A taste of what Mexican families share at a celebration or family gatherings. 

A homage to slow-cooked meals, recipes passed on through generations.

Let’s start with the beginning, old traditional households had a kitchen outside the house because they used wooden fire or wooden ovens for cooking. Families had poultry, enjoyed handmade tortillas and some of them even had vegetable patches on the grounds.

Fresh ingredients, slow-cooked meals, and recipes passed on from one generation to another are the base of Mexican culinary traditions.

Mexican Cuisine

Mexican Cuisine is considered an intangible cultural heritage of humanity since we still harvest some prehispanic ingredients, and many traditions are kept alive through gastronomy.

Moments in the kitchen were always magical. As a child helping whether it was chopping or heating or even just picking the right beans. We got to watch how the meals were cooked, sometimes even days in advance.

This is why, the next time you visit Hotel Xcaret México, we invite you to stop by the Mercado de la Merced, where you’ll try some of these traditional dishes prepared by family generations ago

The Mercado de la Merced.

The restaurant is a buffet style that takes its inspiration from traditional Mexican markets, taste-wise, stations, decorations, and even with the quesadillas prepared at the moment.

Visitors will be able to find traditional dishes from many states and regions of the country. Recipes from prehispanic and colonial times. Such as mole de olla.

A typical stew from the central region of the country, a result of the gastronomic mixed race of the time. 

Or Pancita another dish that came with the conquest and little by little became a family tradition for celebrations or even as a cure for a hangover. 

And of course, as with every Mexican market, there is a special station for quesadillas and handmade tortillas with a variety of dishes to choose from. Such as tinga de pollo, another classic from the Mexican homes documented for the first time in the book called La Cocinera Poblana from 1881. Depending on the region of the country where it is prepared the recipe can change from beef, pork, or even vegetarian versions of it. 

A couple of more dishes that you don’t want to miss are pork in a green sauce and potatoes with chorizo. The handmade tortillas prepared right in front of you can hypnotize.

And, if we are talking about Mexican traditional dishes tamales and atole also have a special place on the list. There is even a special date to enjoy them with family and friends, on February 2nd, the Day of the Candelaria.

The dish goes back to prehispanic times, yet in the same way as the dishes we have mentioned before, after the conquest of the Spanish, some of the recipes changed combining the ingredients that came from the old world, creating the gastronomy we know and enjoy now. 

There is a wide variety of recipes, from the leaves used for the wrapping to the way of cooking and the stuffing. Yet at Mercado de la Merced you’ll find the most classic recipes we know. And you will be able to enjoy it with a delicious cup of atole which is a hot beverage also prepared with corn. Once you try them, please feel free to comment on which tamales were your favorite.

Finally, you must make room for the sweet bread. This was an essential part of Mexican breakfast or supper.

The history of the Mexican sweet bread we know now also goes back to the conquest and the time when wheat came into the new world. The French influence also helps in the creation of some of the most iconic pieces of bread we now consider to be the oldest or most classic such as the orejitas, conchas, or banderillas, among others.

The best part is that you can try them all and share them as any Mexican family would do in their own homes.

So, the next time you visit the Hotel, don’t forget to stop by Mercado de la Merced to try some of the most iconic dishes of Mexican gastronomy, and let us know what your favorite in the comments was.