I Tried Every Famous Mexican Food

Everyone loves Mexican food.

Tacos al pastor, burritos, quesadillas.

Except what if that was just scratching the surface of arguably

the greatest, most diverse

cuisine on planet Earth?

What if the best is something most of us have never seen before?

So, I'm traveling all across Mexico, north,

central, and south to find the best Mexican food in the world.

The world thinks they know Mexican food, but we're about to open up the

other 95% that people have been missing out on all along, and it all starts in Oaxaca.

>> If you could find

where Mexican food was born, you probably be looking here.

And our first stop blew my mind.

>> Arguably one of the most insane

markets I've seen in my life. >> I'm so hyped.

They got grills lined all the way down this entire thing.

Charcoal grills, they're flaming up over there.

This is basically like an all you can eat buffet grill your own adventure. >> happy place.

>> This is my happy place.

>> I saved it first.

Que linda es ella.

>> Suadero, this part here, yes.

>> You want the fat?

>> And after we got our meats, it was time to grill. >> This is fat.

I think she's going to use to grease it.

>> After watching the master at work, I finally

was handed the reins.

>> I don't know I was going to be cooking.

I'm hyped about it though.

>> She really cares about making this a great product.

While I was cooking, she brought her some fresh,

still hot from the griddle tortillas

to just use as a landing

zone for the meat.

You put the meat down and the juices

soak into the >> This is so smart because instead of squirting it with oil,

you get this slowly rendered beef fat so there's not a ton of flare-ups

and you just kind of brush it.

You're treating the chunk of fat as your brush.

>> Those beautiful peppers over there are called chiles

de agua from the state of Oaxaca.

Nowhere else you find them.

>> We'll have a touch of incredible

flavor that we are not going to find anywhere

>> And after Gabi threw on the veggies from the grill, we had our final plate. >> That was incredible.

I don't know if we made meat or if we made love.

>> We have here a bunch of incredible

meat, this beef chorizo, suadero over there.

We have some guacamole,

aguacates, lime, and special onions. >> Unbelievable.

There wasn't a single

bad bite on this plate.

You tear some tortilla,

and then you assemble multiple combos of meat.

I was in a state of bliss.

But, how do the exclusive Oaxacan peppers taste? >> Chile de agua. Cheers.

Not too spicy, but what I love about it, so flavorful.

Like, one of the most flavorful peppers I've ever had.

Take a little bite of that, little bite of

>> What makes it super incredible

is that grills are comunals.

It makes it a community,

so we can meet people,

and then, of course,

grilling our own food.

>> You do feel the communal aspect.

Everybody's selling something different.

Oh, I want a little bit of this, I want a little bit of that.

You can create, essentially, a chef's tasting menu out of different meats,

vegetables, salsas, fresh chilies that are grown like right here, picked fresh the moment

before you grill it.

The experience alone is a 10 out of 10.

The food is so fresh, it's so delicious.

You're going to walk away feeling good,

full, maybe ready for a

>> Absolutely ready for a mezcal.

>> Oaxaca is known for the land of seven moles,

and this iconic Mexican staple was invented here.

So, according to Gabi, there is no one place with the singular best, but

there's so much variety,

and, frankly, it's all kind of up to personal preference.

I tried all seven of them at a spot called Los Pacos

for what I'll call

a crash course in mole.

And while they were all tasty,

it's kind of difficult

to pick a favorite, because they all have completely different applications.

But, also, more specifically,

because we have even more mole later on.

Up next, Gabi's taking me to a very special spot,

La >> This is coastal Oaxacan food.

>> I'm very excited because I'm with my very beautiful friend Yanira Aquino, and known as La Teca.

We call Teca to all the woman that were born in Istmo de Tehuantepec.

So, this is strong, beautiful woman, and amazing cook.

She's bringing all the products from their homeland,

and she will cook as her mother did and as her grandmother did. >> I'm excited.

Starting off with a chile relleno taco. >> This is heaven.

>> That was completely unexpected.

This is the best chile relleno I've ever had.

>> This is my favorite chile relleno

in the >> Chile relleno is, essentially, a fried, stuffed chili, but oftentimes

I feel it's misconstrued.

People just kind of stuff whatever in it, and they end up being quite boring.

And then the inside has this tender meat, not too fatty, and little chunks

of like toasted nuts and olives. It's briny. It's sweet. It's fresh. It's fatty.

It's like kind of everything in one bite all in a nice little satchel. >> Garnacha, okay.

>> That's a good reaction.

You cannot try it anywhere else.

This is what makes Wahacan

so magic and so amazing.

>> The quality of the corn and the technique

behind the corn matters infinitely

more than anything else.

But what stopped me in my tracks was the mole.

We had the seven moles

and this wasn't even on the menu for us.

She just brought it out.

One of her random moles

and it's so dark.

I was like, "Okay, I'll give it a little try." It is absurd.

Turn the pork into Michelin star bite.

I mean, this is like a transformative sauce.

And that is a perfect example

of the power of a good mole.

I mean, if that's where we're at now, who knows where we're going next. >> Moving on.

You started Wahaca on the street, but now it's time to hit the Michelin

Bib Gourmand level at Alfonsina,

where the whole MO

is to create all their foods as sustainably as possible.

Instead of using granulated

sugar, they squeeze it out of fresh

sugarcane on site in front of your eyes.

We did a simple four-course.

>> A solid dessert and like everything else Gabby has had me try in Oaxaca, it was wonderful.

And it turns out the food is inspired by the chef's mom's home cooking.

So jokingly I asked, "Is her food even better?"

And uh well, he sent me to his mom's house to find out.

And you know cooking runs in the family because Tia Elvia runs a breakfast

only restaurant out of her home.

And it's a beautifully short menu.

But here's the thing, they have no restaurant cooktop.

It's just two bricks, a wire rack set over a flame, and a massive stone comal.

Something tells me this lady does not mess around.

>> So Tia Elvia took our menus and said, "Get ready."

I was born ready.

First off, eggs cooked in hoja santa

on a warm handmade

freshly ground corn tortilla.

It was so simple it had me concerned

that it might be a little boring.

>> The salsa is incredible.

Better than any breakfast taco you're going to get in Austin. >> Or everywhere else. >> Texture's insane.

That fragrance of the corn

combined with the egg, they actually seasoned it properly and then that like herbaceousness

from the hoja santa.

I don't want anything else at all.

Perfect as it is, but also this salsa is incredible. >> That's tremendous.

Next up, Tia's original mole recipe. >> That's absurd. Perfect.

I think this is my favorite mole I've had.

It's so viscous, it coats your palate almost like peanut butter.

I taste the intensity

of the mole, I taste the salty sort of brininess

of the cheese and then of course the fragrance of that sweet beautiful corn.

I want to come live here with her. Okay, what's next?

>> The hits just kept coming.

I'm already tapped in.

Memela, a perfect corn tortilla topped with lard and fresh

>> Oh oh my god.

That is incredibly good.

>> Another chile relleno taco. >> Jesus, Gabby. >> Even chilaquiles. >> This is absurd.

One of the best chilaquiles I've ever had.

>> And last of all, we might have something special here.

Costilla frita, fried ribs

cooked in a fresh tomato salsa. >> This is ridiculous.

10 out of 10. No changes. Zero.

How often do I say

>> That bite was easily the best of the trip so far.

>> I mean this is like a pinnacle

example of the culture and the food, not just of Oaxaca but of Mexico.

It's like an attention to detail that is bar none.

And it feels like we're experiencing

it in the way that it was meant to be experienced. Very very traditional.

We're literally in her home in her front yard.

She's not even cooking with conventional equipment.

It's like wood fired everything.

She's making this as hard as possible.

She has every reason to like miss something here and she's

nailing it better than most chefs do.

I mean it's insane.

So we're in search of the best Mexican food in the world and I

almost feel like at this point we found it.

How do we keep going from here is my question. >> Really good.

>> Local ingredients prepared properly.

Is the food just being cooked in someone's home

in Mexico the greatest Mexican food in the world?

Only one way to find out.

Okay, our final destination of Oaxaca is Casa Oaxaca.

There's so much to say about this restaurant.

It's arguably the most influential

modern restaurant in all of Oaxaca.

Many, many, many, many, many

restaurants have been influenced by this place.

We're here to try everything.

Just get the last

final strong tasting of Oaxaca

before we move >> We were presented with a simple clayuda

to dip in salsa,

a chile de agua filled with ceviche,

a tostada with crab, finally

an insect tostada with crickets and mealworms.

But the best bite surprised even me.

>> That's the best tomato salad I've ever had in my life. It's insane.

>> I feel wrong saying this, but out of everything,

this simple little tomato salad is remarkable.

It's so balanced and it leans directly into like the unbelievable produce of Oaxaca.

So you got mini tomatillos,

local red tomatoes, grapefruit

supreme, and this black sapote.

I'm not a huge tomato salad guy and this

is my favorite dish

in the whole restaurant. >> Margarita time. Mezcalito time.

>> I do not know how anything

will top >> the experience we've had so far.

In fact, the spots we've been going to have been so good, I started

saving every single place on my maps.

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Now, on to the next stop.

Of course I love Oaxaca, but everyone talks about really two places when it

comes to food in Mexico,

Oaxaca and Mexico City.

Those are the best places to eat after all, right?

What if there was a hidden gem that has never gotten the love it deserves?

I have no expectations

but a lot of excitement

for this one, Los Mochis in Sinaloa.

I had never even heard of this place until my chef friend

Luis, who's from there, told me >> I think it's the best trip. See you soon. I love you.

>> Luis, I love you, too.

We've got restaurants literally floating in the sea, supposedly

the greatest seafood in the country,

and more styles of aguachile than I knew existed.

Turns out we might not be walking into a hidden gem, but a damn near seafood mecca.

But then Gabi surprised me again, proving

there's even more to northern Mexico than mariscos.

>> So, we're in burritos belly. >> Los number one. >> Yeah.

Los number one in Los Mochis, but around.

This is an amazing experience

while watching how they're doing the flour tortilla.

This is an expertise

that only this woman will have like in this region.

The elasticity is very important

for the tortilla, and this is the perfect size for a burrito.

>> They're basically rolling every tortilla,

immediately cooking it, immediately

stuffing it, and then you eat it.

This might be the fastest

burrito rolling I've ever seen in my life.

So, there's so much fat

in the tortilla that it creates a translucency

in the final dough.

It's a good thing.

It's a good sign.

They're so thin, you can see the filling from the outside.

We have three here.

This one is the potato.

This one I think is the barbacoa.

The Oh my god. Same.

First of all, the tortilla is so tender.

It like melts in your mouth, and it's buttery, too.

It has like a buttery quality to it. But the filling.

This is my big thing.

It is seasoned perfectly

to the absolute limit with salt.

The porky flavor comes through.

They're kind of frying it in its own fat, cuz you're getting a little

bit of crunch from the exterior

of the meat, a little bit of chew,

that fatty sort of gelatinous

chicharrón skin melting your mouth.

It's chewy, it's crunchy.

This is probably the best burrito I've ever had.

It doesn't need anything else.

There's no rice in it.

There's no cheese in it.

There's not like a bunch of tomato,

It's just literally tortilla,

bean, meat, and it's unbelievable.

Next up, >> This burrito is drunk. Wait, me encanta. Este me encanta.

>> What am I doing wrong?

The meat is incredible.

Even this sort of like fibrous part of the meat is so tender.

The second you chew,

it just like gives away.

These are things that are made every day.

They're lifted up by the culture.

But, if you were to go somewhere in like New York and put this

out for $20, everyone would be like, "Oh my god, you're the best of all time."

These guys are doing it every day.

They're just doing it the right way.

>> And respecting the tradition

of the recipe of their family. >> I'm blown away.

And we're starting off at a level I don't know if we're going to recover from.

>> I've eaten in all sorts

of insane situations around the globe.

But, our next spot is something I have never even seen before.

But first, meet Gabby's friend Irma, our Los Mochis expert.

I trust her because her family owns El Fogon,

one of the most legendary

seafood restaurants in Los Mochis.

So, I blindly followed Irma onto a boat and after the most beautiful

relaxing ride of my life.

And a little show from the dolphins, by the way.

Shout out to the dolphins.

And maybe a little bit of boat shopping for

>> Let's buy that one. >> That one? >> Okay.

I'll have my guy call them.

>> We pulled up to a restaurant

in the middle of the sea.

>> This is the best. I'm blown away.

I have no words.

Well, I have some.

First two words that come to mind are I'm hungry.

>> Now, I know this looks like a floating shack,

but it's actually a seafood

oasis called La Casita del Ostion.

This is the stuff I love.

We walked on and they hammered

us with a massive

spread of fresh seafood.

I mean, we hadn't even exchanged

anything beyond a quick hello and they went to work on oysters.

Not so sure about this guy's technique, but you know what?

I'm not going to question it.

First of all, listen. Nothing.

That might be the best part. Peace and tranquility.

>> Okay, so we have oysters here, fresh shucked right in front of us, very Wow. Holy Salud. Woo!

These are the best oysters I've ever had.

The texture is incredible.

It has like a super meaty chew to it.

And then we have a really interesting ceviche.

They scrape this and then they're marinating

it with lime juice, etc., which cooks this.

You get this sort of like fluffy texture, all sorts of vegetables I've seen. Cheers.

I've never ever had any ceviche like this in my life.

As it compresses when you bite it, it becomes actually quite moist like cuz

of all the acid in the lime juice that's in there.

This one has like a lot of texture in it and it still has

the same meatiness that a nice cooked piece of fish does. It's phenomenal.

It's like the essence of the energy out here is translating into the food. I love it.

Next we knocked out some shrimp that were cooked in seawater.

Before our last dish, their impeccable

grilled fish which you assemble

yourself on a fresh tortilla,

a touch of mayo,

and a nice little morsel

of grilled fish, touch of onion, and a good amount of salsa. >> Cheers. Cheers. >> Wow, right? >> Wow.

Seriously, it's absolutely incredible.

And the flavor of the fish is so fresh.

The sweetness of the onion like perfume the whole fish,

a little bit of char on the skin, clean simple flavor.

Everything we've had in Sinaloa so far has all been about like emphasizing

natural flavor, just coaxing it in the right direction with really good technique. >> Welcome to Sinaloa. >> Thank you. Yeah.

And I'm never leaving. Thank you.

Now it's on to one of the biggest reasons I came to Sinaloa, aguachile.

This is the dish that Luis got me to fly all the way out

here in the first place.

After all, it is the aguachile birthplace.

So we got set up with a red and green version.

Now typically I prefer green, but we'll see which one is the best of the two. There's our bite. Mhm.

Sinaloa, you can't keep hitting home runs every single time I eat. It's not fair. It's absurd.

I've been to one, two, three star Michelin restaurants

that do aguachile and I can tell that this is what they're going for

and they still can't achieve it at this level.

It's so flavorful, it's so balanced, but also just the freshness

is just like hitting you from every angle from texture

to flavor to balance of flavor. It's unbelievable.

That was just the green.

So how's the red? Wow. I'm in heaven.

I guess we move on.

I don't want to leave,

but we move on.

Before I left Sinaloa, I got to head to Irma's restaurant El Faraon

and we finally found Luis.

He's been missing for a couple days, but that's all right.

We had scallops, shrimp, the whole gamut of seafood.

But then I saw a dish that stopped me in my tracks.

I mean, I'm talking as dark as night, made of burnt habanero.

So, how good could this really

>> Favorite we've had in the world of raw

>> Amazing marriage of tradition and new.

>> The technique in that, bang.

>> Fruity sweetness from it is insane.

Combined with the dark flavor of the habaneros absurd.

>> If you look up Sinaloa

and you look for videos about food, you probably will not find anything.

And after being here, I'm realizing

that that is probably the biggest mistake

that could exist on planet Earth today.

I can't believe nobody has really been here

>> to talk about the cuisine here.

Producing some of the greatest

food in the entire

country of Mexico, in the whole world.

And we're not even done.

We have one last place.

>> We've covered the origin, Oaxaca.

Then we've gone all the way up north to the seafood capital of Mexico.

We have our last place, >> Mexico City.

>> Where the pure enjoyment

of street food at the highest level is juxtaposed

with the beauty of one of the most dynamic

restaurant scenes in the world, including

the number one restaurant in all of Mexico.

But to name the best Mexican food in the world, it's going to require a unique strategy.

>> We're doing something different in Mexico City.

We're stair-stepping our dishes.

We're leading to a top of the mountain.

We're starting at the base of the mountain.

It is the number one obvious example

of what Mexico City is about.

It is where classic meets innovation.

Al Pastor would not exist without the introduction

of people from >> The trompo,

having the spinning rotisserie

of meat, and then the Mexican people combining

their ingenuity in cuisine

has created arguably one of the most iconic

tacos in human history.

>> This place is so professional,

but this is great.

>> I always feel skeptical when I see chef coat and tacos.

>> It's a a game changer, isn't it? >> Game changer.

The tortilla is unbelievable.

So fragrant, so soft.

>> The meat is fatty and like perfectly seared on every side.

And that juicy sweet pineapple, I mean, listen.

It's a beautiful Al Pastor. I love it.

It's a perfect place to start,

but where we are going to end

is going to blow your mind. We move on.

>> We couldn't have this video without this dish.

Maybe you saw that coming, but next up things in here that I didn't

even know existed from a traditional cantina,

a type of restaurant mostly unknown to outsiders, but locals love.

Gabby took us to one of the most celebrated,

El Sella, and I'm going to be honest, it looks a little too simple.

This could be a situation

where looks are deceiving because this could be the best meal in Mexico

hidden in plain >> The energy

is giving me energy.

All the people talking,

and the crazy thing is there's no music.

The music is just like

We just sat down and already

>> Yeah, one of the best things about our cantinas is the service. >> Look at this.

>> Service is amazing here. >> What is this? Like a portrait?

>> So, this is chamorro, yeah?

This is the my favorite dish here.

>> My god, another dish. Two different dishes.

We have a chorizo, a sizzling

platter, and then this beautiful braised pork shank.

The chorizo smells >> Oh,

my god, smell that.

>> We call it chorizo la sidra. >> Smoky, sweet, porky.

I mean, it just smells unbelievable.

This feels like a very Spanish dish.

And they even served it with bread, not just tortillas,

but also sliced bread. Wow. That looks tremendous.

I didn't even need a knife, it just like came out. Cilantro, some chili.

>> That's a lot of chili, it's habanero.

>> Oh, okay, I don't want that much.

>> I love this because it's just like home-style cooking.

>> This is exactly what you will find in cantinas.

The Mexican, the Spanish,

but the feeling of the home style.

Everything feels familiar here.

The waiters they will know you, they will know what you drink, they will

know what you eat.

You can spend here hours.

>> It's just very uncomplicated.

You don't need to feel stuffy or nervous

or like you need to dress nice.

Throw something on, sit down, and then just eat and hang out with your friends.

That's like my kind of day.

So, let me How do I try the

>> I I think with bread. Amazing.

I knew you would love it.

>> Yeah, the chorizo is by far my favorite. >> Season crazy, phenomenal.

It's super acidic, but also very salted,

very like unctuous, and there's a smokiness

to it, and it's just like bathing in its own fat.

When you're done eating the chorizo, you take your bread

and you mop that chorizo fat up and enjoy that.

This is an experience

you have to have when visiting Mexico.

No reservation, you show up, eat, hang out, drink a little bit, dip.

This might be the most slept on thing in Mexico City. I love it.

On to the next.

We start with two classics, but our next step up is my Zaho.

Arguably one of the best taquerias

in all of Mexico City, possibly in Mexico.

In a place where they treat corn like gold.

But it's their mind-bending

taco creations that teach us exactly what makes Mexico City so special.

Chef Santi, good friend of mine, thank you for having us here again.

He's a new young chef, but also more importantly,

a perfect example of breathing new life into old traditions.

Santi told me he'd give me the best

the restaurant had to offer.

So we started out with a bang. Dish number one.

A shrimp flauta, or his inspiration of it.

Whole shrimp, left all in one piece, wrapped with a corn tortilla that they

make in-house, and then deep-fried.

The corn tortilla wrapped around the shrimp protects

it just like it would a natural shell.

The meat should be cooked perfectly,

and then the exterior crunchy. Cheers. That is special.

>> It's not a big list of ingredients.

Just like the quality and the technique.

>> It's still keeping that tradition of simple

but delicious intact, but it's also creative

because simply the way that they're making it.

He could just break down the shrimp, wrap it in a tortilla, and fry it.

But leaving it whole and making it look nice and presenting it this way, great example.

On to the next dish.

So this is a suadero taco.

This one's a little bit more traditional.

>> This is my favorite taco from all my >> Wow.

It tastes like the heart and soul of a proper suadero taco.

But then he has all these sort of atypical toppings like the pickled onion

and chili, which I'll put on.

That slight bit of elevation, the sheffiness. Mexico City, baby.

We're not quite at the highest level of fine dining.

We are at where hot cuisine meets ultra-traditionality.

Next up, the New York strip taco.

The tortilla is made by hand.

New York strip, the best quality meat sliced ultra thin, plated really beautifully. >> Amazing.

Doesn't need anything else. >> Nailed it. Absolutely incredible.

The meat is cooked perfectly.

It's exactly like I like it, sliced ultra thin, but it has a lot

of intramuscular fat, so it doesn't go dry.

And it's just kissed on the grill.

It's full of moisture, full of juice, seasoned perfectly,

needs absolutely nothing, truly perfection.

We started at the absolute

baseline, the foundation of what makes Mexico City Mexico City

with a simple taco that's been around a long time.

And now we're seeing it, young chefs reinventing the classics.

>> But, before we end this video

with the number one restaurant

in the entire country

of Mexico, we first are visiting a restaurant that goes by the name

of Gabba, a place that's supposedly

pushing the boundaries of what you can actually eat every single day.

We started out with a delicious

hamachi crudo, a tomato salad, and a dish that finally made chayote squash interesting to me.

But the next dish tops them all.

>> I cannot eat anymore.

>> You're doing so good.

>> I've been eating 7 days in a row.

>> Now we have steak tartar.

They're lightly smoking it and curing it.

Now we're stepping it up.

Now we're feeling the Mexico City of it all on tostada.

It's the best tartar I've ever had.

This is made with a cut of meat that has a shitload of flavor.

And it's cured, and it's aged, so all that flavor is super compacted and maximized. And guess what?

The salt level is perfect.

I know we're not rating, but this is like a 9.8,

9.9, maybe a 10.

In the world of tartars, frankly, it doesn't get much better than that.

And somehow when I thought that they hit the ceiling,

an unlikely dish challenged

my mindset even I

have never been a huge fan of tripe. This is amazing.

The chef is a

>> He's risking because not a lot of people will get you tripe in this

kind of restaurant, you know?

But it still have the flavor that we know from a taco that he's

the source of his creativity.

This is a place I will spend all my money.

>> I also will spend all your money here.

It's the best tripe I've ever had, and I really don't like tripe, and

I went in for a second, third bite.

This is how all tripe should be served.

And now for the star of the show,

the pork chop al pastor

reimagined for the modern world.

Arguably, the largest and craziest

al pastor you'll ever see.

So, how does it compare

to our favorite taco?

>> This is the next level.

Al pastor taco has been around for a long time, but now we have

al pastor inspiring a full-on

unique dish in and of itself.

A beautiful grilled pork chop, brulee pineapple,

instead of a taco you have this beautifully dressed lettuce.

>> This is the marriage

that makes Mexico City Mexico City.

It is its own dish now, but it's still equally delicious in a new

way while still respecting

what makes a traditional

al pastor taco amazing,

but also new, also a different >> Beautifully done. Bravo.

>> It is modern cuisine perfectly done.

And by that I mean,

it is deliciousness first, beauty second.

And I'm not saying the dishes aren't beautiful, they're stunning,

but they're not like so lost

in making it beautiful that they forget about making it delicious.

>> Some of the bites here have been some of the best bites I've ever had.

But where do they fit in the best Mexican >> food in the world?

So, we move on

to our final location,

the number three restaurant

on Earth in the number one

restaurant in Mexico, Quintonil.

>> So, you want to talk about innovation

meets tradition, this is the highest form of innovation.

We have a lot of courses coming.

Let's see what they look

>> Can fine dining really deliver the same satisfaction

or what they argue

a better meal than all of the original

dishes that we tried?

First up, the snack course.

They started us off with pescadilla,

which contains tuna from Baja,

caviar, type chilies, and a grasshopper salsa.

>> A lot of flavor in just one bite.

>> It's funny, after eating everything we've eaten, I'm like, "Yeah, I know those flavors."

Not too dissimilar to many other things that we ate in

>> It's joining cultures in small bites, in big dishes.

It's not only the taste of our region, it's like a bomba. >> Like a what? >> Bomba, bomba.

>> Next snack, mussel tostada.

Pickled mussel grilled and glazed.

>> These are the kind of moments I'm looking for in this meal. Explosion of flavor.

So deeply flavorful, super layered, but also simple. That's a bite.

I could eat probably 30 or 40 of those.

>> Okay, we're rolling well so far, but could I really eat 30

or 40 of this next

>> Fried escamoles and larva.

>> They call it the Mexican caviar.

>> That's a better angle.

It's like a aged cheese flavor

with a little fried donut.

>> This reminds me a lot of my grandmother.

She used to do like a pasta like this from tomate, very simple,

and then she would add cotija cheese.

I think it's like a ratatouille

like effect, you know, ratatouille

or I don't know how to pronounce it.

>> Pulling the emotion out of you, it's a beautiful thing.

>> Snack time is over, and now it's on to our first main course of the night.

>> Butternut squash salad, a foam

of horchata, brown butter and rice vinegar dressing,

and then what looks like toasted pumpkin seeds.

The more you eat it, the better it gets, honestly.

It's like a perfect salad.

Perfectly balanced, creamy, salt level's amazing.

It's still the same mentality,

though, which is super simple, done really, really well.

>> We've seen layuda in Oaxaca, and it was phenomenal.

But in front of me, we have the fine dining version, completed with a

crab salad, a sauce made of pipian and >> Very Asian-inspired.

Yeah, that that is impressive.

This is where they're really starting to blur the line

and create their own cuisine here.

You can taste the inspiration

of, you know, Mexican flavors in there, but also

Thai flavors, these Asian flavors.

This is where the innovation

is now creating its own cuisine.

>> Now we have reached a course

that is touching tradition.

Pork tamale with an onion ash. >> Wow.

This feels like an iconic

reinterpretation of a classic.

>> But speaking of classics,

the mole has arrived.

And I'll be honest,

I'm nervous for Tierra Adentro back in Oaxaca.

Will this be the best mole I had in Mexico?

>> Wow, what a dish.

It is probably the best mole I've ever had. It's absurd.

I want like a big

cup of this mole to come with

>> Quinton Neil's was absolutely delicious,

but so was Tia Elbia's.

So I got to give it to Tia, come on.

>> I feel that we're reaching a a crescendo here.

We've come all the way back to traditional

flavors and they're really hitting heavy now. I'm full.

The final dish of the entire evening.

This is where it all comes together.

A cornbread base with a passion fruit foam and a burnt corn leaf

Oh my That is a 10 out of 10 dessert.

That is a banger

of an ending to an incredible

>> A beautiful crescendo by Quinton Neil, but we have to ask,

what is the best Mexican

food in the world?

On one end I'd say

the burrito and the seafood in Los Mochis

was probably at the top of my list.

But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So was Gaba.

Kind of at the same level.

And also, so was the cantina.

And so was the incredible breakfast made by hand.

So how are we supposed to pick a winner here?

I think what I'm realizing

is these were all equally

great in their own way and this isn't a cop out.

It doesn't matter how much money you spend or how fancy your meal is.

Sure, you can have great on both ends of the spectrum.

But really it comes down to making

it the right way, taking the ingredients that they have that are already around

them locally and just treating them with respect

and actually giving a

when they make the food.

And Tia Elbia cared just as much as Quinton Neil cared.

Quinton Neil cared just as much as the cantina cared.

And everybody in those individual restaurants

seated next to each other were having a great time and that is what

the best Mexican food is all about. Love you. Subscribe. Bye.