Mexican cuisine was added to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list in 2010 — the first cuisine to be so listed — on the basis of the whole system: the milpa, nixtamalised maize, the techniques and the community around it.
Mexico City eats everything, because everybody in Mexico has come here.
Maize
The foundation. Maize is treated with lime — nixtamalisation, a technique several thousand years old — which softens the hull, releases niacin and makes the protein usable. Without it maize diets cause pellagra; with it they do not.
That process is why the tortilla exists and why it tastes the way it does. A tortilla from fresh nixtamal masa is a completely different thing from one made with industrial flour, and the difference is worth seeking out.
The tacos
Al pastor has its own entry — pork on a vertical spit, Lebanese in origin, and the emblem of the city.
Suadero — beef slow-cooked in fat. Carnitas — pork confit, best on Sundays, ordered by cut: maciza, cuero, buche. Barbacoa — lamb steamed in maguey leaves in a pit, a weekend breakfast, served with the consomé. Cabeza — steamed beef head, in named cuts including ojo, lengua and cachete. Canasta — basket tacos, pre-made and steamed, sold from bicycles in the morning.
Guisado tacos — stews ladled onto tortillas, which is lunch for a great many people.
Everything else
Tamales — masa steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf, sold from steaming pots at dawn. In Mexico City they are also eaten inside a bread roll as a guajolota, which is a carbohydrate sandwich and is the classic commuter breakfast.
Tlacoyos — a thick oval of blue masa stuffed with beans or fava, griddled, topped with nopal and cheese. Sold by women on street corners and one of the best things in the city.
Quesadillas — and note that in Mexico City a quesadilla does not automatically contain cheese. You must ask con queso. This is a long-running national joke and it is genuinely true here.
Mole — the great sauces, of which poblano is the famous one, with dozens of ingredients. Pozole — hominy soup, red, white or green, on Thursdays. Chiles en nogada in August and September. Cochinita pibil from Yucatán. Esquites and elotes — corn in a cup or on the cob, with mayonnaise, cheese, chilli and lime.
Churros at El Moro, open since 1935 and open all night.
The restaurants
Mexico City has one of the strongest fine-dining scenes anywhere. Pujol (Enrique Olvera) and Quintonil are the internationally known ones and book weeks ahead. Rosetta, Máximo, Contramar for seafood at lunch, Nicos for classic Mexico City cooking.
Contramar on a Friday afternoon is an institution.
Street food, safely
The general rule works: hot, freshly cooked, from a busy stall. High turnover is the safety mechanism.
Be more careful with anything sitting warm in a tray, with unpeeled fruit, with salsas that have been out for hours, and with ice from informal sources.
Do drink the aguas frescas from a busy stall — horchata, jamaica, tamarindo — they are one of the pleasures of the city.
Tipping
10 to 15 per cent in restaurants; check whether propina has already been added, which some places do for larger tables.
A few pesos for the person who watches your car, the bagger at the supermarket, and the musician who plays at your table.
Street stalls: no tip.
Meal times
Mexico eats late and in a specific rhythm.
Desayuno early — tamales, guajolotas, café de olla from a street cart, or a full sit-down breakfast.
Almuerzo mid-morning. Comida, the main meal, from about two until four or five — this is when the comida corrida set lunch is served and when restaurants are fullest.
Cena is late and light, from about nine. Taquerías run until two or three in the morning.
Turning up for dinner at seven means an empty restaurant.
Vegetarians
Manageable but requires care. Beans are frequently cooked with lard, and caldo de pollo appears in things that look vegetarian.
What works: quesadillas (ask con queso), tlacoyos, nopales, esquites, chiles rellenos, enfrijoladas, and the substantial modern vegetarian scene in Roma and Condesa.
Soy vegetariano/a and ¿lleva carne o pollo? are the phrases.
The chilli question
Mexican food is not uniformly hot, and much of what arrives at your table will not be. The heat is usually in the salsa, which is served on the side precisely so that you decide.
Try a little of each before committing. Green salsas are usually tomatillo-based and red usually dried-chilli, but which of the two is fiercer varies entirely by cook.
¿Pica mucho? — is it very hot? — is the question, and the answer un poquito should be treated with caution.
Drinks
Agua fresca — horchata (rice and cinnamon), jamaica (hibiscus), tamarindo, melon — sold everywhere and one of the pleasures of the city.
Café de olla, coffee brewed in a clay pot with cinnamon and piloncillo. Champurrado, a thick chocolate atole, drunk with tamales in the morning.
And pulque, mezcal and the cantinas, which have their own entry.