After all these years of thinking but not going, finally the family gets to spend 4 days in Cancun, Mexico in late January.
Cancun, one of the top destinations in Mexico for Americans and Canadians. Why? Nice beach, great weather, cheap alcohols, Mayan Pyramids, and for me, real Mexican food.
Although I don’t drink much, I did have one drink per Mexican meal per day. Margarita, Mojito, Mago Mojito, and Sangria. All in large glasses. Nice and refreshing for the warm weather and good to pair with spicy food too.
First night, we went to a small place (Las Pescadillas Tacos & Chela) in the ally in the hotel zone center and got the Super Mariscada. It’s plate with 3 flavors of Shrimps, grilled peppers, rice and salad. We ordered the half size as the full size would feed 4 adults. The price is different depending on the season. There is also a beef/chicken version of this combo plate.
You can eat it by mixing them into a bowl or wrap it with soft tortillas.
And they do offer you a few different sauces to add on. My favorits are the chipotle Sauce (#2) and the Guacamole Sauce (#3).
Second day, we went to El Fish Fritanga for lunch. It’s located right next to the water on the bay side with boats docked right next to it. It also has kids play area so you can enjoy the meal while kids play on their own.
We ordered the Mixed Ceviches which is full of octopus and shrimp, mixed with chopped tomato, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper, topped with avocado slices. Some of the Ceviches I had in the US also has white fish chunks, but I guess this is how they do it here. You can eat these straight, or use the chips to scoop them up and eat.
I ordered the Seafood soup, it is a combination of seafood (shrimps, clams, fish and crab) cook with the mildly spicy broth, topped with melted cheese. Wow this is tasty! I can’t put my spoon down once I started.
My wife got the Tumbada rice which is soupy rice (I think they used the same seasoning as the seafood soup) with crab, octopus, shrimps, clams and fish.
And I went for their Grandma’s Special Fish Fillet Fritangas. The fish is grilled and topped with grandma’s spicy sauce. To me, the sauce is not very spicy and somehow reminded me Sichuan Douban Sauce (hot bean paste).
After our waiter Jose heard I say that’s not very spicy, he went to kitchen and brought me some special SPICY SAUCE. You can pretty much tell, when a spicy sauce is not red, it’s going to be HOTTER than some red ones. Certainly, this one is made of multiple kind of Habanero peppers. I had tears in my eye while mix this with Ceviches to eat.
For day three, our main meal is lunch at Restaurante Mextreme located in hotel zone center. It’s popular location from breakfast, to lunch to late night drinks.
I got the Sopa Maya first, the Mayan style soup is onion and chicken in lime flavor soup. I can see how this is refreshing tasting soup is a perfect for the warm and sometime humid weather.
And our main focus is this Gran Molcajete, which is grilled shrimps, chicken, beef, bacon bits, peppers and cactus, served in a heated stone bowl to keep everything warm. Again, you can eat them straight up or wrap in tortillas. The grilled meats are tender and perfectly seasoned. Grilling certainly makes everything taste good without much oil, so this is healthy too. And the grilled cactus which was a first time for me tasted similar to thick seaweed texture, which I liked.
The days went by fast. I know you may say these are not all Mexico has to offer, for example I didn’t get any tamales. I’m on a low carb diet at the moment, so saving that for the next trip to Mexico, along with other authentic Mexican food.
PandaWalk 