Since I'm halfway through my dive days now, I'm going to do a little Cozumel food porn intermission. When you travel to Cozumel, and want to do it cheaply, there are only a few corners you can cut. Flying from a state that most planes only fly over, you're not going to get cheap airfare. Diving is a set cost, especially if you are set on an op. I found what is probably the cheapest hotel on the island not made out of cardboard, so the next place you go cheap is on food. Fortunately, that's easy to do in Cozumel. You have two options: 1) don't eat, or 2) don't eat where the tourists eat. I actually had a third option: buy food at the grocery store down the street and cook it in the kitchen at the hotel, but I already said I didn't do that. I did buy a bunch of bananas, though, because Mexican bananas make US bananas taste like an under ripe potato.
I said earlier that I didn't get coffee at the hotel, despite the fact that it sounded like Jorge makes some pretty good stuff each day. I went to a few different places for coffee, including COZ Roasting Coffee, a place clearly geared towards Americans since everything is in English.
I also went to Zermatt, which I remember being much better than it was, but it was still as cheap as I remember (note to self: don't get the cookie with the sprinkles; it's not even worth 7 pesos). I stopped in at El Coffee Cozumel one hot afternoon for a frappe, which was pretty decent. We had gone there several years ago when we stayed at Suites Bahía, which is right across the street. Skittl1321 really likes their root beer floats.
The best coffee that I found, though, was at Antique Coffee Shop, which conveniently happened to be along my walk to the ferry pier taxi station each morning. It is 80 pesos and comes with a free, huge breakfast. Maybe I have that backwards.
They offer two desayunos completos (complete breakfast) options that include coffee for 80 pesos: a traditional with waffles and eggs and such, and the Cozumelito, which swaps the waffles for chilaquiles, something that for me never gets old. In the picture above, the salsa is a thick, creamy, garlic spread of some sort that was delicious on everything. Of course, habanero salsa was also included because it's Cozumel. A little of that goes a long way!
For lunches and dinners, I mostly walked in the opposite direction, going further into the heart of Cozumel and leaving the tourists behind. Skittl1321 dislikes two things that I love (well, several really): tacos and fish. I made it a mission to get both as often as possible.
Some highlights:
Huaraches at Chilangos. On the left is mushroom and on the right is al pastor. These are huge, to the point that two of them was almost too much. Including a jamaica (not the country), this came to 88 pesos before a tip. Including tip, it was just over $5 to have to roll myself out the door.
Tacos Pescados al Mojo y Ajo at Sazón de Camarón. This place was highly recommended for exactly this by Jorge at Caribo. The green salsa is actually plasma and can be used to cut through metal and concrete. At least it was so hot and humid nobody knows why I was sweating. Tacos were 24 pesos each, so it came to 92 pesos with a (not very good) horchata.
Tacos Pescados Empanizados at El Chino Marinero II. I had been trying to get to this place for several days before I finally did. There is El Chino Marinero I and ECM II, which have different hours, and I was repeatedly finding myself at ECM I wondering why they closed an hour early until I figured that out. These were the same price as the tacos at Sazón de Camarón, but the Mojo y Ajo at ECM was a little more expensive. Jamaica here was delicious.
Tacos al Pastor at Mr. Taco. It's a ridiculous gringo name, but not a gringo place. I accidentally asked a question in English and got blank stares, so be prepared with Spanish (or just read what's on the menu and add a por favor). These were only 13 pesos each. They are roasting the meat right next to the street as you walk up, and there is a pineapple on top.
He cuts some meat and a sliver of pineapple onto each taco. Had I been hungrier, I would have happily polished off half a dozen of these, and I would still have been able to afford diving the next day! Including a jamaica (17 pesos) and tip, this (admittedly light) meal cost me less than $3.
Camarones al Coco at Casa Cuzamil. On my final night, with more pesos in my pocket than days left to spend them, I decided to splurge a little. We had been to Casa Cuzamil for the comida del día (lunch special) a few years ago. It is really cheap, about 90 pesos, and includes soup and a drink. I was reading reviews of CC on google, trying to find pictures of the dinner menu and found the owner's response to some of the reviews that were negative for stupid reasons (like calling it an expensive tourist trap) too funny not to give him more of my money. There is a mango dipping sauce and the shrimp are breaded with shredded coconut in the bread crumbs. Sweet and delicious. The rice and vegetables were both very buttery. This plus a coke and tip was 290 pesos. It's pretty much impossible to find that in the US for under $15.
