(Musical flourish swell)
(Latin music)
Mena: Rolling through the plazas,
taking in the architecture, the sun, the people,
of The Capital of The Americas.
It's joy, man.
Mexico City, one of my favourite towns anywhere.
♪
Built on the ruins of an ancient Aztec metropolis,
this city's seen it all - earthquakes, war, revolution -
and has come out the other side to become
one of the hippest destinations for young digital nomads
and international travellers today.
And the chefs are progressing right along with it -
spinning spectacular modern turns on food
with deep roots in Indigenous
and Spanish cooking techniques and ingredients.
This is one of the most vegan-and-vegetarian dense
countries on the planet, and the food is all-world.
Regional, delectable, surprising,
and like Mexico itself, complicated.
And Mexico City's where it all collides.
From street eats to world-class restos to shockingly gorgeous
turns on the humble taco, to the abuelas making mole
in the burroughs, Mexico City is alive,
electric and constantly evolving.
♪
I'm Mena Massoud.
I'm travelling across North America and eating my way
through some of the coolest cities to show you how
beautiful meals, talented chefs and restaurant tours
are making plant-based living delicious and attainable.
So join me as I show you how the world is evolving vegan.
♪
Mexico City's renowned for its killer street food,
particularly in the heart of the City: La Roma.
This hip, legendary neighbourhood lined
with neo-Colonial buildings, canopied streets,
and the most spectacular food carts ever.
I'm checking it out with Chris von Uckermann:
Telenovela star, Latin-Grammy nominee, and fellow vegan.
We're meeting Lydia Carey, the literal author
of the Mexico City Streets La Roma guide,
for a tour of these famous food stands.
What's going on? How you doing? I'm Mena.
Hi. Nice to meet you, Mena.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Chris. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, Chris. Well, welcome to La Roma.
Thank you very much.
It's nice to have you guys.
Yeah, so this is kind of where a lot
of the vegan restaurants are or...?
Yes, this is one of the more sort of popular
and touristy neighbourhoods, but it's also, like,
very beautiful, very centrally located.
The neighbourhood has definitely been changing a lot.
Mena: La Roma was built
as a prestige suburb in the 1900s,
eventually swallowed by the city.
It was devastated in the 1985 earthquake
and the place was nearly abandoned.
Lydia: And then in the early 2000s,
a lot of people started moving back:
young people, people who are investing.
So you have a lot of foreigners who live here,
but we also have tons of young Mexicans that also came
and gentrified this neighbourhood to begin with.
It has beautiful architecture, there's a million reasons why
you'd wanna live here, you know?
Like, look at this beautiful green space that we're in.
Yeah, I used to live in Condesa,
like five minutes away from La Roma.
So I love to walk, so everything's walking distance.
And Chris here.
You have bars, good restaurants.
And at one point, Lydia, you tried every restaurant
in La Roma at one point.
Yes.
Where are we gonna go?
So today I'm gonna take you guys to two different places.
First we're gonna go to Paxil and they make vegan seafood.
Mena: Yeah, that's right,
vegan seafood.
Melt-in-your-mouth vegan seafood.
Fish tacos, aguachile and tostados.
It's run by sisters Mafer and Sol.
Lydia: Here we are.
Oh, wow!
Ooh, this is amazing, Sol.
(Speaking other language)
♪
Wow, wow.
Yeah, it's really good.
Yeah.
The tomatoes kind of kept its texture even though
it's diced really small.
Mexican tomatoes are something else, I'll tell you that.
And it's got just the perfect amount of kick, you know.
It's just, like, perfect. Come on, get in here, Chris.
Okay, bro.
Oh, man, this is so good. Cheers.
Cheers, bro.
(Lydia laughs)
Lydia: What do you think about that?
Mena: Mm.
It's really good, mm-hmm.
Pretty nice, yeah?
The fact that this is tomatoes is mind boggling.
(Speaking other language)
It's delicious, thank you.
Sol blesses us with portobello mushroom fish tacos,
arrayed in bright cabbage and the Taco Gobernador
before Mafer, the big gastronomic brain
behind the operation, comes over the top rope
with one of their all-time faves.
This is the aguachile negro.
I can tell why this is your favourite
'cause it's got everything on it.
Yeah, it's super amazing.
It's like it's got the fish from the last one.
It's got avocado, mushrooms, lots of vegetables.
Aguachile is the Mexican version of ceviche.
Paxil's version is mushrooms cooked
with chili and cured with lime.
And what's the sauce that's oozing here?
(Speaking other language)
This one is good for the hangover.
In Mexico City, seafood is hangover food.
Yeah, it's very common.
Really?
Uh-huh.
(Speaking other language)
Well, you did a fantastic job.
The food is amazing. So congratulations.
It was really good. Muchas gracias.
(Speaking other language)
Lydia: So this place is Por Siempre.
They were the first vegan tacoria in the city.
They opened up in 2014.
Mena: This is the OG.
Lydia: This is the OG.
(Speaking other language)
Gracias .
Luis.
(Talking over each other)
(Speaking other language)
Mena: Luis Rodriquez, the owner
and head chef at Por Siempre, is a true vegan pioneer.
(Speaking other language)
Mena: The torta's a Mexican sandwich,
with all the different meats.
The Taco de Suadero is an OG Mexico City invention.
Typically beef fried in its own juices, the plant based version
was re-invented by Chef Luis on this very spot.
So this is the Taco de Suadero.
It's made with soy
and these are all of the amazing toppings with it
that I actually put on it.
Mena: Wow.
Lydia: There's whole black beans,
french fries, nopal cactus.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
So when you said french fries, you actually meant,
like, as a topping?
Yeah, no, it's the best.
It's the best.
Really, like, a taco with french fries,
it's like the combination of two of the most magical things ever.
That's crazy. Egypt does that too.
Like what-- My mom used to make me French fries sandwiches.
That sounds amazing.
Yeah.
Now I want your mom's french fries sandwiches.
This is taking me back. Is that overkill?
It's 'cause I wanna taste one.
Lydia: I mean, it's not overkill.
You're gonna eat it.
That one's really spicy.
Mena: Really spicy?
Chris: Yeah.
Can you handle it, bro?
Mena: I can handle it.
Can you handle it, Chris?
Of course, bro. Come on.
Come on, bro, I'm Mexican.
Is there a strategy to this?
Like, what are we-- How are we going?
Just like this. Whatever you feel.
Just like that?
Just like that.
No, that was a great tutoring.
Just feel it, you know.
That's perfect.
♪
That's phenomenal.
Lydia: Yeah, delicious.
Mena: It's so good, I gotta find out
more about the operation from Chef Luis.
I'm seeing a lot of people here come and grab tacos.
Do you get a lot of non-vegans coming here
just to eat delicious tacos?
Yeah, of course.
(Speaking other language)
Yeah, it's a great way to transition people to vegan.
Do you guys want to try this?
Yeah, let's try. Let's try.
Of course I want to try Chef's torta.
Look at this behemoth.
♪
Mm.
That is so good.
It's a monster, it is and it's got a good mix of protein
obviously, but the egg in the cheese add that creaminess
to it as well.
You got a salsa in there, the fries for the carbs.
Really, really good.
Mm.
What do you think, Chris?
I really like it, more than the tacos actually.
Man, this is crazy, like,
people think vegan sometimes they don't realize like
what it could be.
This is insane.
That's what it's all about.
I think the world is evolving to that point where everybody's
just going to eat a little bit more vegan as time goes on
even though they are not 100%.
Yeah, of course.
All the climate change stuff.
I mean, it's important.
Even if he did it just a couple of days a week it would
make an impact.
Well, thank you, Luis.
You're welcome.
Mena: Honestly, the food in La Roma
was so good I came back on
my days off to get my fill.
Vegan street food in Mexico City an absolute showstopper.
♪
I'm visiting San Pedro Atocpan,
part of an agricultural borough in
the outskirts of Mexico City with Natalia De La Rosa,
one of the leading culinary journalists in Mexico.
Known as the mole capital of the world, the community is holding
their annual mole Festival.
You can't talk about Mexican cuisine without
talking about mole.
It's derived from an ancient Aztec word that simply means
sauce, but it's so much more complicated than that.
Dark moles are typically melding of chilies, nuts, spices and
chocolate, while others like a mole verde contain tomatillos.
There's over 40 types of mole often vegan which can
take days to prepare.
If you think French or Nordic dining is complex, you
have to try authentic mole.
It will blow your food paradigm off its axis.
We're dropping in on Natalia's friends at Mole Don Luis, a
third generation mole producer.
Hola!
Hola.
(Speaking Spanish)
Nice to meet you.
Don Luis is one of the founders of the mole.
Mena: Don Luis and other San Pedro Atocpan families started
large-scale production of mole here in the 1950s
but the history of mole is centuries old.
Mole, when it first started, the mole could be made of with
five, six ingredients only.
Right.
But it was with the colonial times that it all
kind of evolved.
Because a lot of moles are made from over
20 ingredients, right?
So there's a lot of evolution that goes into mole.
Yes.
And all different kinds of moles as well.
Moles can be sweet or savoury, used in mains or desserts.
Just take the paste or powder and add water.
The resulting sauce is dense and flavorful, and the recipes
are often handed down generation to generation.
What I love about mole is it's very complex, right?
Natalia: Yeah, yes.
Mena: It hits your palate and for a few seconds after your
still discovering all the different flavours.
First of all, you have to feel the sweet flavours and then
a little bit of spicy in the throat and that's all.
Mena: Mm.
It's not too heavy for the stomach.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Nice to meet you.
I appreciate that.
After my mole crash course it's time to see how it's made by
someone who's been making it for over 70 years.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Natalia: Yes.
(Speaking Spanish)
Nice to meet you.
(Speaking Spanish)
Herlinda, nice to meet you.
Very nice to meet you.
Natalia: She's going to teach us how to make mole
in the traditional way.
Look at all these ingredients.
I mean, this is incredible.
We've got fava beans, avocados, all kinds of nuts,
cinnamon, onions.
We've got everything here at.
Abuela , this is amazing!
Step one is the chili prep.
How on earth do you know the difference?
Because they all look the same to me.
Texture is different.
The texture is different.
This is thicker.
Wow. Amazing. Amazing.
So, this is our base.
Yeah. This is our base.
Can I help you?
Is that okay?
That means a lot coming from you.
Oh, there we go.
Natalia: Yes. That is the chili base.
And this is a classic metate?
Is that how you say it?
Meta-- metate?
Metate.
Metate is a culinary tool pre-Hispanic, it's made out of
volcanic stone.
Wow.
And this metate is ancient.
Belonged to Herlinda's grandmother.
Wow.
It belonged to Abuela's abuela.
Yeah.
So we're talking like 200 years may be this thing?
Yes.
That's incredible.
Is there anything that goes in the mole other than the chilies?
So basically what you do is you put a little bit of your
weight and kind of like rotate the hand in order to do
all the friction like she's doing.
Where's she going?
Abuela wants me to try?
Yes.
You need to try it.
Okay.
Okay, thank you, Abuela .
Oh, man.
I feel so honoured.
I'm using a 200-year-old metate here.
Abuela , how my doing?
(Laughter)
Okay...
I think I'm... I think I'm beat.
How did I do?
Si ?
Bueno ? Bien ? Bien ?
Mena: Honestly, it's one of the most memorable sous chef moments
of my life.
Grasias.
Grasias, Abuela.
Grasias.
It's an honour for me to be here and she's lived 87 years and
seriously, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you.
She's asking if you've eaten?
Of course, we have to eat mole now.
Of course. We have to try your mole.
Mena: Abuela won't let us leave without eating
and cooks us a traditional countryside lunch
from a plant I've never even heard of before,
topped with her outrageous mole.
(Mena and Natalia exclaiming)
(Speaking Spanish)
So, this is huauzontle.
Huauzontle, it's a dish
that is very typical from Mexico.
It's kind of like a bush
that grows around here and is edible
and they top it
with the mole and adobo and the mushrooms.
So, this is the mole that Abuela has made.
Natalia: Yeah, this is the mole
that Herme just helped us do.
Mena: Mmm...
So good.
Hermelinda: Si?
Yeah, si, si.
(Speaking Spanish)
Yes, very good.
(Speaking Spanish)
A lot of people come to Mexico City
because Mexico City has been praised
for all the restaurant vibe and fine dining,
but all these traditions are part of the way
of eating in Mexico City as well.
What I've loved about this
is getting to come to the countryside
and really see where it all started. Natalia: Yes.
See the roots, the heart
of what Mexico City is about.
And Abuela is a great representation of that,
carrying on tradition from generation to generation.
You know, this is what Mexico City is about.
This is what people should know
about Mexico City. Definitely.
I think that's the beauty of it.
Hermelinda, thank you very much.
(Speaking Spanish)
♪
Mena: One of the most exciting developments
in Mexico City
is the new wave of chefs
creating delicious vegan food,
like Laura Cardenas.
Born in Venezuela, Laura fled the political chaos
as a refugee in 2015
with just her cooking skills to support herself.
But those skills quickly established her
as a chef to watch
at her ultra-trendy Pitahaya Vegana.
In a nod to Laura's roots,
we're making a Venezuelan-inspired
plantain-and-bean dish.
Laura: You ever try enfrijoladas?
Frijoladas.
Enfrijoladas.
I don't think I've had enfrijoladas.
Enfrijoladas, it's like enchiladas or enmoladas.
It's basically tortillas filled with anything
and covered with other anything.
You know? Mena: Okay.
And so, that's the plantain
that you've got right now.
Yeah, that's the plantain.
It's just puréed.
Okay, so, this one is really hot.
Mena: What's made Laura's restaurant so successful
is cooking these Mexican classics
with aesthetic flair.
She's created the most Insta-worthy
vegan resto in the city
with signature pink tortillas--
a happy accident involving a guy on a bike
with corn masa and beet juice in his backpack
and Mexico City's notorious potholes.
Sometimes, you gotta listen to fate and the tortilla.
There's a sound. For example, this is not...
(Surface scratching)
You know, this one is more scratchy than this one.
You know?
So, that means this is almost done?
Yeah, it's more cooked.
And also, when it gets--
It's like you're a DJ.
Yeah! Exactly!
The tortilla DJ. Tortilla DJ Laura!
Mena: Tortillas steaming,
stuffing the enfrijoladas begins.
We add a bit of almonds,
because it gives a bit of texture.
A little bit of crunch. Also with this.
Also with this, exactly.
Mena: White cabbage? Laura: Exactly, white cabbage.
Then, we just fold it a bit. Okay.
So, now, we will serve the beans.
This, those are organic beans.
And they go good with
garlic, onion, and some herbs.
Ooh. That's beautiful.
These are not refried beans that you're getting
out of a can, all right.
These are beautiful, fresh beans, no question.
Laura: Yeah, you will love it.
Mena: Oh, look at that!
Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.
The contrast of colour, too,
with the brown, black beans, the pink tortillas,
little bit of that white cabbage pouring through.
(Clap) Wow!
Okay, so, what goes on it now?
Uh, it has some things.
Yeah, something tells me that when you say some things,
it's gonna be a lot of things.
That's true. That's totally true. Okay, okay.
Mena: The enfrijoladas are covered in lettuce,
coconut turmeric cream, pico de gallo,
and...
This is the coconut cottage cheese.
Coconut cottage cheese.
Okay, I'm gonna take--
Yeah. Add another one, because it's so delicious.
(Laughing) Yeah, please.
Ahh...
Okay.
(Metal clattering)
Get out of here!
It's got that sourness of a cottage cheese
or of a cheese.
Yeah, well, it's fermented.
That's what makes that. It's fermented?
Yeah. And, this is the last.
I think it's falling a bit
to the side, but...
Mena: Wow, this is just,
it's a piece of art!
I can't wait to eat this, Laura.
Laura: You should wait because we need to do the next.
I want to just try it.
What, I have to wait?
Okay, yeah. (Laughing)
(Sizzling)
Mena: All I really want to do
is destroy those enfrijoladas.
Instead, I'm conscripted to cook mouth-watering tacos.
Cauliflower, oyster-mushroom pastor,
and tofu scramble,
all elegantly done up with bright colours
and delicious sauces.
All right, look at this!
Laura: How you want to start? With which one?
I think with the enfrijoladas.
Mena: Yeah, I'll dig into the enfrijoladas.
It's so beautiful.
I don't even wanna dig in.
But I will.
When you try it you won't be sad
of digging in, I promise.
Yeah, exactly.
♪
Mena: Mmm. Mmm.
We've got the earthiness
from the black beans and the tortillas,
the cabbage,
And then you get a little bit of freshness
from all the components,
balances that out beautifully.
And the black bean just is phenomenal.
I just... Yeah.
I need to take home a jar of that.
Beans and corn:
Mexican culinary cornerstones,
they have deep historical,
traditional, even ecological ties.
They are part of the same system of growing food.
It's called la milpa
and it has, like, corn;
it has beans;
it has herbs; it has flowers.
All of them have, like, a function in that system.
The la milpa is an ecosystem?
It's a way to grow food in Mexico.
So, it's ancestral.
This is a perfect example of combining old and new.
Laura: Exactly.
Mena: Because in your food,
I mean, in that one dish right there,
you have la milpa,
right? Laura: Yeah.
You have the corn
and the beans. Yeah, sure.
But you're doing it in a new way, or fairly new--
Yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure.
With the vegan take and the plant-based take on it.
All right, gonna put a little of lime
on this pastor, right? Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, yeah.
Mmmm...
That's the most popular.
I love a pastor taco.
And you definitely have the flavour in there, right,
because of the adobo seasoning and... Yeah, yeah.
The taco's my favourite, too,
because I think it's so balanced.
You know, and you have all the flavours
but when you bite it, it's like surprise.
What made you open up Pitahaya Vegana?
What was the idea behind that?
I always cooked with my grandma, my family.
When I became vegan--
because my mom told me-- I was, like, 16 years old
and my mom was, like, okay, you want to be vegan, you can,
but you will cook your own food!
Like, a way to push me
to not be vegan anymore.
And it was, like, okay, that's amazing.
Then I will learn how to cook! You know?
And I started using some things.
I learnt from my grandma.
And my business partner and I, when we met,
we both have that feeling of we need to do something
about all the things, like, with animals, with human rights,
water consumption, carbon emissions.
it's so important,
and at that moment, we felt a good way to do it
was selling food.
And have, like, an excuse to talk with people about this.
Veganism is kind of
a new thing for Mexico, isn't it?
It's not so new, but it's big.
In fact, the percentage of people
going vegan or vegetarian
is 20% of the population.
20% of people in Mexico City are vegan or vegetarian?
In Mexico the country. It's so crazy.
What?
I saw the statistics, and it was, like, seriously?
Is that true? But, yeah.
Mena: Laura's foodist activism
goes back to her youth
to fleeing Venezuela as a refugee.
She says: Where you
are stripped of everything you own,
all you have left is the things you've learnt.
Which, for her, goes back to cooking for family.
When I cook for somebody it's like it's my way to say
I like you, I love you.
You know, it's for me it's so relatable with my values
and my traditions, my family traditions.
I think food is one of those things that's very universal.
You know, it doesn't matter of the colour of your skin,
where you come from, what language you speak,
it's something that everybody understands.
You can go to any country...
Yeah, totally.
...in the world.
Yeah, it's like in a smile.
And sit down and have a meal and you instantly understand
a little bit about them and who they are so.
Laura: Totally.
So I feel like I've gotten to know you,
not just through conversation, but through the beautiful food.
So thank you again.
It's been a great meal.
♪
Given the complexity of the Mexican palate,
it's not surprising their top restaurants land
on all-world top 10 lists, like Quintonil,
recently rated the ninth best restaurant on planet Earth.
It's just a six month wait to dine here.
Quintonil prides itself on using local producers
with the best ingredients.
It's not a vegan restaurant, but they've always made it a point
to have a vegan tasting menu as part of their haute cuisine.
Chef Geraldine was born and raised in Mexico City.
She grew up cooking in her parents' fonda,
worked at Michelin-star restaurants all over Europe
before returning home.
What are we making today?
We are going to make charred avocado with green mole pipian.
Mena: Chef's mole is made
of Thai basil, coriander seeds, coconut milk, white pepper,
and what makes it a pipian sauce, pumpkin seeds.
With an Asian fusion twist!
Feels like a combination of a mole and curry.
Yeah, we have Thailand ingredients,
but we have also Mexican ingredients.
Very aromatic.
I want that in a spray bottle. I'd just spray it on me.
Mm, fantastic, wow.
Okay, we are going to cook it a little bit here.
Okay.
Alright, so you've got these beautiful Mexican pepitas,
which are pumpkin seeds.
You added it the sauce, I'll add it into in my mouth.
Yeah, because we want it to be green...
Yes.
...we are going to-- some spinach.
Mena: This is spinach?
Yeah, this is spinach.
Chef, I think I've been lied to my whole life.
Why?
This is spinach?
Yeah.
Our spinach is small and half of it is rotten
by the time you get it in the grocery store.
No, we here in Mexico, we have very, very big one.
(Munching)
It's almost like the spinach I would imagine dinosaurs
were eating back thousands of years ago.
Millions of years ago?
Thousands?
Millions?
Thousands, I think.
I don't know.
The point is that this spinach is massive.
Yup, that's the expert analysis you're tuning in for.
But in my defense, I'm kind of stunned by the size and quality
of the ingredients, including greens I've never tried before.
We have also hoja santa.
Mena: Kind of looks like
a banana leaf or a plantain leaf.
Yeah, this is really, very aromatic.
If you wanted to taste it...
Yeah.
...it is really freshness.
Okay, I will taste it.
♪
It almost tastes like carrots.
Yeah.
It has that kind of carrot, kind of earthy flavour to it.
Yeah, it's not too much strong.
And then you get a little bit of minty flavour as well.
It's like a carrot and a mint had a baby and it came out
as a leaf, and this is it.
Hoja santa.
We have all of our ingredients here
and we are going to blend it.
(Whirring)
(Laughs)
Mena: Usually this would be the crab,
but we're using avocado for the vegan dish.
Yeah, we are going to cut it.
I'm going to char.
Mena: Now that I don't think
I ever had: a charred avocado.
It really change the flavour of the avocados,
so it's really nice.
And then we are going to add the green mole, okay.
Beautiful.
And then we have some clayuda, this traditional dish.
We use it here for like a chip.
So it's like a crisp tortilla.
Yeah, crispy tortillas, yes.
And we have also cilantro flowers, okay.
Mena: Wow, beautiful.
From the same ones this one.
We have also oxalis.
♪
Wow. I did not expect that.
Just a kick of sourness at the very end, wow.
Yeah, and we finish the plate with this oil we make with kale.
Mena: With kale?
Yeah, and we finish.
Mena: Wow, that's gorgeous, Chef.
Absolutely gorgeous. I don't even wanna eat it.
I don't think I can eat it. It's just beautiful.
But I am definitely eating it. I can't wait to dig into this.
I want to get the perfect bite here
with that beautiful flower...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
...with that punch of citrus.
♪
Mm, wow.
The amount of flavour
that's coming from that pipian is incredible.
All the leaves, the herbs, yeah, yeah.
And it's so delicate at the same time.
It's balanced in a way that you can really taste
every single ingredient and get all those flavours.
So you travelled abroad and worked at Michelin-star
restaurants in Spain and really all over the world.
Yeah.
And how were you able to kind of marry that old tradition
of Mexico to the new, you know, techniques
that you learned abroad?
Here I learn that the product has to be first.
And being able to use ingredients locally.
Yes, it's very important and we try to keep it together
with Mexican cuisine.
It says a lot to me that at a restaurant,
like ninth best restaurant in the world,
you now have plant-based options.
Why?
We know that cooking we can change the way we used to eat.
Now is more common, but because the customer, the guest,
came here and they say, I'm vegan and that they can't have
a delicious food and they can't have our experience.
Yeah, they can have an elevated, prestigious experience.
Yeah, a fine dining experience and not only fast food.
Yeah, I think people associate vegan with, you know, something
that's not very common, you can't find it anywhere,
it's not elite.
But you are an elite restaurant here and this food has,
you know, exquisite flavours and it's all plant based.
Geraldine: Yeah, yeah, yeah,
we have awesome ingredients to explore
and the people can eat really, really well.
Do you think this would have been possible 10, 15 years ago?
15 years ago, I think no.
Mena: Yeah.
It's been changing.
We all, the chefs, have been realize that this can be
an option and we are taking care of the planet in the way
that we can do something.
You know, because small changes, we can make a big difference.
Mena: Fascinating to see this change
play out in real-time
at the most cosmopolitan high-end restaurants.
After some elite dining, it's time for a night-cap.
♪
Any big night in a major metropolis is best done
with a local who knows the scene intimately.
Luckily, I'm hanging with Jonathan Landa.
Born and raised in Mexico City, he knows this town inside out.
When he said there's no better way to kick off a big night
than a mezcal tasting at an unlisted private speakeasy--
I mean, mezcal's vegan, so when in Mexico, right?
We knew just the person to hook it up.
♪
Because our friend Natalia isn't just a journalist,
she's also a mezcal aficionado
and the owner of this incredible mezcal oasis.
Natalia: Come on in.
Mena and Jonathan: Thank you.
Welcome to my mezcal private collection room.
It's a beautiful one.
Mena: Wow, very cool, very cool, wow.
Yes.
So how many mezcals would you say you have?
50 varied mezcals.
This is just a quarter of the collection
that we have at our house.
Mena: A quarter!
Natalia: We have from all over,
from Wahaka, San Luis Potosi, Durango, Chihuahua.
A lot of people, their reference is Wahaka.
Mena: Yeah.
But actually there's so much more about mezcal.
Well, that's what makes mezcal very unique from tequila, right?
Tequila's typically only made in very few regions.
Yes.
Mena: Only from the blue agave plant.
Natalia: Yes.
Mezcal can be made from over 35 different varietals?
Yes.
Mena: Those varietals are farmed and harvested
all over Mexico,
and the mezcal is created through labour-intensive
traditional methods of smoking, crushing
and distilling the agave plant.
It results in an extremely pure high test spirit,
often 100 proof or more.
Think about tequila as you think about champagne,
and think about mezcal as a other variety.
So wine, champagne is only from one region.
So, mezcal: different regions,
different varieties of mezcal.
A lot of people, their first reference is that mezcal
is smoky but not necessarily.
You're tasting agave plants that take
six, 10, and 15, 18 years to grow.
Mena: Yeah.
Natalia: You don't want to shoot it.
You want to enjoy it. You want to respect it.
Of course.
Enough with the talk.
The party's coming!
We're going to start with a kind of, like, relatable mezcal
that a lot of people like.
And this is from Oaxaca, from a town that is called Chichicapa.
Put a little bit on your finger and then put it--
Rub the alcohol in your hand and let it dry.
It's kind of like a perfume.
Mena: Yeah.
It smells like a wood or--
Yeah, I'm smelling more wood now, you're right.
Natalia: Yes.
Yeah, I'm feeling it!
All: Cheers.
Thanks for having us, Natalia.
Natalia: Welcome to Mexico.
Thank you.
Delicious.
This is quality mezcal, my friends.
It's smokiness but I am definitely
getting sweetness in it as well.
The incredible thing about mezcal is that I don't
really wake up with a hangover, a lot of the times.
Yes.
Because we're talking about one ingredient, right?
Yes.
It's the heart of the agave, and that's it.
Across Mexico, hundreds of distilleries produce
over two million litres of agave-based mezcal a year,
and it's growing.
My love for mezcal exploded during my time waiting tables,
and I love seeing it have its moment in the sun.
This one comes from Chihuahua.
I'm going to pour and you're going to tell me what you smell.
Spicier, kind of like pink peppercorn.
For me, this one is like leathery.
All: Cheers!
(Clink)
Well, the flavour is different, completely different
than the first one.
Mena: Yeah.
This is the proof that mezcal is not necessarily smoky.
Yeah.
Are you ready for the next one?
Oh, my god, yeah.
I, yeah-- I guess so, Natalia.
I mean, we've got to keep up with you here.
Oh, you're bringing out the honkers.
These are my babies.
(Laughing)
Tell me what you smell there.
Oh, more of a sweetness.
It kind of almost tastes like--
Yeah, like candy.
It smells like candy, right?
Yes.
Yes, a lot of times it has a little funk,
cheesy kind of--
Yeah! You're right.
It kind of tastes like cheese.
And this is stronger than the other two, a little bit.
Yeah. I mean, hey, listen, anytime you get alcohol
in a clear unmarked bottle,
it's going to be strong, man, that's--
That's a universal truth.
(Laughing)
Three ounces turns to four, which turns to cinco ,
which turns to a good old time...
Cheers, guys, cheers.
Salut!
We say "salut" in Mexico.
All: Salut!
(Clinking)
Mena: ...before a grand night on the town.
Salut!
♪
The journey to Mexico City has been incredible,
and for the final leg,
my girlfriend Emily's joining me
to check out a borough
that dates back past the Aztecs,
a natural haven you'd never expect to see in a city
of 22 million people: the chinampas.
With its canals and gondolas,
the chinampas on the Xochimilco lake system are often called
the Venice of Mexico,
but this is actually ancient farmland.
♪
With its super-high-altitude,
Mexico City was never an easy place to grow food,
but these floating farms were created
using millennia-old aqua-culture techniques
to form rich cropland that barely needs watering.
Now it provides fresh produce to population-dense Mexico City
and restaurants like Quintonil every day.
Frankly, it's ingenious.
We're here to meet Ricardo Rodriguez,
a farmer and activist who's working tirelessly
to revitalize these iconic farms.
Hi, guys, welcome.
- Hey! - Hi.
Ricardo?
Yeah, nice to meet you.
I'm Mena. Nice to meet you. This is Emily.
Hi. Emily. Nice to meet you.
Welcome to my land. This is a chinampas.
Mena: Wow, this is beautiful.
What does "chinampas" refer to?
The chinampas come from 2,000 years ago.
It means the Toltecs,
they built a net of branches and they put--
They add soil on top
and then another lid of branches,
mud, branches, and mud,
and the last lid was with soil,
and in that soil they sow in the seeds.
Mena: So basically they've created
floating farms, essentially?
Ricardo: Right.
This is all on water that we're standing on right now?
If you feel, it's spongy...
Yeah.
...this is, the land.
How old are these lands?
Thise lands have an age of 124 years.
Oh, this specific land?
This specific, but all the system,
2,000 years ago.
Wow, that's incredible.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Amazing.
If you observe, we have volcanic soil
because it's very dark.
Mena: Yeah, very, very black.
And it's rich in minerals
because the city was surrounded by five volcanoes.
Mena: Ricardo bought the chinampas
14 years ago and completely transformed it.
I found this land, the grass here.
Really?
It's very tall.
Completely abandoned it. We didn't have anything.
And now it's a new land and produce food,
four to seven harvests every year.
Wow.
And if you observe around of us, we can see butterflies.
Mena: Incredible. Tons of butterflies, yeah.
My farmers they don't use any pesticides.
It's agro-ecological crops.
So is it technically organic?
Right.
Mena: His farm is vegan utopia:
carrots, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, kale, fennel,
corn, cilantro, and, yes, kaleidoscopes of butterflies.
And you've got some beautiful mint here?
This is stevia.
Stevia?
No way, stevia?
The sweet leaves.
Really? Can I, may I?
Ricardo: Yeah, sure.
Because I've never actually seen stevia in person. Wow.
You can taste.
Here, smell this one.
Oh, my gosh, it's sweet as heck.
Oh, my gosh.
Do you feel the explosion of flavour in your mouth?
Wow, that's insane!
Ricardo farms by inter-cropping,
often planting in the ancient milpa style,
growing a wide variety of complementary crops
to avoid the vulnerabilities
modern mono crops have to plague.
If you have a diversify of products, what happens?
You protect the area and you create life inside,
because you have butterflies, pollinators, bees, everything.
If the plagues arrive, they only attack one of them,
and you have the rest of the crop
for continue survive.
And it's much better because you've found a symbiosis.
And do restaurants come and buy this produce?
Like, who are you selling to, or who are you serving here?
In the beginning, 14 years ago,
I sell the production with the restaurants,
all of them, 25.
Not anymore because now they have chinampas.
They arrange their own lands and they produce their own food.
Mena: Wow.
And this is amazing
because my real job is try to restore the lands.
Mena: Only 4% of the chinampas are currently farmed,
putting the ecosystem at risk.
The canals need to be dredged and the soil farmed,
or the whole system will eventually collapse.
Local restaurants are leading the charge to save this unique,
ancient system with farm-to-table cuisine.
So this old tradition that was created by the Aztecs...
Yeah.
...thousands of years ago,
is now being preserved by these restaurants who are preserving
their own chinampas because it helps their business
but also they're preserving the chinampas?
Right, and it's a way for create conscience, you know,
because we need to the people of Mexico City,
they need to know in this area
we can grow the best food of the city.
In a lot of parts of the world,
the world is evolving into a more sustaining
way of life, right?
Yeah.
People now-- consumers now care about sustainability:
Where is their food coming from? How is it growing?
Yeah.
Is it preserving the land? Is it hurting the land?
Is it like that in Mexico now as well?
It start to be, in the last 10 years,
but now we start to say to the people:
"Get the basics.
Eat the food from the fields. This is much better."
Fantastic.
I'm struck by how closely aligned veganism
and the local food movements are.
They're milpa: they grow best together.
Vegans often choose their diet for ethical reasons.
Like Laura, it can entail fighting climate change
and carbon emissions.
And the growing local food movement
serves those purposes from this ancient system.
♪
Mexico City's deep-rooted connection to its own history,
to its ancestors is simply staggering.
Imagine, we're about to try traditional huitlacoche
quesadillas on fresh tortillas from the farm,
and made with cactus nopales soup,
prepared the same way
they've been made here for centuries.
♪
Ricardo: Cheers. Thanks for coming.
All: Cheers.
Mena: To the chinampas.
(Clinking)
- Salut! - Salut.
So how many chinampas would be all around here?
In all the area, we can found 22,000.
22,000 chinampas?
22,000 chinampas.
So it's massive?
Yeah, it's very massive.
Is it government protected at all?
Yeah, and the UNESCO.
This is a ecological reserve.
Mena: Right.
Ricardo: Here we can see birds, turtles.
It's a unique area and we need to carry the idea,
because we want the people to know
from which places come their food
because you create conscience in the people and in the city.
♪
Mena: Oh, wow, a mariachi band!
It's so cool!
Is this travelling on the water?
Yeah.
That's amazing.
♪
Ola!
Have a little song.
(Singing in Spanish)
♪
Bravo!
(Cheers and applause)
Thank you.
Muchas gracias! Muchas gracias.
♪
Listening to the mariachis play us out
is an unbelievable moment,
a fitting coda for Mexico City,
floating on millennia-old canals,
already dreaming of returning someday
to indulge in show-stopping street eats,
Insta-worthy tacos, intricate moles,
and visit with the artists, chefs, activists
and abuelas who call la Ciudad de Mexico home.
I cannot wait to return.
(Upbeat instrumental music)
♪
(Whirring)
(Musical swell)