Mexican Street Food
Recipes

One of the warnings you often receive when you visit a new country is to avoid street food to prevent food poisoning. While this is generally wise advice, it doesn’t apply to Mexico where the best authentic local cuisine can only be tasted on the street.

Be it at stalls, small trucks, improvised tables under umbrellas, on a cart, a bicycle, or on the window of a private home, you haven’t experienced real Mexican cuisine until you try the local street food.

Just make sure you make a smart choice. Normally the best street-food places are those that always have a crowd patiently queuing. Then you know it’s good and, equally important, safe.

But without further ado, here is a list of the most typical Mexican street food.

First on our list of Mexican street food, considered the most iconic of Mexican cuisine and certainly the most consumed food in Mexico. Tacos are simple to make, cheap and quick to get. Most of all, in every corner of every city you will most probably find a taco place.

Tacos can be made with either corn or flour tortilla, topped with finely cut meat chunks, and sprinkled with avocado and onion. Of course a good dose of chilli sauce, a very spicy sauce, makes it authentically Mexican.  

Tamales are a typical Mexican breakfast. Although you find them in many other Latin American countries, we think the Mexican ones are the best version. A tamale has corn dough wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves and stuffed with different kinds of meat or cheese, mole or rajas (strips of chile poblano along with some tomato and onion). Every region has its typical variation but everywhere Mexicans enjoy it either for breakfast or as a treat during the day.

Next on our list of Mexican street food is Quesadillas. The typical quesadilla is a flour tortilla folded into a sort of a pocket containing melted cheese and different kinds of vegetables, especially mushrooms or squash blossoms. In some regions, you can also find them deep-fried and topped with guacamole, bean paste, or a spicy tomato sauce, and shredded fresh cheese.

Easy Quesadilla Recipe

Tortas are generally huge sandwiches made with bun bread and filled with all sorts of stuffing including meat, cheese, avocado, salad, tomatoes. The most typical are the overly stuffed Chemita in Puebla and the juicy Torta Ahogada in Guadalajara, which is a sandwich dipped in hot tomato sauce.

Beware that if you ask for a sandwich in Mexico, you won’t get a “Torta” , because a sandwich is made with sliced bread only, not with a bun.

Pictured here are Gorditas which are being cooked on the comal which is a flat, smooth griddle at a Mexican street food market.

Gorditas and Sopes are the same things just with different names. A thick fat tortilla, fried or grilled, cut in two and stuffed with different kinds of “guisado” (delicious stewed meat or vegetables).

Made with either yellow or purple corn which gives a different colour to the tortilla.

Corn served on the cob, either boiled or grilled, and drizzled with mayonnaise, salt and grated cheese.

With Esquites, or as we like to call it Mexican Corn, the kernels have been removed from the cob and served in a cup. Served with mayonnaise, cheese and salt. Definitely easier to eat if you are walking and a delicious side for just about any Mexican main or BBQ.

Tlacoyos are made with the same masa dough used to make corn tortillas. They are rolled into a tortilla-like shape, filled with refried beans and then the sides are folded up into a vessel like shape. They are then heated on the comal and topped with some salad and salsa.

Ultra-crispy fried pork skin chunks sold in markets or in carts on the street. Very common everywhere in Mexico and eaten as snacks always with a delicious, spicy jalapeño sauce. We like seasoning the pork skin with Smoky Chipotle Fajita and Taco Mix and then dipping into a pot of our Mango Habañero Salsa to get our fix when at home!

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A delicious, crunchy salted corn tortilla topped with different ingredients. You will find tostadas with seafood or different kinds of meat mixed with salad. Our Tuna Tostada recipe is absolute heaven!

Chips

These look like just regular crisps, but the bags are open on the side and topped with hot jalapeño sauce. Eaten as a snack – yum!

Churros

A typical sweet treat made of deep-fried sweet dough in a cylindrical shape and sprinkled with sugar. Served with different sauces the most common being chocolate or dulce de leche.

Licuados and Juices

Finally up on our list of Mexican Street Food are the drinks. You’ll find delicious fruit drinks including Frutas, Agua Frescas and Licuados.