Bringing the Perfect BLT to Mexico City

( Xhico in Mexico City )

I'm going to be making deliveries in Mexico City soon! So I've been working on some classic American recipes to bring to the mouths of the people in Mexico via ComeCasero. I decided to start with one of my favorites, the BLT, sometimes the BLTA.

The perfect BLT on Ciabatta from Panadería Rosetta

That's right, the simple Bacon Lettuce Tomato and add Avocado if you want it California style. Who thought getting this sandwich right would be such a challenge. First, of course, there was the bacon. I had to figure out where to get good bacon and an efficient way of cooking large amounts in a tiny kitchen. First of all, finding good bacon in the grocery store isn't going to happen. The butcher there will not have it, so I needed to head to a carnecería at my local market. That took me to one of my favorite places, the mercado, Mercado Medellín to be exact.

There amongst the fruits and vegetables toward the back corner you will find the meat men. An array of butcher stands that specialize in poultry, pork, fish, beef and sometimes other things. I began to collect samples of bacon as I visited a few stands and made sure to hit up the butcher where I bought that amazing chicharron prensado from the trip before. Mostly because I like it when the guy calls me "patron".

Butcher cutting my smoked bacon into slices

After testing all the bacon for flavor, thickness, fat content and how it held up after cooking, the butcher that calls me "patron" was the winner. Their bacon was smokey and perfectly marbled and the butcher could cut the bacon to my preferred thickness. Now I had to figure out how to cook large amounts of bacon in a tiny kitchen. After some skillet tests and oven tests, the oven was going to be the method. Now I thought I had it down.

Perfect smokey, marbleized bacon from Mercado Medellín

I just needed good bread now. Then I realized that I'm in the land of tortillas. There aren't many bakeries around and most of them specialize in pan dulce - sweet bread and other pasteries. Finding a good fresh loaf of bread was not easy. I started with the supermarket bakery. This made me appreciate my supermarket bakery in Los Angeles much more. There was no beautiful loaf of brioche. The bread here was dense and mealy, and the interior crumb, was just that – crumbs. The loaf was beyond disappointing. This challenge led me on a hunt for the best bread that I could find in Mexico City.

Making my bread at Panadería Rosetta

Going for coffee at Panadería Rosetta

I hit up some of the bigger chains like La Espiga and Globo, as well as some artisanal bakeries. They were all dissapointing (though those donuts in Globo smelled and looked delicious - I had to resist, because I'm was on my mission). I had a few more high-end artisanal bakeries to explore. My friend, Tanya, had reminded me of a bakery we went to once to have pan dulce and coffee, Panadería Rosetta – but it was too busy and we went down the street to La Puerta Abierta.

Ciabatta Test: Panadería Rosetta (left) vs. Pan Verde (right)

I finally made it to Panadería Rosetta for a coffee with Tanya. We sampled some pan dulce and it was delicious. The roll was airy and light and the scones were fluffy, moist and had a nice outer crunch. I had a good feeling about this place. I left with ciabatta and a loaf of pan blanco (which is the closest thing I could find to sourdough or good white bread). I arrived home with some bread from other bakeries as well.

3rd Place: Ciabatta from Pan Verde

Slicing, buttering and toasting was how it spent the next hour and a half. Making notes and taking pictures in between. Then I had to make sandwiches and see how they all held up. This brought me down to the top three breads to use for my BLT. They were Cibatta from Pan Verde and a Ciabatta and Pan Blanco from Rosetta. Ideally I would have used the pan blanco because it was more like a traditional BLT slice. But the bread was difficult to slice into even pieces because of the shape of the loaf. This left me with the two ciabattas and Panadería Rosetta was the clear winner. The ciabatta had a wonderful cloud-like inside with a slightly salty crust and they were easy for preparation.

2nd Place: Pan Blanco from Panadería Rosetta

1st Place: Ciabatta from Panadería Rosetta

After nailing down those two main ingredients, my BLT was well on it's way. It just need some lettuce, tomato and some of my secret sauce. It will remain a secret, but where to find amazing bread in Mexico City won't. Panadería Rosetta is the bakery where you want to be buying bread.

Panadería Rosetta
Colima 179
Colonia Roma, Mexico City

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.

Food n Fashion: Mmm... Bacon

Local growler, Jeff, rocks a MMMM...Bacon T-shirt. From pig to plate.

Pizzle with Pesto

I got to go to one of my favorite sandwich shops today for lunch... Ike's Place on 16th and Sanchez. I love The Pizzle on Dutch Crunch. I swear the Dutch Crunch bread almost tastes like Round Table Pizza crust. The Pizzle is Chicken, Cheddar, Bacon, Ranch, Lettuce, Tomato, Pickle - I pass on the Onion and Pepperoncini's. The guy recommended trying pesto on it. So, of course, I did. It was pretty killer. Grub!