I should probably start this with the fact that we like street food and informal places to enjoy local food. So maybe, perhaps, “dining” is not accurate in this case. I’m happy to have drippy sauces so good I’d like to drink them, and dishes that “will” need extra napkins just to eat the deliciousness (an aside, I’ve been saved a number of times on travel by putting unused, yes clean, napkins in my purse—just an FYI for you). Okay, on to the show…

For breakfast, we rarely went out, however, we had amazing breakfast and coffee at Rico’s Café. It was delicious and everything that a breakfast place should be! Both the coffee and the food were scrumptious (which is rare… we usually find that you get one or the other?)!

For lunch and dinner we alternated between enjoying the many taquerias and cooking. The places we like the most were the grill Las Brochetas, the fancy drinks at Mariscos El Memín, and the two taquerias Taquería El Paisa (better tacos and tostadas) and Taquería Los Sobrinos (better papas). It is worth noting that the Mazatlán papas (potatoes) are amazing and a nice complement to the tacos/tostadas. Also PSA… the hot salsa is HOT even coming from us and we both really like spicy food. When you head up to the salsa bar in Mazatlán, start easy or on the side (the first night we were tired and the tacos were too hot… tears happened, totally just from the hot sauce). Also, try the baby limes on everything, they are delicious in both beer and on the food!

We specifically rented an apartment with a kitchen so we could cook and decided that we’d buy things locally and figure out how to make them. As a result, we learned how to cook with so many types of peppers (note to select peppers that are soft, like raisins, not brittle)! As with the salsa, be aware of the spiciness of the peppers so you can customize them to your palate. The supermarkets have a lot of fresh and dried peppers, amazing tomatoes, fresh avocados, tomatillos, fresh cilantro, and dried Mexican oregano. We made many recipes and our very favorite blog was Mexican Please. If you take nothing else away from this post, and you want to know what to do with tomatillos, the Avocado Salsa Verde is good enough to eat with a spoon (not that I’d know that from personal experience…). Also, the Ancho Chicken Enchiladas are so delicious!

We were a little sad that our apartment kitchen in Mazatlán didn’t have an oven… until we discovered two bakeries that made that entirely unnecessary. Dolce Mami and Pastelería Avellana both made miniature two-layer cakes that were perfect for us.

And while I did boast about street food… it took us a while to get to our street food in Mazatlán. I will tell you that at the end of our trip, the best pastry (filled with cream cheese) we had was from the back of a bakery truck. Bob noticed two local workers getting treats, and stopped us to get some treats. So delicious!!!