Dinner in Valladolid
Yucatán Travelog #12
Valladolid, Yucatán - Sun 28 Dec 2014 - 5pm
As it was already 3 when we left Chichén Itzá we were hungry for food. My only nourishment so far for the day had been leftover pizza from Papa Juan eaten at 6:30am. And for our late lunch-- really more of an early dinner at that point-- we wanted something more authentic than chain pizza. It looked like our best bet was to take Route 180 a little east into the town of Valladolid.
Church of San Servacio in Valladolid, MexicoValladolid is a city of about 50,000 in the middle of the Yucatán Peninsula. It has a very colonial style layout. The two main roads through town cross around a public square, and the historic Church of San Servacio faces the square. We scored an awesome parking spot near the town square and decided to explore on foot.
A plaque outside the church says that this building dates to 1706, replacing a church originally built on the site in 1545 but torn down in 1705.
We picked out a restaurant along the edge of the square at semi-random. Our method was: 1) Look at the menu to see if they had stuff we liked. 2) Look inside to make sure locals are actually eating there. I don't even remember the name of where we ate. But it was good.
At the restaurant only Spanish was spoken. It was not like the tourist-heavy places in Cancún where the staff all know at least basic English and will switch from Spanish to English if you don't look like a local. But that was fine with me. I know plenty of Spanish to be comfortable ordering food at a restaurant.
One of the items on the menu was cochinita pibil, a traditional local dish developed by the Maya. It's pork in achiote barbecue sauce roasted in banana leaves. It's very rare to see it in the US, so I knew I had to try it here, in the region where it originated. Folks who've seen the Roberto Rodriguez/Johnny Depp movie "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" (IMDb link) will understand.
Now, just ordering a specialty in its own homeland is no guarantee that it'll be good. I mean, there are plenty of shitty pizzas in New York City. And we picked this restaurant without the benefit of guidebooks or review sites. But the cochinita pibil they served was exquisite. It was tender, spicy, sweet, and tangy, all at the same time. It think it's the tastiest pork dish I've ever had. If this was that Roberto Rodriguez movie I'd have to kill the cook.
Dinner at a local restaurant in Valladolid. This cochinitas pîbil may be good enough to kill the cook!
We also ordered a few other dishes. Hawk got chicken enchiladas in tomatillo sauce and a plate of plátanos. I'm not a fan of plantains, but the enchiladas were good and I totally would have polished off the leftovers if not for the awesome cochinitas right in front of me. We also shared a plate of tasty, handmade beef tamales which-- again-- if not for the cochinitas right in front of me I would've happily hoovered up, too.
All told, we had about twice as much food on the table as we really wanted. We did feel a bit guilty about that (we hate wasting food) but we knew that we ordered a bit aggressively since we were hungry and didn't know how big or how good anything was going to be. At least there was no guilt in paying for all that food. The entire meal was 250 pesos, about $16 US.
Valladolid, Yucatán - Sun 28 Dec 2014 - 5pm
As it was already 3 when we left Chichén Itzá we were hungry for food. My only nourishment so far for the day had been leftover pizza from Papa Juan eaten at 6:30am. And for our late lunch-- really more of an early dinner at that point-- we wanted something more authentic than chain pizza. It looked like our best bet was to take Route 180 a little east into the town of Valladolid.
Church of San Servacio in Valladolid, MexicoValladolid is a city of about 50,000 in the middle of the Yucatán Peninsula. It has a very colonial style layout. The two main roads through town cross around a public square, and the historic Church of San Servacio faces the square. We scored an awesome parking spot near the town square and decided to explore on foot.
A plaque outside the church says that this building dates to 1706, replacing a church originally built on the site in 1545 but torn down in 1705.
We picked out a restaurant along the edge of the square at semi-random. Our method was: 1) Look at the menu to see if they had stuff we liked. 2) Look inside to make sure locals are actually eating there. I don't even remember the name of where we ate. But it was good.
At the restaurant only Spanish was spoken. It was not like the tourist-heavy places in Cancún where the staff all know at least basic English and will switch from Spanish to English if you don't look like a local. But that was fine with me. I know plenty of Spanish to be comfortable ordering food at a restaurant.
One of the items on the menu was cochinita pibil, a traditional local dish developed by the Maya. It's pork in achiote barbecue sauce roasted in banana leaves. It's very rare to see it in the US, so I knew I had to try it here, in the region where it originated. Folks who've seen the Roberto Rodriguez/Johnny Depp movie "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" (IMDb link) will understand.
Now, just ordering a specialty in its own homeland is no guarantee that it'll be good. I mean, there are plenty of shitty pizzas in New York City. And we picked this restaurant without the benefit of guidebooks or review sites. But the cochinita pibil they served was exquisite. It was tender, spicy, sweet, and tangy, all at the same time. It think it's the tastiest pork dish I've ever had. If this was that Roberto Rodriguez movie I'd have to kill the cook.
Dinner at a local restaurant in Valladolid. This cochinitas pîbil may be good enough to kill the cook!
We also ordered a few other dishes. Hawk got chicken enchiladas in tomatillo sauce and a plate of plátanos. I'm not a fan of plantains, but the enchiladas were good and I totally would have polished off the leftovers if not for the awesome cochinitas right in front of me. We also shared a plate of tasty, handmade beef tamales which-- again-- if not for the cochinitas right in front of me I would've happily hoovered up, too.
All told, we had about twice as much food on the table as we really wanted. We did feel a bit guilty about that (we hate wasting food) but we knew that we ordered a bit aggressively since we were hungry and didn't know how big or how good anything was going to be. At least there was no guilt in paying for all that food. The entire meal was 250 pesos, about $16 US.