There’s nothing like a Mercado (market). It’s the heartbeat of a city. In Zihau the market takes up blocks. Inside the market, stall after stall, packed tight selling anything you can imagine, from flowers to kitchen utensils and everything in between. People shop and stop to eat at their favorite food stall. Everyone has their favorite vendors. Everything is fresh. There are no chickens in plastic styrofoam cartons. No shrink wrapped cheese. You can smell the tomatoes and squeeze the melons. Outside on the streets surrounding the Mercado there are more vendors selling everything from cheeses to chickens.
The best way to tell you about the one in Zihau is in pictures.
Carmelita’s. We heard about it because last year at the first Ixtapa/Zihautanejo Food and Wine Festival, Rick Baylis tweeted from the restaurant about the lunch he was having and the rest is history. Carmelita is well-known in the area and a star and instrumental at the Food Festival but now she is REALLY well-known and everyone visiting Zihau who enjoys good food seeks out the restaurant and of course we were among those people!
Carmelita’s makes food that is typical to the region. It’s not fancy and it’s not a tourista restaurant. Tourists go there for sure but it is also where the locals go for breakfast and lunch. It is not open for dinner. It’s big and airy and very pleasant. Carmelita was at the restaurant overseeing the kitchen. She greets everyone and stops at all the tables; she seems to know everyone. We sat down and immediately were welcomed by Carmelita’s son, Victor. He’s a student who is very proud of his mom and helps out when he can. He speaks good English and described and recommended dishes for us which was very helpful. We ordered some specialities of the day – pork ribs with tomato sauce; the tomato sauce made from tomatoes that were grilled and cooked with chilies and secret ingredients; chicken soup with fresh vegetables, rice and a whole chicken leg, fresh homemade tortillas and then out came compliments of the house squash blossom quesadillas stuffed with cheese and some requeson cheese from the state of Guerrero (the state Zihau is located) mixed with chile verde. For dessert we had fried bananas with vanilla ice cream and coffee from the state of Chiapas.
Carmelita paraded her very elegant 85-year-old mother around the restaurant and stopped at each table to introduce her. It’s a family affair.
Stay tuned for my last post and final thoughts on Mexico.
See you at the bar….
