📅November Eternal Spring recap
Highlights from the places we went, the things we did, and the meals we ate in November in Mexico City and Pennsylvania, plus a peek into our plans for Eternal Spring in December
We spent the first half of November in Mexico City and the second half in Pennsylvania, where we’ll stay through early January to spend the holidays with family and friends.
We had planned to leave Mexico City on Nov. 12, but we ended up extending our stay by a week, so we had a bit more time to explore and enjoy the “eternal spring” weather.
Here’s a roundup from the month.
Fancy food
Pujol
Our friends Acacia and Nate came to visit for a week. They both work in the food industry—Nate is a chef—so they splurged on a meal at Pujol and we joined them.
We’ll post a full review, but the short version is: the food was amazing, the service had a few glitches, and the wine pairing wasn’t worth the expense—better to just get your drinks by the glass. Was it better than Quintonil? We’ll weigh in soon.
Merotoro
Merotoro is one of those higher-end restaurants we try to get back to at least once every time we’re in Mexico City. The service is great, the food is fantastic and we can almost always get a reservation on short notice, or just walk in and be seated.
Pargot
Pargot is close to our apartment, but a little out of the way for most visitors. It’s in the southeastern corner of Roma Norte, near Doctores and Roma Sur. It’s a tiny place, with outdoor tables only, but the chef and team there put together some really interesting dishes. As with Merotoro, we try to visit at least once each time we go to Mexico City.
Here’s a quick roundup of some other, less-fancy restaurants we tried this past month. You’ll see most of them highlighted in our upcoming guidebook.
Dona Emi Tamales: The tamale vendor who meanders through the neighborhoods every night always seems to arrive when we've just eaten, so we were excited to find this storefront tamale restaurant in Roma Sur.
Tacos Atarantados: It took us a few tries to get into this new spot in Roma Norte without waiting in a long line. Katy Perry reportedly ate here recently, but not when we were there.
Vigneron: This wine bar has fantastic, shareable food plates, a cozy setting, and great service.
Porco Rosso: The barbecue is so good here that our neighbors were on board eating here with us, even after they had been there the night before.
Caldos de Gallina “Luis”: Go here for inexpensive, delicious, and filling chicken soup. It’s open 24/7.
El Sirloin de la Roma: This place serves spit-roasted beef tacos that are better than the ones we had at the Michelin-starred Taqueria el Califa de Leon.
Sal e Brasa: We had fun here with Mexican friends. It’s a Brazilian-style, all-you-can-eat restaurant heavy on meat, like Fogo de Chao.
Fun stuff
Cantina
Our neighbors took us to their favorite cantina. It’s a really fun experience—if you order four (!) drinks, your food is free. All the while, different Mexican entertainers are performing, and customers are singing along and dancing.
Chapultepec
We wanted to ride the new cable car line that goes above the Chapultapec neighborhood, but we picked the wrong day and would have had to wait for hours in the hot sun. So we explored the park instead. We’ll get to the cable car on the next trip.
Street art
We can barely turn a corner in Mexico City without spotting some incredible street art. Here are a few shots from our neighborhood.
Sunsets
We don’t see the sunset from our balcony in the summer because as it moves north, it shifts behind a building. So, we’re a little obsessive about the sunsets when we can see them.
Home for the holidays
Back in Pennsylvania, the holiday season is in full swing. We roasted a 26-pound turkey for Thanksgiving, saw some pretty lights in downtown Easton, and took the obligatory photo of our kids picking out a Christmas tree even though they are 26 and 23, not 6 and 3.
Eternal Spring updates
Here’s what we covered on Substack:
Coming in December
Expect to see a first preview of our book, Eternal Spring: Our Guidebook to Mexico City, to our first readers. It will include our firsthand tips for visiting the city, thoughts on the top sights, our favorite restaurants in key neighborhoods, and a detailed guide to Centro Historico. And then we’ll expand it from there.