For dessert, get flan. We judge restaurants largely on the quality of the flan. Casa Denis has really good flan, but sometimes they run out. Sometimes we have dinner somewhere else and got to Casa Denis just to get the flan. Los Otates has good flan. Ask when you sit down so they save you one.
My favorite Mexican beverage, other than cerveza, is jamaica (the “j” is pronounced like an “h”), which is an infusion made with hibiscus flowers. Very red, your lips and tongue will likely be red. Not too sweet, very refreshing. Cervecería Punta Sur often makes a good jamaica wheat beer. Great on a hot summer night. A DM friend brought me a drink called piña chaya. I’m not sure where to buy it, apparently from a street vendor or at the mercado. A combination of pineapple juice and chaya juice, which Mexicans tell Americans is “Mexican spinach.” It’s a green leafy vegetable, but not really much like spinach. It’s always cooked, because it’s poisonous raw. One of my favorite vegetables and piña chaya is awesome. I need to get my friend to take me to get some when I come down in March. Many people like horchata, which is sort of a liquid version of rice pudding. Horchata is not really my thing. You may see watermelon juice and mango juice, which are good. There’s a variation called agua fresca, which is a generic word for drinks with fruit. They’re not entirely juice, but they are made with juice.
