Grand Velas Riviera Maya pays tribute to the traditional flavors of Mexico City

To celebrate Mexico’s Independence, during the month of September Frida restaurant will hold the “Mexico de Mis Recuerdos” festival. Meaning “The Mexico of My Memories”, this festival will feature a special menu created by Chef Daniel Garcia, paying tribute to the culinary corners where Mexican cuisine evolved as the history of our country was written.

First was the Festival of Mexican Cuisine, Las Rutas de México, for the Bicentennial celebrations in Grand Velas Riviera Maya. Now, motivated by the festivities celebrating our independence, we embark upon a new gastronomic adventure to honor the most traditional restaurants of México City. These establishments honor the history of our country and have in fact helped to create part of our identity as Mexicans.

Mexican Chef Daniel Garcia will be the one to recreate the textures, colors and flavors of these institutions, flavored with a bit of history. The tour will take us through the ancient streets of the city center that house some of the most notorious eating establishments. We begin by visiting República de Guatemala Street to have a little taste of the historic Café Tacuba, which has served its delights to many celebrities, artists and political figures since 1912, and which provided the wedding banquet of the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and the writer Guadalupe Marín.

We continue down Venustiano Carranza Street to stop in one of the oldest restaurants in the city, El Gallo de Oro. Since its origin as a cantina, it promoted the importation by boat of olive oil, capers, Sevillian olives and European cheeses that caught the attention of intellectuals of the likes of Manuel Acuña and Justo Sierra. A few steps away we are drawn inside a historic 14th century mansion that received license number 1 in 1860: La Hostería de Santo Domingo. Considered a colonial monument of Mexico City, it shelters within its walls the evidence of all of the events that transpired during its evolution.

A stop at the Salón Corona is obligatory, a mystic place that has existed for 80 years, and we end our tour through the historic city center at the Restaurante Prendes, to savor the 100 years of gastronomic presence that filled the mouths of those who used to tell stories: Diego Rivera and the teacher Justo Sierra, who discussed philosophy, and David Alfaro Siqueiros who spoke of politics. It is said that the same owner attended to them and that he still remembers personally serving his oysters on the half shell to Trotsky and his tender white fish to the famous General Lázaro Cárdenas.

To keep the taste of our history on our palate we will visit a restaurant that evokes sentiments of art, architecture, gastronomy and the history that has been made since the century when Hernán Cortés founded his hacienda here, and that now brings us to new heights with its exceptional Mexican cuisine. We will revive as well one of the few survivors of the Golden Age of the Zona Rosa; La Fonda del Refugio, who over the course of 57 years has preserved tradition through the flavors of Mexican recipes from the old days. We will then be transported to the south end of the city where a place inspired by the colonial atmosphere of the state of Puebla can be found, and which keeps the traditions of Pre-hispanic cuisine alive: La Fonda de Santa Clara.

Finally we will rediscover ourselves in the flavors of the Antiguo Restaurante San Ángel Inn, a hacienda that was once a Carmelite monastery, converted into a pulque production center, and then became a hotel and restaurant of grand tradition. On this culinary journey through different parts of the great metropolis known as the city of hope, another chapter of history will have to be written in the book of our memories, one that will bring us to new heights of pleasure. This event is an expression of our Mexico that we now have the satisfaction of presenting to you, in each of the dishes on our menu full of customs and legendary traditions.

For restaurant reservations:
Contact: conciergerm@grandvelas.com
Call: 011-52-9848774400 ext. 8137
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