Food

What to eat

Mérida is the best place in the southeast to eat, and the cooking is distinctly Yucatecan, not generic Mexican. Plan meals around these:

• Cochinita pibil. Achiote-marinated pork slow-cooked in banana leaf, best at breakfast and often sold out by early afternoon.
• Panuchos and salbutes. Fried tortillas topped with turkey or chicken, pickled onion and avocado. Cheap, everywhere, essential.
• Sopa de lima and papadzules. A bright lime-and-turkey soup, and egg-stuffed tortillas in pumpkin-seed sauce.
• Poc chuc and queso relleno. Grilled citrus-marinated pork, and a stuffed-cheese dish that shows the region’s odd Dutch influence.

Where to eat

The markets for the real thing. The fondas inside Mercado Lucas de Gálvez and the neighborhood Mercado de Santiago serve the honest, cheap version of all of the above. Expect to pay roughly 60 to 120 pesos for a full plate (approximate). Go hungry and early.

Sit-down Yucatecan classics. Long-running places around the center and Santa Lucía do the traditional dishes in a calmer setting for a bit more, figure 150 to 300 pesos a main (approximate).

Modern Yucatecan. Paseo de Montejo and Santa Ana hold the city’s more ambitious kitchens reworking regional ingredients. Reservations help on weekends; expect city prices.

Don’t miss

• Marquesitas from an evening street cart, a crisp rolled crepe with cheese and Nutella that sounds wrong and tastes right.
• Agua de chaya and cold horchata to survive the heat.
• Sunday street-food stalls on and around the plaza during Mérida en Domingo.