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"Taco Highway"
A good, cheap, VERY Mexican way to chow down. Just stroll up from the water, grazing on all the variety of tacos.
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The most famous landmark in Mazatlan is technically called the 'Monument to the Fisherman' but the locals call it the "Monos Biches" (naked statues) because it's these two huge naked people seemingly less concerned with fishing than flashing their pudenda to the public. So just tell your "pulmonia" driver to go to the Monos Bichis.
Turn away from the beach and you will immediately start passing taco stands. La Luna, La Carreta, San Martin...this is THE place to eat. They open about 4 PM and run until 4 AM. And they're cheap--you can pork out for $3-4 per person. And they're pretty yummy.
Just pick one; most have inside tables and sidewalk seating as well. Most have the menu painted right on the wall. Tacos are easy to order (remember that in Mexico ALL tacos are 'rolled tacos'). You probably don't want to start out with the brains, intestine, head parts, or tongue ones, so stick to "carne asada" which is thin beef charcoal broiled and chopped up, or "al pastor" which is the stuff you see being cooked on a 'giro'--pork with a pineapple and onion to drip down over it, roasted by flames, sliced off, chopped and wrapped in a tortilla. A Mazatlan specialty is the 'gringa' (originally called the 'gringa loca') but it's not a crazy yanqui girl, it's a tortilla of "al pastor" meat with melted white cheese. Whoa! If you prefer meat to pork, get the "mixta". Same deal, different dead animal parts. Order a few and try them out, keep eating until your full, then ask for the check. If you're at the San Martin, leave room for flan, the caramelly custard made Mexican style. If not, mosy on over by the Municipal Market. It'll be closed, but out front are several stalls that sell NOTHING but deserts, fruit smoothies, and fresh squeezed juices.
Other than beer and soft drinks, these taco places serve "aqua fresca" which is like koolaid in fruit flavor, or "horchata" a rice flower drink that is better than it sounds, sort of a thin milkshake. Another goody you only find in Mazatlan is Toni-Col, a soft drink originally marketed as a patent medicine tonic (as were Coke and Dr. Pepper) but now an odd, fruity non-cola. Try one, you'll either really like it or really hate it; nobody's neutral on Toni-Col.
After eating, walk a block or two towards the "Bichis" and you're at the beach for a stroll. The bus to downtown or the Golden Zone hotels goes right by until about 10 PM. After that, don't worry, the EcoTaxi's and "pulmonias" will cruise for you like sharks scenting blood.
If you are up even later than the Taco Hiway stays open, your last chance for chow in the downtown are the stalls on the West (Aquiles Serdan Street) side of the Public Market. The only twenty-four hour places in town, they lack graces such as tables or chairs and the clientele tends towards cops, "taxistas" and other nightowls, but they are always open-they don't even have doors or pulldown windows to lock...just keep changing shifts. The best one might be the most northerly, Mony. This stuff does not, frankly, look very appetizing. Or even sanitary. But it's safe to eat and delicious. They will make you a quesadilla (a tortilla with melted cheese) and throw some beans on it, but what you really have to try are the beef and pork tacos. These look like stews, bubbling away in pots, but once you point to the "res" (beef) or better yet "cochinita pibil" (pork cooked down to individual fibers) they ladle it out onto a corn or flour tortilla and you're in business. See if you can stop eating them is the challenge. To drink, they always have a big jar of "aguas frescas" there...usually horchata or better yet, a local favorite "cebada", which is made from barley flour but tastes like a chocolare shake with cinnamon.
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