Trusting Tony in Mexico City

So it turns out that after all this time, watching Anthony Bourdain has finally done me some good.

Well, not really, because I actually never saw the Mexico City episode. But someone else did, and tried one of the restaurants he visited. And then she told us about it on the plane. And then we went there, and got free stuff.

We had spent the earlier part of the day visiting the ruins at Teotihuacan, just outside of the city. In the native language, it means "City of the Gods" and the two main structures there have been known as the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, although recently the Pyramid of the Sun has been thought to actually be a Pyramid for the Water God. The civilization was thought to have begun around 600 B.C. and the earliest of the ruins were believed to have been built in 100 A.D. We were able to climb up and around most of the ruins, and did that for a few hours before heading back into the city for our much anticipated dinner.

The place is called La Mascota, but all we had to go on was that it might be located at 20 Mesones street. After consulting with Google and a few different maps, we figured out the best route to take using the efficient and extremely cheap Metro system. After walking a bit, we came across what we thought might be the place. While we weren't completely sure about it, we heard live music coming from inside and there was a decent crowd, so we figured either way it couldn't be bad.

After a few of the staff members debated amongst themselves for awhile about who would help us, we were told to pick any table and decided on one towards the back but not far from the band. We saw that almost the entire menu was alcohol. There was a small corner listing a few different sandwich options and a daily specials menu over the door, which we couldn't see. We ordered a round of drinks and then finally someone came over and gave us a copy of the daily menu, which listed 7 different options. After asking for assistance from someone in translating, the server explained that we could get as much of anything off the menu that we wanted. Without really knowing what she was ordering, Steph chose a couple of options and we waited to see what we would get.

A short time later we had two orders of steak and one of chicken on the table. Soon to follow, we ordered a quesadilla and some soup, which ended up being something with cactus in it. All of the food, especially the bistec mexicana, was really good, and, as we were told, when the bill came the only thing on it was our drinks. We spent more than we probably should have on margaritas, but justified it with our free meal for the night. This tidbit of advice we stumbled upon means that I am going to try to watch the "No Reservations" episodes available for any city we visit on this trip.