Why you eat well here
Michoacan is one of Mexico’s great food states, its traditional cuisine recognized on UNESCO’s list, and Morelia is where you eat it comfortably. This is the home of carnitas done properly and of a deep tradition of corn and chile cookery from the Purepecha highlands. Plan your meals the way you would plan your sights, because the food is the main event.
The dishes to chase
- Carnitas. Michoacan-style slow-cooked pork, simmered in its own fat in a copper pot, sold by weight (por kilo) and piled into tacos with cilantro, onion and salsa. Order maciza (lean), surtida (mixed), or ask for cuerito (crackling). Best in the morning when it is fresh, a taco costing roughly 15 to 25 MXN (approximate).
- Corundas and uchepos. The local tamales: corundas are savory, triangular, wrapped in corn leaf and served with cream, cheese and salsa; uchepos are sweeter, made from fresh milk-corn. Look for them at markets and street carts, around 20 to 40 MXN each (approximate).
- Sopa tarasca. A rich bean-and-tomato soup topped with cream, crumbled cheese, fried tortilla strips, avocado and dried chile pasilla. The local comfort dish, roughly 60 to 100 MXN a bowl (approximate).
- Enchiladas morelianas. Tortillas dipped in guajillo sauce, filled with cheese and fried, served with potatoes and carrots and often a piece of chicken. The classic cenaduria dinner.
- Gazpacho moreliano. Not the Spanish soup: chopped mango, jicama and pineapple with lime, chili, salt and cotija, sold in a cup from carts. The perfect afternoon snack, around 25 to 45 MXN (approximate).
Where to eat
Markets first. Head to Mercado Independencia (a few blocks south of the cathedral) for cheap, honest carnitas and comida corrida among locals, roughly 80 to 130 MXN for a full lunch (approximate). Then the Mercado de Dulces by the Palacio Clavijero for candied fruit, ate and cajeta, more for tasting and taking home than a meal.
Sit-down michoacano. The center has several well-regarded restaurants serving regional cooking in old pink-stone courtyards, from casual to refined, many clustered under the arcades on Plaza de Armas and along Avenida Madero. A good mid-range regional meal runs roughly 250 to 450 MXN a head; the fancier courtyard spots more (all approximate). For an evening meal, a cenaduria in the side streets off Madero gives you enchiladas morelianas and pozole at half the price of the plaza restaurants.
Meal timing
Eat carnitas in the morning, when the pot is fresh, ideally before noon. The big meal, comida, is mid-afternoon, roughly 2 to 4pm, which is when the markets and comida-corrida spots are busiest and best. Gazpacho is a late-afternoon snack. Dinner is light and later, the cenaduria hour from about 7pm, since Morelia does not do late nights.
Order this, not that
Order your carnitas at the busy morning stall, not the plaza restaurant that serves them all day lukewarm. And save the sweet market for a walk-through taste rather than a meal, one piece of ate or a spoon of cajeta, then go eat real food at Mercado Independencia. Do not leave without a cup of gazpacho from a street cart. For where locals actually eat, see where locals go and the food category.