Eva Longoria’s Top Five Tacos in Mexico City
From huitlacoche to pastor to ribeye, the filling is key
Hello people of the World. Today I want to share with you the advice of my brilliant friend Eva Longoria, who recently traveled all around Mexico for her CNN show, Searching for Mexico. She’s gone deep into Mexican food and culture, and I’m excited to hand things over to her for her top spots in Mexico City for tacos.
Before we get into tacos and travel, I wanted to take a moment to think about the people of Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero on the country’s Pacific coast, who were recently devastated by Hurricane Otis. When I first joined the World Central Kitchen team on the ground, the situation was as bad as I've seen—and I've been in almost every Category 5 hurricane over the last many years. So today, as we are thinking about the beauty of food and culture, let us also remember the communities recovering in the aftermath of the disaster.
My friend Eva Longoria knows a thing or two about Mexico. She grew up in southern Texas to parents with Mexican-American roots, which according to Eva, makes her a Texican. (Interesting story…Eva actually has an ancestor from my native region of Asturias all the way back in the 16th century!) Eva’s husband, José Bastón, is a native of Mexico City—or as they say, a “chilango,” so she has a home in the neighborhood called Polanco and calls Mexico City her second home.
Earlier this year, Eva released an amazing TV series called “Searching for Mexico,” all about the cuisines and culture of the regions of the country. Over the course of the season, she meets coffee and vanilla farmers in Jalisco; learns to make the most famous dish from Yucatán, cochinita pibil; tastes birria after a Mexican rodeo in Jalisco and mole negro in Oaxaca; learns from carne asada grill masters in Nuevo León; and eats conchas and churros in Mexico City. One of her goals with the show is to make sure that people know that “Mexican food isn’t just tacos and tequila.”
But of course, she did eat plenty of tacos in Mexico City…and I’m always wondering about where the chilangos go when they want an amazing taco. So I asked her! Below she shared five of her favorites—only one of them is a spot she visited on the show.
What makes a good taco? “There are two parts to a taco,” Eva says. “The tortilla and the filling. In Mexico City, everyone has a good tortilla! So it’s about the good quality meat, the radish, the pickled onions, the guacamole, the salsa…whatever your filling is has to be amazing to stand out.”
If you want to hear Eva talk more about Mexican food and culture, check out our conversation on my podcast Longer Tables…I think you’ll enjoy it. Oh, and if you haven’t checked out her movie, Flamin’ Hot—what are you waiting for??
Now here we go…Eva Longoria’s top five spots for tacos in Mexico City…only on The Chef’s List!