The Mystic Town of Tepoztlan: Open Your Mouth and You're in for Some Unique Tastes

Good food is easy to come by in Tepoztlan, Mexico, located just a couple of hours south of Mexico City on the road to Acapulco. There's a generous variety of restaurants catering to the weekend visitor and tourists. Local fare centers on rolled tortilla sandwiches of pork, chicken, cheese or vegetables. Hot peppers are available if you wish. Roast meat dishes and traditional Nahua-style meals are likewise plentiful, but pizza and burger joints are in short supply. Local platters are sizeable, filling and tasty. The streets in central town area and the colorful, exotic market located behind the main plaza (also called the Zocalo), are brimming with choice places for dining on any budget. Here are some to try out for starters:

Restuarante Vegetariano Xochipilli located at Ave. Revolucion No. 10

A nicely decorated place with tempting non-meat specialties. It's a bit on the "touristy" side but service is good and the menu varied enough to be a worthwhile stop on your agenda. Prices for local delicacies range from 20 pesos to around 50 pesos for heartier fare.

Restaurant Los Colorines located at Tepozteco No. 13

A Tepoztlan landmark with its bright pink exterior that's hard to miss. It's decorated in Mexican colonial style and features a typical Mexican dish menu. Blue corn tortillas are a specialty here and make their enchiladas interesting to the eye and the palette. Prices are moderate for most entrees, ranging around 30 to 50 pesos for most. If you're a chocolate lover try the "Pollo en salsa mole" or chicken in mole sauce. Chocolate is a major ingredient in mole sauce. This dish is popular throughout central and southern Mexico all the way to the Yucatan.

At the Market

Tepoztlan's most unique food can be sampled at the expansive Central Market located immediately behind the Zocalo (main plaza). In addition to the usual vegetable, meat and poultry stalls, family-owned stalls serving dishes you'll have to see and taste to believe are strung from one entrance to the other. The food at all of them looked good but of the several sampled, here are two we'd recommend for starters:

Antojitos Mexicanos Irma