One of the things I learned during our trip to Emilia-Romagna was the value of a good food tour when visiting the culinary centers of countries. Not having had too much exposure to the cuisine of Oaxaca, I thought that finding a good food tour would do us good. And after doing some research, I found Me Encanta Oaxaca. It just seemed like a good fit for us, so I made reservations. This would turn out to be a fantastic tour as we learned a lot, not only about the cuisine, but the history, and other fun "stuffs" about Oaxaca. One of the owners and the person who would lead our tour Betsaida ("Betsy") contacted us several times to give us info on the tour and also some advice beforehand……"don't eat breakfast….or just enough so that you will be hungry, but not 'hangry'." Along with safety guidelines, etc.
The meeting place was in front of Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán and Betsy was easy to find. We loved that there were only five of us on the tour. We sampled and covered a huge amount of food; so from this point on, I'm going to keep it brief.
First stop was just a block away.
Tacos del Carmen, a very popular street stall.
Man, that Empanada de Mole Amarillo con Flor de Calabaza y Hierba Santa was soooo delici-yoso!
We also got to try the "Taco" de Chile Relleno.
Tacos Del Carmen
Jesús Carranza 110
68000 Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico
We then headed up a block-and-a-half to the colorful Mercado Sánchez Pascuas.
Here Betsy went over some of the more interesting produce and we had tastes of Aguacate Criollo, Nanche, Curuba, Tuna Roja, and Jiotilla which you see below.
Betsy took us to various stands and we got to meet the folks who made what we'd be tasting….
The tamales were delicious; though the Missus still didn't care for the mole negro….
We got our caffeine fix from one of the stands along with some dulces.
The tour wasn't just food; there was history and sights as well. In fact, Betsy would quiz us on some of the history. I actually answered one of the questions correctly. Of course, I'd already learned a bit about Porfirio Díaz when we were in Guanajuato.
We headed off a block away to Rufino Tamayo.
Did you know that Oaxaca has an aqueduct?
And to go even beyond the history, this "famous" movie was filmed in the area.
In fact you might just recognize the scene filmed here.
We walked over to Plaza Cruz de Piedra.
Where there's an interesting stone cross.
As we headed down to Mercado Benito Juárez Betsy went over some history and quizzed us.
Once we got into the bustling market we headed to a bustling stand.
Where we got to try Tejate which was soooo good.
And Betsy took the time to show us some of the other vendors she likes in the market.
We then headed across the street to Mercado 20 de Noviembre where Betsy said "I hope you're hungry now!" And soon enough we were in the famous "Pasillo de Humo" ("Hall of Smoke"). Yes, this is the place that one of our favorite restaurants in CDMX is named after. And when say "hall of smoke" they ain't kidding.
Here you can choose your meat…..
And they grill it up for you…..
Betsy got us a table and we just enjoyed…well, pasillo de humo……
And soon the food started arriving…..
Gusanos, Chicatanas, and Chapulines. Good stuff!
The proteins….Tasajo, carne, chorizo, tripa…..
A huge Tlayuda…..
A sampler of Mole…..well, the Missus still didn't care for mole, it was too sweet for Her tastebuds, so this was going to be interesting.
She did enjoy the Pan de Yerma and Chocolate de Agua……in fact we'd go shopping for some of that before we returned home.
This was a fantastic tour.
We even got a list of places to try and areas to visit. And best of all, we asked Betsy where to buy hats…….and she gave us a recommendation. So here's the deal, I've never looked good in hats…..never, ever. But we headed to the place she recommended after our tour and I found a hat!
We ate so much that we didn't even bother with dinner. We just took a short walk.
Of course I wore my hat…….
So, if you're ever in Bay Park and you see some middle aged Asian dude wearing a Cowboy Hat and a "Ojai Psychic Friends Network" t-shirt…..well, that would be me.
Make sure to say hello, ok?
Construction of the Cathedral commenced in 1535 and was reconstructed several times because of earthquakes.
The menu used a QR code something that we found everywhere in Mexico. The food seemed a bit of a modern, lighter affair. The service was a bit of hit and miss. As you can see, the customer base seemed to be more tourists/ex-pats though nothing wrong with that if the food is outstanding. 
For some reason I thought this would be compressed watermelon, which intensifies the flavor and gives it textural "heft", but it just cubed watermelon, seeds and all. Since it was just cubed watermelon, the ponzu style sauce and orange "gel" overpowered the dish. Spherification was used to create ikura looking strawberry spheres. The best part of the dish were the tomatoes which were sweet and acidic.
This really looks like something out of a movie, doesn't it? Touring the estate, the Duke of Argyll and family still occupy part of the structure, was very impressive. The foundation stone of the castle was laid in 1746 and the castle has gone under renovations after two fires. After the fire in 1877, the third floor and the four conical roofs were added. In 
Of course every castle has at least one ghost, right? Inveraray is noted to have several. The most well known one occupies the MacArthur Room. It is said that a young harpist was murdered by the Duke of Montrose's men in 1644. The the ghost of the harpist is attached to this bed, must be one heck of a bed! And 
I like the fact that they have QR code menus; otherwise you'd have to ask at the window since there's no menu posted. I'd gotten so used to doing QR codes when visiting Mexico that I got kinda thrown off when we returned home!
I must say that the bowl looked quite good. The seasoning for the sisig was on the milder side in terms of sour tones and I didn't get much spice until I had a bite with three hidden slices of what looked like Thai Bird Chilies. Whoa…. I came across "groups" of chilies in the bowl. I guess they don't like being alone?
Most problematic for me was the rice, after all this place is named "White Rice", right? It was terribly hard, dry, and there was hardly any garlic flavor at all. I mean, in addition to being called "White Rice", this was a silog, right? The "si" in the "silog" stands for 
This was a lovely looking bowl! And that fried sunny side egg was even better this time around with wonderful crisp edges! I loved the atchara and the almost VN style pickles as well.
The place was empty except for two "regulars" who were joking around (quite loudly) with Boo, the gentleman who has taken over running the place from his mom and dad.
When my Bun Bo Hue arrived he said "time to eat" and left me to enjoy my scalding, spicy bowl of Bun Bo Hue. It used to be that I'd have to add chili oil to my soup, but these days it's more than spicy enough. I think my tolerance has waned over the years. The veggies are added, I give things a good mix…….I love to track the change in texture to the veggies as the hot soup slowly works its magic. I do still add a bit on mam tom for that savory "kick". 
So, first the good; man were things fried here good! The batter on the shrimp was crisp and light; the shrimp plump, moist, and tasty. The poblano chile likewise. Sadly, the MarlinTun was dry, fishy, and not very smoky in terms of flavor. The tortillas were decent and up to the task at hand.
Sadly, I'd have to say I've had better tacos de marlyn here in San Diego!
Tacos Hola specializes in Tacos Guisados, braised and stewed ingredients for tacos. So, even though it says bistec; it's actually braised beef; really tasty braised beef, with a very bright pasilla chile-tomato based sauce. The Missus really loved the beans here…She still mentions those beans, as in "why can't you make beans like those." The chard was quite tender, but quite mild in flavor….man, I could imagine this with collards! The tortillas were excellent.
Andres met us and after introductions and an overview of what was going to be covered in the tour today, he went over 
And yep, if you're thinking that's Tlaloc above, you'd be right. Check out the eyes and the fangs! 
As I stared at our food, take a look at the photo to my right, I was suddenly reminded of something. Back at the end of August, we went to CDMX and Oaxaca. The Missus had really enjoyed 
Add to that the wonderful, gracious service of Jesus and his gang…..well, I'm sure we'll be back again soon.
Now, the batter on the wings from GC back in the day was on the lighter side and was also quite thin and the wings got soggy quickly. In this case it was the opposite; the batter was almost hard; not crunchy…hard. Also, I'm not sure if I'm rubbing off on Calvin (good lord, I hope not), but after our first bite we both said "where's the salt and pepper"? Barely any garlic, pepper was MIA, a few slices of scallions. I mean, this was bland, and while the wings were moist, there was just too much batter. The wings were large…but heck, I could have used some "salt" on my Salt-and-Pepper Wings……..
The noodles were nicely cooked and coated. But we both noticed something right away when biting into the shrimp. You can tell by the color. It seems the shrimp were blanched and just dumped into the dish. It had absolutely no flavor. 