Street Food in Mexico…Is it Safe?

For the most part, it’s not only safe…it is cheap and it is good. In 35 years of traveling Mexico I have been taken ill from bad food many times. But I can’t think of one time that I could trace the problem back to eating street food. And in recent years I rarely get sick…ever. And it’s not because I have become “used” to it, somehow convincing rogue bacteria that they are powerless trying to invade my aging immune system. Sanitation and proper food preparation have improved immensely in Mexico over the past 10 years or so, and if you use just a little common sense and pray daily to the juju gods you can chow down at the street stands just like the locals.

The first thing you should look for when choosing your street food is to discover who is doing all of the business. If a street stand operator is dishing tainted food he’ll be out of business in a week. The locals know who has safe food and just as importantly, who has good food. You can fill up on three sizzling meat-filled tacos (try to find the stand that is cooking with mesquite wood for the best flavor) for under $2.00. There is usually a small tienda nearby to grab a soda, beer or bottle of water. Generally, you’ll order what you want and they’ll hand over your plate in a minute or so. Load up the tacos with the bowls of salsa, guacamole, onions, cilantro, etc. Find a place on the street or lean against the counter to enjoy your meal. Then you pay the lady at the cash register after you have finished. You can find open stands all day, but many don’t open until the evening, staying in business late into the night. A couple of tacos right after a night of cantina-hopping will lessen the hangover symptoms immensely the next morning…or so I have been told.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Eating And Drinking, Living In Mexico, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.