Vacation in Mexico with the van Fleet brothers - what more could a girl ask for? Margaritas, sun, good food and company. Simple. Except the travel books that Ryan and I had doggedly studied all had disclaimers for Acapulco, concluding that, "She's a diva past her prime". In the fifties Acapulco tourism was defined by its small hotels built on the cliffs overlooking the bay, Pacific landscape and the city. Then the new, huge all-inclusive resorts on the beach came in.
The brothers and I spent a timeshare week at the Grand Mayan, one of these mega-complexes and lived like pseudo Mayan royalty, tanning and sipping the daily fruity cocktail by the pool. This was by day. By night, we left resort-land, making a good effort to find our food experiences by asking taxi drivers and the resort staff for recommendations. The travel books could not be trusted, because they generally led us to the turistico and "international" places we were trying to avoid.
First, travel with us outside the resort, beyond the "largest golf course in Mexico" and "biggest pool in the world." Looming ahead is a mammoth Super Wal-Mart and a bit further down the road mixed in with the Acapulcan madness is a McDonald's, KFC, and Starbucks. You have to wonder what places like Acapulco would look like if at least in the food realm they were left to evolve independent of middle-America eating and buying.
But, this is as far as I'll go with the editorializing on tourism and local economies and will let the food and politics speak for itself.
La Lomita and La Tejamil: When we told our cab driver we wanted to go to La Lomita, he told us he'd wait for us in the taxi while we ate. Cabs didn't pass by these restaurants outside the boundary of Acapulco tourism. In fact, we drove several miles down roads in very poor neighborhoods - the sturdiest structure for miles had been the ubiquitous Coca-Cola factory, standing prisonous with armed guards in front. La Lomita was completely deserted at eight in the evening. They weren't serving food. Next door, La Tejamil looked the same, but they were open. The brightly painted pavilion was emtpy but for us, crickets chirping outside, neighborhood dogs barking, and crazy game shows on the TV. What we later learned, after some deliciously strong margaritas, salty queso fundido, fresh guacamole, "little birds" and fish tacos and was that los jueves and los domingos are the days and nights to go to both places for lively music and lots of food and people. We never did make it back for los jueves, so to us it remains a food mystery unsolved, and we are left to imagine how fantastic it must be.
La Tortuga: By far the best place where we ate, and in fact we went twice. It's nicely tucked away into a hillside away from all the hustle and bustle. It's a space in which you don't know exactly where it begins and ends - there are no walls but one, and tables strewn about on the bi-level patio under fauna and outdoor ceiling fans. It's a quiet and happy place. Our server was very kind and attentive and remembered us the second time we came. We shared combination platters with tostadas, enchiladas, chiles rellenos, guacamole, and frijoles. The sopa de tortilla was a meal on it's own, chiles just over the brim of comfortably spicy, cooled off with slices of avocado and melted cheese. Then out came the helado coco (coconut ice cream) with toasted coconute flakes and drizzled with a coffee liqueur. Sigh. We also had this marvelous liqueur in our coffee. This was the closest we came to food heaven the entire week.
La Perla/La Quebrada: On a day of sightseeing around the city, our cab driver took us to La Quebrada, the cliffs where for over fifty years divers have jumped from daring heights into treacherous sea water. And this is good entertainment, so we watched from a hotel restaurant built into the cliffs, drinking cervezas and eating tacos with a bird's eye view of the spectacle. It was food with a view.
It's true that the diva is well past her prime, but she can create an amazing food effect.
La Tortuga Restaurante-Bar
Avenida Lomas Del Mar 5
Acapulco, MX 39690, GRO
Since 1960
Tel. 52-744-4-84-69-85
1 comment:
Um... what about the Mondo crepes?
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