Food

What and where to eat in Álamos

Álamos eats Sonoran, which means beef, wheat flour and simplicity done well — this is ranch country, not the seafood-and-chile coast. The food is honest rather than fancy, and the best of it is cheap.

The dishes to plan around

• Carne asada. Sonora’s signature. Thin grilled beef, flour tortillas, guacamole and salsa. If you eat one thing here, eat this.
• Machaca. Dried, shredded beef scrambled with eggs, tomato and chile — the classic Sonoran breakfast. Order it at the market.
• Flour tortillas. Big, thin, hand-stretched sobaqueras. Northern Mexico takes wheat tortillas seriously and it shows.
• Coyotas. A regional sweet — a flat, filled pastry, usually with piloncillo. Good with coffee.

Where to eat

• The municipal market and its stalls are the value play: a full breakfast of machaca and eggs runs cheap, roughly a couple of dollars’ worth of pesos (approximate).
• The plaza restaurants and mansion-hotel dining rooms are pricier and aimed at the winter crowd — pleasant courtyards, sometimes a set menu, expect to pay several times the market price for a main.
• Taco stands in the working streets off the center are where a good evening taco or asada plate costs little and tastes best.

Approximate rule of thumb: market and street food is a few dollars; a sit-down meal on the plaza is more like a mid-range restaurant anywhere. Prices are indicative — the site confirms specifics separately.