with TV screens and many people eating standing up. Everyone is here for the taco al pastor with marinated pork roasted on a spit, pineapple, cilantro and onions. Since the MICHELIN Guide awarded it a bib gourmand - one step below a star - in 2024 and since it has been featured on European and US TV, you also meet non-Spanish speakers here occasionally. El Vilsito clearly proves that Michelin ratings are about the chef, the kitchen, the food; ambiance, service, wine selection is irrelevant.
Taqueria El Vilsito is 3 blocks away from Katharina and Diego's apartment. On the way home, we stopped at the very lively saloon @El Cuate for a beer with the locals.
Mexico City - Saturday December 28, 2024
We went to Ex Fábrica MX, an old factory taken over by artists and turned into an art center. It did not meet our expectations.
On the contrary, the visit of Antiguo Mercado De San Juan was amazing. This is a spectacular food market for chefs and foodies. In the meat section I felt more like in the backroom of a butcher than in a gourmet food store.
Annette wanted to have an early dinner at Roberto Castro's Las Tapas de San Juan right in the center of the market and we enjoyed it tremendously, with Spanish tapas and red wine.
The next stop was a basic Mexican restaurant in Roma Norte, just the opposite of what Roma Norte is known for: hip, fancy, high-end restaurants.
We
finished the day on the roof-top level of Diego and Katharina's
apartment with a wonderful view of the Narvarte neighborhood and a Bodegas Henri Lurton white wine, the sister estate of Château Brane-Cantenac in Bordeaux.
Mexico City - Sunday December 29, 2024
We took advantage of the low traffic on Sundays and cycled through Mexico City. The cycling turned out to be harder than expected for Annette, reflecting the altitude (2200 m or 7400 feet) of Mexico City. So, in the afternoon we switched back to walking and the use of Uber for moving in the city. (Altitude sickness - Annette also needed more time to adjust to the high altitude of Mexico City than I needed after our arrival).
We went to the Mercado De La Lagunilla flea market not too far away from Plaza Garibaldi. Katharina bought a dress and a wood print from a local artist she knows though friends.
We had lunch at the market at a hip specialty pop-up taqueria, which felt like a Brooklyn transplant...
and danced to the music of a Rock 'N' Roll Band playing oldies.
In the late afternoon we went back to Narvarte and had dinner at Camarón Buchón, a traditional fish restaurant from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, a block away from Diego and Katharina's apartment.
Just next to Camaron Buchon is the small, vegan cocktail bar Luvina Vegan Bar, again, could have been in Brooklyn, where we finished the day with Mexican wine and sweet potatoes.
Mexico City - Monday December 30, 2024
After fruit shopping in the street market of Katharina and Diego's Narvarte neighborhood...
we went to the POLANCO CDMX neighborhood, one of the wealthiest districts of Mexico City, known for high rents, designer clothing stores, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's (the richest man in the work a few years ago) futuristic Museo Soumaya and Pujol Restaurant, Polanco (which Wolfgang Faßbender reviewed in the NZZ Neue Zürcher Zeitung recently). Many embassies are there, including the @Deutsche Botschaft Mexico City Embajada de Alemania en México and, again, as in many other parts of Mexico City, a large number of impressive skyscrapers.
For dinner, we went back to the Historic District, Mexico City, where Katharina had managed to get a 9 pm reservation at Limosneros on short notice.
We took our pre-dinner drinks at the very basic Pulquería La Antigua Roma with the locals...
and then went over to the high-end MICHELIN Guide listed Limosneros
to dine with mostly expats and tourists, but also with a few Mexicans.
We
chose the 10-course tasting menu for about US$100. It was excellent. At
Michelin star level, as you frequently read in social media? The votes
at our table were split. But we all agreed that it was well above the
food at ROSETTA and well below at Em, both Michelin-starred.
As for wines, the 4 of us had 3 bottles of wine, including a red Mexican wine and 2 dry Rieslings from Germany - from Weingut Künstler and Peter Jakob Kühn, both German winemakers close to our hearts.
The
selection of German wines at Limosneros was surprisingly good. I do not
know any restaurant in the Washington DC area that offers a selection
of German wines, including dry white and red, at that level.
Limosneros
is owned by Pablo Juan Ballesteros. Chef Atzin Santos has been heading
the kitchen team for many years. He is a well-known Mexican chef, who
defines his style as "experimental with Mexican products". Recently, he
settled in Houston, Texas, and is shuttling between Houston and Mexico
City. His sous-chef who was in charge on Monday came by for pictures at
the end of this memorable meal.
Mexico City - New Year's Eve
We stayed in the Narvarte neighborhood and celebrated the arrival of the new year in Diego and Katharina's apartment, first in the roof-top terrace and then one floor lower. Unfortunately, Diego is sick and could not join us.
During the day, we did some last minute shopping in the neighborhood.
At midnight it was quiet in the streets of the Narvarte neighborhood. Here, the Mexicans celebrated New Year at home and not in a restaurant and didn't do fireworks.
In the distance, however, we saw some fireworks, probably on the Zócalo Mexico City. On Reforma, Ciudad de Mexico! there was a huge street party with hundreds of thousands dancing through the night to the music of the legendary Mexican sonideros PolyMarchs.
Happy New Year!
Mexico City - Last day in Mexico City
We
stayed in the Narvarte neighborhood where Diego and Katharina live and
went for the final dinner back to the seafood restaurant El Camaron Buchon.
Diego is still sick but improving.
Mexico City, Houston, Washington DC
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