Tasty, cheap and authentic, quality street food is enjoying a boom.
Tamales.
Tamales are one of the most popular street foods in Mexico City, especially for breakfast. A huge steel bucket full of steaming tamales and two pots with atole a sweet breakfast drink of strawberry, chocolate, or rice thickened with starch are the basics of the tamal stand.
Quesadilla.
For a foreigner quesadillas can be confusing, since they share the same principle as a taco: a tortilla folded in half and filled with whatever you want and despite the name, it’s not always cheese. You’ll recognize quesadillas by their longer tortillas. The usual guisados that fill a quesadilla are cooked mushrooms, chicken, or beef with red sauce, and potato with chorizo. And sometimes but not always cheese. They also have a few variations.
Tacos.
A tortilla (usually corn) forms the base of all tacos, which can be filled with anything: every part of the pig, cow, and chicken, stewed (as in a guisado), barbecued (for barbacoa), roasted on a vertical spit (al pastor), cooked atop a griddle (a la plancha), or campechano(a melange of chopped meats). Tacos de mariscos (seafood) and pescado (fish) can also be found on the streets of Mexico City. Beans, cheese, rice, nopales (cactus paddles), and grilled spring onions are common additions. Salsas are always on offer; Every stand will have one red and one green salsa.
Raspados.
The Mexico version of snow cones, raspados (the word means “shaved”) are cups of shaved-ice covered with all kinds of flavored syrups. Tamarind, lime, mango, strawberry, grapefruit, chamoy, and rompope Mexican eggnog are typical choices, and most vendors will make a spicy version that includes beautiful amounts of chamoy, chile powder, and lime.
Tortas.
As well as with the taco, the variety of the tortas is endless. Cut a bun in half in Mexico the most common breads are bolillos or teleras and put whatever you want inside and you have a torta. A popular kind is a torta ahogada, a version from Jalisco that’s filled with potato and chorizo swimming in a light and very hot tomato sauce, and topped with shredded cabbage, sour cream, and cheese.