Food Tours · Tour

Where the Office Workers Eat: Tlacoyos and Cemitas

Colonia Cuauhtemoc holds the stock exchange and a large number of foreign embassies, which means several thousand office workers who need lunch and dozens of stands outside to feed them. That is the entire logic of this tour, and it is a good one: the food is competitive, fast and eaten daily by people who have opinions about it. Three hours, eight people, and the operator calls it a beginner's guide because it is meant to be the first street food you eat in Mexico City rather than the bravest. The stops change with the day, but the list usually includes tlacoyos, the oval masa cakes stuffed with beans or cheese and cooked on a comal; squash-flower burritos, which are seasonal and better than they sound; tacos de carnitas; and cemitas, the Puebla sandwich on a sesame roll with papalo, a herb with no real equivalent anywhere else. There is as much food as you can eat, which the operator puts at a large breakfast and a lunch combined, plus a fresh juice and traditional Mexican sweets. The guide introduces you to the vendors and tells you their stories, which is the difference between eating on a street and understanding it. It ends at a chocolate shop in Juarez. Eight people at most, in English or Spanish. Generous tips for all the street vendors are built into the price, which is worth noting: some tours are not so careful. Wheelchair accessible throughout, service animals allowed, prams fine.