I wanted to let you know that Iliana sold El Naranjo after the crisis of 2006. She lives in Austin, TX. El Naranjo is still open, but it is now owned by an American from Connecticut, and the food has gone way, way down hill. I’d stay clear, honestly. But the good news is there are a couple of new restaurants that are absolutely delightful. The newest is El Teatro Culinario, owned by Oscar Carrizosa of Casa Crespo. The chef is Jose Luis Diaz. They used to host dinners at the bed and breakfast, dinners that became so renowned they were written up in the NY Times and Bon Appetit. El Teatro Culinario is on Allende within a stone’s throw of Santo Domingo.

The other restaurant that’s quite good and very popular is La Biznaga. It’s on Garcia Vigil, again very close to Santo Domingo. Both restaurants offer diverse menus and consistent quality and service.

A popular place to try non-Valley Oaxacan food is Sopa de Piedra. It’s on the road to Mitla (the same road you take to Teotitlan and Tlacolula). It’s a Chinanteco restaurant where the men prepare seafood soup cooked with red hot river stones. In their community, this is the one meal that the men make for the women. It’s a fun experience to try the soup and the owners are always welcome to showing diners how they make the soup and welcome you to take photographs.

I’m so happy to see that you’ve recommended Tlaminalli in Teotitlan. That is our favorite restaurant in Oaxaca. My husband works in the Zapotec village just next to Teotitlan, Macquilxochitl. We have a number of friends in Macquil who cook for us (aren’t we lucky!!) but when we want Zapotec food in a restaurant, we always go to Tlamanalli.

MACO, the contemporary art museum, is going through extensive renovations right now, but they have one courtyard that they’re using for exhibiting art. Right now, Laurie Litowitz, a wonderful American artist who has lived here in Oaxaca for 30 years or so, is showing ‘Gris,’ a constantly evolving work involving charcoal and found objects. It’s quite interesting.

For other recommendations, I would suggest going to El Pochote markets and Mercado Merced, as well as the Sunday market in Tlacolula. El Pochote used to be in Pochote park on Vigil, but several months ago they were forced out of the park and the vendors have formed two separate markets, one on Rayon between Xicotencatl and Melchor Ocampo, and the other in Xochimilco, in the church courtyard. The Rayon Pochote has excellent veggies and prepared foods, including fresh juice of passion fruit and other goodies. It’s open Tuesday-Saturday. The Xochimilco market also has prepared foods, a number of craft vendors, and some veggies (not as much as the other) and is open on Fridays and Saturdays. Both are wonderful. The Mercado Merced, located on Morelos and La Calzada de la Republica, has fantastic, world famous empanadaas (among other things). Empanadas de tinga de pollo, champignones, flores de calabaza con quesillo (the Oaxacan string cheese) are all fabulous, especially with the salsa roja. Plus it’s great fun to go to a local city market. The vendors are super friendly.

The market in Tlacolula is on most tourists’ lists of places to go because it is the largest Zapotec market in the valley (if you have an opportunity to go to Juchitan in the isthmus, their market is absolutely incredible). Tlacolula is the county seat for the entire Tlacolula Valley (which includes Teotitlan, Macquil, Tlacochahuaya, etc).Take the time to wonder into the bowels of the market — get all the way back where they prepare food and sell meat. Make sure, too, to go through all of the side alleys to see the real local stuff. The main thoroughfare has become more ‘touristy’ but is still great fun. Get all the way back to where they sell chocolate and you can buy raw beans, roasted beans, custom made chocolate, and all sorts of chocolate-making pots. In each of the villages, too, you can ask around to find out who makes the local chocolate and meet the women personally. It’s quite fun to do this. We know the woman who is most famous for chocolate in Macquil and she sun roasts the beans and still makes some with a metate. Amazing!

If you’re out late, you should stop by Tlayudas Libres for tlayudas. They’re quite well known too and always busy. They open around 9:30 or so and stay open until the wee hours of the morning. The tlayudas typically feature asiento (rendered pork fat), black beans, a little fresh cheese, and carne asada or chorizo. The locals we know all say ‘no’ to the verduras (which at Libres are just shredded cabbage) for food safety reasons. Watching the dona of Libres fan the fires of the mesquite charcoal is wonderful. She puts the meat directly on the coals! So no, not the sort of thing you want to eat often, but for a special treat, why not?

All of the villages have their own traditions for dias de muertos, so if you’re fortunate to meet some local people, see if you can go to their village to see how they celebrate. In Etla, they have raucous parades that go through the night, with costumes and music and sarcastic poems directed at the local big wigs. It’s amazing. Young men dress in costumes made of bells and small mirrors and wear devil masks, or dress in drag, They parade through the streets with brass bands and stop at the homes of municipal officials to perform the poems, which are similar to our ‘roasts’. Needless to say, the whole thing is fueled by quite a bit of mescal drinking. In Macquil, the celebration is a subdued family affair. The morning of November 1 is when you bring chocolate and pan de yema (eggyolk bread) to your godparents. The offrendas are filled with fruits and other food offerings and photographs of the deceased. There are not the same skull images we typically think of for los dias.

In Oxotlan, the celebration happens at the cemetery, where you can drink mezcal (of course), atole de chocolate, and snack on empanadas with families around the graves of their dead. It’s interesting and like Etla, involves a lot of mezcal drinking.

Speaking of the Zapotec villages, dia de muertos was not just an Aztec celebration. The Aztecs were quite late in the cultural line, actually. The celebration stretched across south central Mexico. It is a truly syncretic celebration now, mixing pre=Hispanic traditions with Catholic ones. It’s beautiful!

Besides going to Monte Alban, I’d suggest seeing some of the smaller sites too, which are often even more interesting. Yagul, Dainzu (which is actually “Macquilxochitl-Dainzu”, the second largest site after Monte Alban), Lambityeco, Mitla, etc. When you’re in the villages, make sure to ask about the communitarian museum and go to it to learn about their history. Teotitlan has a cute little museum and a rather large, though mostly unexcavated, site near the church. The church itself has many pre-hispanic carved stones built into its walls!

Right now I’m at Cafe Brujula on Vigil sipping their wonderful house hot chocolate. My battery is just about dead, so I’ll sign off now. Happy travels, everyone!!