Tlaquepaque, the suburb with a funny name, is about a 20 minute bus ride from central Guadalajara yet is very different. It has a small-town feel and a lovely central plaza, full of strolling families and street eats. There's actually an almost Disney feel to the main calle, which is pedestrianized and lined with beautiful boutiques and fancy restaurants advertising sushi along with their tequila drinks.
We arrived yesterday midafternoon and checked into our cheapie little place, donde el indio duerme (yes, that is the name!).
It's very cheap, like I said (unlike most of the places to stay in Tlaquepaque), and the rooms are cute, but it is definitely in need of some TLC! The first room we were given had HUGE mold spots taking up an entire corner. This room is better, though the paint is peeling from the walls in sheets and a spring in the bed poked Logan all last night. It faces the main road, which while it is a pedestrian thoroughfare, is pretty loud at night. We'll be in fancier digs tomorrow, so no biggie.
We dropped our bags and immediately took off to explore the town.
I smelled the aroma of roasting peanuts coming from a street corner and followed my nose to this guy.
A sack of the in-shell peanuts, freshly roasted over an open flame, made a wonderful snack.
We made our way back to Tlaquepaque's main square and ogled the beautiful Santuario.
The main square is beautiful, and was beginning to pick up as we strolled around at 5:30.
We bought sacks of freshly boiled green garbanzo beans for snacking and discovered the wonders of buñuelos, huge fried disks coated in piloncillo (unrefined brown sugar) caramel. No chicharrones for us, though. That's their spicy sauce in the 5-gallon bucket.
We also bought a 5-liter jug of tequila, just for funsies. (No, we didn't.)
After a quick stop back at the hotel to freshen up a bit, we walked down the few blocks to find Doña Victoria's dinner stand. In Tlaquepaque, there seem to be lots of establishments like these, with seating indoors and a kitchen set up outside. There's no sign of them until early evening, when the doors are thrown open and the kitchen is set up and starts cooking.
This place was quite well organized - they even had a printed menu!
All of the cooking takes place in this mobile stand. There's a metal sheet pounded into a hillock with a divot in the middle; the divot holds frying oil, and the sloped sides outside the divot form a bed to keep already fried items warm.
We ordered a couple of tacos, a few enchiladas, and a bowl of posole. Sort of hilariously, they all had the same garnishes and looked about the same when they arrived. The agua fresca on hand was jamaica, and the big mugs of hibiscus-flavored water were refreshing and welcome.
The posole was the standout here; the porky broth held shredded pork leg meat and chunks of hominy. The hominy was especially interesting - I'm used to the commercial canned stuff, where each kernel of the treated corn looks just about exactly the same. This hominy was much more homely. There were kernels of varying colors, from red through to white, and each had its own often smooshy shape.
On the way back, we walked through Tlaquepaque's square again. Such prettiness.
Those bunuelos are huge! They could almost double as umbrellas if you got caught in a spring shower ;) The plaza is lovely, and too bad that your room was sub-par 'cause it looks so, so cute in the picture!
Posted by: Krista | Wednesday, 30 March 2011 at 09:51
Hello - new reader here, loving your posts on Mexico so far. I live in Chicago but have visited my boyfriend's family in Guadalajara several times. We had a similar evening in Tlaquepaque, such a cute town. We did a day trip/one night in Tequila last March ... it was awesome. If you're not afraid to throw back some tequila, you can do one of several distillery/tasting tours. Anyway, I'd highly recommend fitting a day in Tequila if you can manage ...
Look forward to reading more through the year!!
Posted by: molly | Wednesday, 30 March 2011 at 14:32
bunuelos are large flour tortilla-sized. the picture you're talking about features the chicharrones. fried pork rinds. and they didn't even cut them up first. heh.
Posted by: diana | Thursday, 31 March 2011 at 00:43
Hi! Yup, Diana, those are the giant chicharrones. They break them up when you order them and then ladle a plastic cupful of spicy stuff on them - I can't quite bring myself to do it, yet!
Krista, the place was definitely cute. You can sort of see the paint peeling in the mirror over Logan's head, but I think it looked a bit worse in person. He jammed a bunch of toilet paper into the matress today to keep the spring from sticking him. :-p
Posted by: Boots in the Oven | Thursday, 31 March 2011 at 02:19
Hi, Molly! Thanks so much for the comment, and I'm glad you're enjoying the blog! I'd be curious what your boyfriend thinks of Rick Bayless's Xoco torta ahogada. We couldn't get to Tequila this time, but we did buy some to conduct our own little taste test. Wondering if there are mezcal tours in Oaxaca...
Thanks for reading, and please let us know if you have any other suggestions!
Posted by: Boots in the Oven | Thursday, 31 March 2011 at 02:22
how happy and jealous i am for you guys to be visiting Mexico like this. i hope that some day, i'll be able to visit the ancestral land! and feast myself upon delicious chicharrones! haha.
please stay safe!
Posted by: diana | Tuesday, 05 April 2011 at 18:16