Need authentic local food in cozumel

[Lorenzoid]

Do they have a sign up yet with their new name?

New name? Was the restaurant sold?

 

[JamesBon92007]

One place for morning tacos is the El Sitio on Calle 2 not far from the taxi syndicate offices. The shrimp taco places (El Camarón Dorado, El Chino Marinero II, etc.) do a lot of breakfast business and close by early afternoon.
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Typo? I'm thinking El Sitio is on Calle 1 or 3, not 2. Sur or Norte might confirm. Just checking so we don't send OP in the wrong direction. Personally I have a hard time remembering which street things are on so I could be completely wrong. I have not yet eaten at El Sitio but we did walk by it several times.

Much to my surprise we though Machete was perfectly good, even though it's in the middle of tourist town. I think it's on Av 5 and Rosado Salas. We ate there twice and would eat there again. We could have split my dinner between the two of us and have had plenty to eat.

 

[mstevens]

Forgive my ignorance of Mexican food (especially given the number of Mexican restaurants near me), but I have tried Googling a number of the dishes you mentioned without success. What are tamales colados or horneados and Jarochas?

When I visited Panama, there was a dish of Carne Ropa Vieja with the translation of "meat old clothes" underneath. While it was delicious, all I could think of was Lady Gaga.

I associate ropa vieja more with Cuba, where it's a much-beloved tradition.

Tamales colados ("sieved") have a very fine masa that's almost like a thick custard in consistency. Tamales horneados are baked rather than steamed. Both, and most other tamales in the area such as the brazos de reina I forgot to mention, are made in banana leaves rather than corn husks.

So just how authentic do you want? Cow head parts? Tripe? Conch eye stalks? My son loves cow eyeball tacos but I'm not a fan.

As Lorenzoid's point suggests, there probably isn't really a traditional Cozumel cuisine since the island was barely populated before tourism took off in the 1940's. There *is* a traditional yucatecan cuisine. Locals have enthusiastically embraced American inventions such as fajitas and burritos just as Meridans embraced Lebanese food and Dutch cheese to such an extent that you can't have yucatecan cuisine without edam or gouda and kibis vendors circle through the marinas to cater to the cravings of boat crews after the divers have left.

Do you want something really super-duper authentic? Something that no birthday party or other fiesta is complete without? Something available as a side with almost any meal at a cocina economica? That would be... espaguetti. You can get a bag of spaghetti with your takeout roasted chicken if you want the authentic experience.

I'm not aware of any place where you'll run into crunchy tacos, enchiladas covered with chile sauce and cheese, or other delicious Tex-Mex things. Maybe if you really search. Basically, any place you go will serve you authentic local food as long as you stay out of Burger King, Carl's Jr, and the like.

 

[mstevens]

Typo? I'm thinking El Sitio is on Calle 1 or 3, not 2. Sur or Norte might confirm.

It's north of Juárez, so an even-numbered street. Calle 2 is the first street north of the pedestrian portion of 5 Avenida that goes through to Melgar. El Sitio is on the north side a bit Melgar-wards from Amparo's but before 5 Avenida.

Much to my surprise we though Machete was perfectly good, even though it's in the middle of tourist town. I think it's on Av 5 and Rosado Salas. We ate there twice and would eat there again. We could have split my dinner between the two of us and have had plenty to eat.

Many places that seem very touristy are popular with locals. Food is food, and tasty is tasty.

 

[mstevens]

New name? Was the restaurant sold?

They had to remove "Otates" from their sign due to a trademark complaint from a place on the peninsula.

 

[ggunn]

I can't say how authentic it is, but visit La Pealita for some lionfish. The owner hunts it himself, it's delicious, and it helps cull this pest.

I am not the Spelling Police, but if the OP is googling it it's La Perlita.

 

[mstevens]

What are ... Jarochas?.

Whoops.

Huevos Jarochas are scrambled eggs with longaniza or chorizo, wrapped in corn tortillas, and covered in frijoles colados (pureed black beans), more longaniza or chorizo, and slivered chiles (at least at La Cozumeleńa). Sort of like scrambled egg enfrijoladas. Jarocha/o means in the style of Veracruz.

You should track down for breakfast some papadzules, which are chopped hard-boiled eggs rolled in tortillas that have been dipped in a pumpkin seed sauce. Casa Denis has good ones.

Here. Have a look at this link for some more information about local food terms.

 

[mstevens]

I can't say how authentic it is, but visit La Pealita for some lionfish. The owner hunts it himself, it's delicious, and it helps cull this pest.

The owner is a woman and, as far as I know, she does not spearfish.

There is no way La Perlita could serve as much lionfish as they do without buying most of it, even if their entire staff were snorkeling with spears all day.

They created a market in part to support a fishery with a goal of reducing local the lionfish population and remain one of the biggest purchasers of lionfish.

It is authentically lionfish, it's (now) local, and it's delicious. La Perlita also has a number of very traditional things such as empanadas de cazón (dogfish) for breakfast.

 

[El Graduado]

Alex at Casa del Mojito used to make Ropa Vieja. Since he sold the place, I'm not sure if it is still on the menu or not.

MStevens hit most all the best spots with good traditional food in his post, in my opinion. We have very similar tastes. I would add Las Tortugas on 30th for their "off the menu" items. The head cook has been with them for 38 years and still makes his meals (like tuchitos) exactly like he has for all those years with no changes. That guy can marinate a salchicha and make it taste like haute cuisine.

Before you ask, tuchitos are a special ceviche (or cebiche, as they say in Cozumel) made up of the eye-stalks, the mouth-proboscis-thingamajig and portions of the black outer skin of the caracol (conch) that are usually cut off and thrown away. They call this kind of poor-man’s conch ceviche tuchitos, from the Mayan word tucho, meaning “booger,” and the very Mexican suffix ito, for “little.” Little boogers.

Tacos colados are tamales made with strained corn. Creamy and deliriously tasty. I like them better than any other kind. You have to order them from a home-cooking to-go place; I don't know of any restaurant that serves them on a regular basis. Horneados are baked. Not my fave, mainly because most cooks over cook them. Think mucibpollo. That's the name for the baked chicken tamal served during the day of the dead. It means "buried chicken" because it was traditionally baked underground, like cohinita pibil.

 

[El Graduado]

Sorry, MStevens, I posted as you were writing...