Oaxaca's cuisine: 10 things we love

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10 things we love about Oaxaca
Where to eat and drink in Oaxaca
Where to stay in Oaxaca

10 things we love about Oaxaca

Cultural diversity

Oaxaca is Mexico’s fifth largest state but is the most ethnically diverse, home to 16 different indigenous groups (the majority Zapoteco) and 52 languages. This, along with its geographical diversity, creates a distinctive gastronomic culture combining ancient traditions and contemporary techniques.

Chillies

The region boasts a huge variety of chillies including dark and smoke-fried pasilla de Oaxaca, fiery berry-like Chiltepin peppers, and fresh green chiles de agua, often stuffed with meat and cheese.

Barbacoa

Oaxacan barbacoa is an ancient cooking tradition that plays a central role in celebrations. It has pre-Hispanic roots with a technique known as pib, when meat was wrapped in banana leaves, maguey or palm then buried in earth ovens to cook slowly with hot embers. The most common barbacoa nowadays is goat, flavoured with chillies and local herbs like aviste. The juices collected during cooking are served as consommé, often with rice, chickpeas and sometimes the animal’s cooked blood.

Corn

Corn is used to create staples of Oaxacan cuisine, many cooked on a traditional limestone comal oven. Dishes include large pizza-shaped tlayudas topped with refried beans, veggies and Oaxacan cheese, as well as triangular-shaped tetelas stuffed with black beans, little round memelas and large cheese-filled empanadas. In July, Oaxacans celebrate Guelaguetza, when people from the villages gather in the city to dance, join parades and share food.

Grasshoppers

Chapulines, or grasshoppers, come from the wild mountains. They are coated in pepper powder, garlic and lime, grilled or fried in a pot above a comal and displayed in huge mounds in the region’s markets.

Cacao

Cacao is deep-rooted in Oaxacan culture, used to give texture, sweetness and decoration. It’s ground and whisked into hot water, and served in a bowl to sip on like coffee, fermented and mixed with corn to create tejate (know as the drink of the gods) or toasted on a comal oven then ground and stirred into moles. Mayordomo is a household brand that locals know and love.

Mole

Oaxaca is the home of mole, a thick sauce that varies in texture, tone, colour and flavour depending on the region, town and household, and time of year. The most common are black, green or red, often made up of more than 30 ingredients including cacao, dried Guajillo chillies, grasshoppers, raisins, almonds, pepper, olives and more.

Quesillo

Oaxacan cheese, known as quesillo, is unique in its string-like texture, wrapped up into large balls. It comes from Reyes Etla in the south-eastern valley region. Locals eat it fresh as snacks or shredded and melted into quesadillas, empanadas and tacos de guisado.

Mezcal

Oaxaca is home to hundreds of agave distilleries, known as palenques, where this earthy, smoky spirit is made by roasting the heart of the agave plant (the piña) in an underground pit, then milling to release juices before fermenting and distilling.

Photograph by Anna Bruce from Rambling Spirits (see below for tour details)

Tropical fruits

Tropical guava, with its unique sweet-tart flavour, has diverse uses from cocktails to sweet treats and even sweet, tangy moles. There is a road from the valley to the Pacific Ocean lined with mango trees, with varieties including extra sweet Manila and soft and juicy Ataulfo that is eaten fresh and laced with Tajín and sweet and sour pickled fruit sauce, chamoy, with flavours including tamarind and watermelon.

Where to eat and drink in Oaxaca

Sabina Sabe

This first-floor cocktail lounge exudes elegance and boasts an incredible selection of mezcal. Cocktails encapsulate the state’s diverse regions – try the intensely green signature, Selva, made using hoja santa leaf, mezcal and agave honey garnished with a tiny ball of Oaxacan cheese. Bag a table on the little balconies to soak up the city’s vibrant buzz. @sabinasabeoaxaca

Panadería Bodæga

At his blue-hued bakery, chef Rafael Andres Villalobos Valderrama spotlights Oaxacan ingredients and small-batch grains in stunning laminated bakes, each meticulously finished to order with fresh flowers and fruit toppings. Think hibiscus danish pastries, guava cream cruffins, and mango, prickly pear and passion fruit spandauer. @bodaega.oax

Pastry on a blue plate with fruit filling

Crudo

Chef-owner Rikardo Arellano serves a Oaxacan ingredient peppered omakase menu at his intimate sushi restaurant – jicama replaces ginger, black bean reduction for soy, dried pasilla chillies as a dipping sauce for seared tuna, and fresh prickly pear to top cacao granita. Fusion standouts include a nori taco wrapped around torched amberjack fish and bitter native herb chipilín-flecked rice. @crudo__oaxaca

Levadura de Olla

Set in a colourful courtyard adorned with ancient artefacts, this popular restaurant showcases regional Oaxacan dishes. Highlights include the picture perfect multicoloured tomato salad, shrimp in guava mole, and banana leaf tamales filled with spiced pork mince, chicken and cracked corn. levaduradeolla.mx

Rambling Spirits

Join agave experts Anna Bruce and Brooks Bailey in the heart of mezcal producing country as they share knowledge, intimate experiences with growers and rare mezcals that you might only ever try there and then. Excursions can be tailor-made to those who want to geek out on mezcal or to introduce novices to the process, local characters and restaurants in the heart of Oaxaca’s breathtaking agave fields and mountains. ramblingspirits.net

Where to stay in Oaxaca

Grana B&B

This 18th-century house turned B&B is bang in the centre of the city, its large wooden doors shutting out the noise to make way for a peaceful, cactus pot filled courtyard, homey kitchen and expansive rooftop that boasts 360-degree views of the city, its Santo Domingo church and surrounding Sierra Norte mountains. Three Mexican pals have seamlessly intertwined contemporary and traditional design elements to deck out the 14 rooms in earthy tones with brushed concrete walls, artisan artefacts and turquoise tiled bathrooms.

The master suite includes a terracotta bathtub on its own raised platform with shuttered windows that open onto the hustle and bustle of the city below. Breakfasts are a relaxed affair around the communal table in the kitchen, where guests can help themselves from a selection of local sweet treats, cold cuts and fresh fruits alongside hand-crushed cacao served in a green glazed pot on the stove. Daily rotating specials made on the comal by all-female cooks include chicken and salsa verde tamales, toasted memelas and fried corn tortilla chilaquiles coated in green or red salsa and cheese. granabnb.com

Hotel Sin Nombre

A stone’s throw from Oaxaca’s 20 Noviembre market, this converted 17th century mansion is home to a 22-room boutique. Many original features remain including Catalan vaults in the striking atrium hung with white linen rippling in the gentle breeze, while murals, photographs and rotating exhibitions from local artists add pops of colour. Gnarly wooden doors open into serene rooms, minimal in design, with antique furniture and wooden shutters, and bottles of house mezcal for sipping. Simple breakfasts, taken poolside on the plant-filled rooftop, include tropical fruits, yogurt and granola with Oaxacan coffee, plus an à la carte selection such as blue corn hotcakes.

Come noon, the shaded terrace morphs into a buzzy restaurant for the likes of squash tamales with salsa macha, prickly pear salad and slow-cooked brisket coated in homemade mole to scoop into fresh tortillas. Guest experiences include chef-guided market visits and cooking classes, agave cocktail tastings and yoga followed by cacao ceremonies. Adjacent bar, Cantinita, is a mecca to mezcal, where you can learn about the agave in guided tastings and try it in cocktails such as Yuk-a-tan, where mezcal is distilled with mango and Mayan lime, and stirred with Campari and vermouth for a Oaxacan-style negroni. hotelsinnombre.com