El Papón: High or Hungover, This Is What You Need

(Xhico in Mexico)

The Tradicional Papa Rellena at El Papón in Mexico City.

 I may have been slightly hungover after too much mezcal from the night before as I stumbled out of Superama with some aspirin. Along the exit of the parking lot were the usual food carts selling tacos, tlacoyos and quesadillas. This one cart stood out to me, with a heap of foil wrapped objects. As I began to examine the menu and these odd shaped foil entities, I realized that they were two baked potatoes wrapped in one. Of course they were... I was at El Papón.

Potatoes wait to be smothered in goodness.

Chiles roasting

I didn't take me long to realize that these siamese-twin astronaut potatoes were going to get extremely insane with mounds of delicious toppings. An overloaded potato - this is what I really needed instead of aspirin. My belly begged to to quickly scan the menu and make a decision on the level of overload I would be achieving. How much cheese? How much butter? What combination of meat and other tidbits?

The dudes from El Papón, Mexico City.

El Papón, Food cart in Mexico City.

Two extremely friendly guys were eager to get to work on my potato. I decided to go with the Tradicional. I thought it would be the lesser of the evils. It turns out that it was a whole lot of evils together. First the potato master (as I like to call him) took the potatoes nested together and foil and began to beat them. He beat them and turned them and beat them some more until they formed a thick potato disc. Then with the precision of a surgeon, he slit an "X" into the foil and gently pulled the foil away from the center. He then began to fork the potato! He worked that fork and mashed up the inside. This was the beginning of a magical transformation. Possible more magical than the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly.

Making baked potato magic at El Papón.

This once ugly potato began to be mushed with butter, then manchego cheese and it got prettier by the second. Then some jamón serrano. This potato was getting seriously sexy as it oozed before my eyes. Wait, then more cheese? Yes, more cheese - this time some ooey-gooey cheddar. Then how about some bacon and cream to top it off? This is some xrated potato action. I went into a foodgasm. I had to wait to get home to share it with Tanya, as I thought she may be in need of the same medicine. I won't lie, I did finger some of the cheese.

A few days passed and I was going to show Tanya where this potato cart heaven was to be found. But it wasn't there. After a quick drive around the block, we discovered that they opened a restaurant on the corner in addition to the cart. So make sure if you have a hangover in Mexico City and there isn't any birria around, to go get your self a potato orgasm to soak up all that alcohol.

El Papón is sometimes out side the Superama on Fernando Montes De Oca, The restaurant space is right down the corner on Fernando Montes De Oca and Jose Vasconcelos Circuito Interior in Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City, Distrito Federal.