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One of the best ways to get to know a city or culture is through a food tour. I’ve followed Culinary Backstreets on Instagram for years. They’re known not only for in-depth writing about food and drink around the world, but also for hosting food tours in notable cities with unique cuisine. Despite being a huge fan of Culinary Backstreets’ work, it wasn’t until I went to Oaxaca, Mexico, that I finally had the chance to take one of their excellent food tours, Earth, Corn & Fire: Tasting the Roots of Oaxacan Cuisine. Read on for my review of the food tour!
Booking Our Oaxaca Food Tour
Culinary Backstreets food tours are expert-led in small groups. The tours include no more than seven people, which is helpful not only for interacting with the guide and tasting the food, but also for navigating the chaotic local markets.
The Earth, Corn & Fire: Tasting the Roots of Oaxacan Cuisine tour currently has a rating of 4.9 on Viator and 98% of visitors recommend it, earning it a Badge of Excellence.
Since the groups are so small and the tour is so well-reviewed, tours often sell out well in advance. I recommend making your booking as soon as possible to secure your spot.
Book this Oaxaca Culinary Backstreets food tour here
Culinary Backstreets Oaxaca Food Tour Review
We met our tour guide outside Mercado de La Merced. Luis, our tour guide, was born and raised in Oaxaca. There were only three other people on our tour, a couple and their kid.
Since part of the fun of a food tour is not knowing what is coming next, plus tours are always subject to change, I’m not going to spoil every detail about our Culinary Backstreets Oaxaca food tour.
However, here’s an overview of the great things we ate and drank throughout the day. It was an excellent sampling of many of the dishes Oaxaca is most famous for.
All the businesses we visited were small, independent places, many run by women.
Not only was everything delicious, but our walk around the city gave us a nice glimpse into Oaxacan life.
Mercado de La Merced was a good place to start off our day. It’s smaller and less intimidating than the larger markets in Oaxaca, especially the side that’s filled with restaurant stalls.
We sat at a table in the center of the market, and Luis brought us a few things. A man playing guitar set the scene.
We started with tamales made with hierba santa (AKA hoja santa), a green leaf common in Oaxacan cuisine, which we would encounter throughout the day. I’ve even had it in drinks at Oaxacan cocktail bars.
We washed the tamales and some pastries down with hot chocolate and atole (a local corn and water drink).
Luis told us more about Oaxacan food culture while we ate and drank. There would be common threads throughout the day, as hinted by the tour’s title: “Earth, Corn & Fire.” Crops like corn, beans, and squash are grown together to support each other. Then what is grown together is eaten together.
Next, we headed to the market side, where we purchased several ingredients we would use later, including corn.
We then took this corn to a nearby mill. Every neighborhood in Oaxaca has a mill that can be used to grind many items, including corn for masa, chocolate, mustard, and mole.
Then it was time to go on a bit of a walk through one of my favorite Oaxaca neighborhoods, Jalatlaco.
Each stop on our Culinary Backstreets Oaxaca food tour was broken up by walks. The walks were never too long, but they helped keep us from ever feeling too full and gave us a chance to see several different neighborhoods. The tour does explore much of the city, so we definitely got our steps in for the day!
Jalatlaco is just east of central Oaxaca. The neighborhood is lined with cobblestone streets and tons of street art. We were able to take some photos as we walked, but we noted places we wanted to return to.
We stopped at a local taco shop, where the women made tortillas with the masa we had just had ground. These tortillas were then used to hold huevo al comal: an egg cooked on a hoja santa leaf. It’s another favorite dish of Oaxaca.
The next stop was El Llano, a busy park. Kids were having rollerblade races around the central square. We ate memelas (masa cakes with toppings such as Oaxacan cheese, beans, and chorizo, then grilled on a comal) from one of the stands in the park.
Then we walked to La Cosecha Mercado Organico, one of my favorite markets in Oaxaca. It has small food and beverage stands selling local dishes and drinks, including garnachas, tlayudas, tejate, tepache, pulque, pozontle, and much more. I was glad we had a local guide who could explain the history of all these delicious items, of which we sampled a few.
We started with tejate, also known as the Drink of the Gods. It was so refreshing.
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The garnachas were also outstanding. These fried tortillas with pork, chipotle, and queso fresco quickly became one of my favorite Oaxacan dishes.
After this market, we had a bit of a break from eating, which was welcome since we’d eaten a lot. It was time to go on a longer walk through central Oaxaca.
Following a stop at a local printing shop to see the beloved local artistic tradition, we were in for a surprise.
We arrived at Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, one of the most photogenic churches in Oaxaca, just as a wedding party was leaving.
As with anywhere, weddings are a big deal in Oaxaca. There was a band, dancing, costumes, people on stilts, monos (papier-mâché puppets representing the bride and groom), and marmotas (giant cloth orbs).
There was even Tiliche, a folklore character representing the working class, popular at big events, playing a horn and giving out mezcal to the people. This video has more info about it.
If you’re in Oaxaca on a Friday or Saturday (the most common wedding days), be sure to venture past the churches, and you might just catch some of the fun.
These celebrations then become parades through the streets, called calendas. Although part of weddings, they are also popular for other gatherings. We saw several calendas during our time in Oaxaca.
After watching a bit of the wedding party, it was time to move on to our next stop: some tasty sweets at a local chocolate shop.
Here we had some cacao infusions, a couple of chocolates inspired by local flavors, including tejate and mezcal, and some chocolate ice cream that was actually vegan, since the creaminess comes from pixtle seeds.
Then it was time to head to our last stops in two of Oaxaca’s largest markets, Mercado 20 de Noviembre and Mercado Benito Juárez.
Once again, it was useful to have a tour guide to lead us to the best places. There are so many stalls and so much chaos that it can be intimidating for many people.
As we walked through the markets, Luis told us more about some of the local ingredients being sold. This included the components of mole, which we would be trying next.
We headed to one of the larger restaurants in a corner of the market. We got to share plates with several different Oaxacan moles, each made with family recipes. It started pouring rain while we were inside, creating a ruckus on the metal roof above.
After a brief stop at a mezcal shop, it was time for our last dessert of the food tour.
Nieves are a Oaxacan specialty. These frozen delights have hundreds of years of history and incorporate traditional local flavors such as leche quemada (burnt milk) and tuna (prickly pear).
We even got to have some with chapulines (toasted grasshoppers), a good source of protein (and yet another unique ingredient I had in Oaxacan cocktails).
We then said our goodbyes and thanked Luis for an excellent tour.
Review Summary
Our Oaxaca food tour with Culinary Backstreets was one of my favorite experiences in the city. It hits many of the city’s culinary highlights while also walking past many landmarks. We learned so much about Oaxacan cuisine.
The tour lasted about 5.5 hours, so we definitely felt we’d gotten our money’s worth. We also ate a good amount of food, not so much that we were ever unable to eat at our next stop, but enough that we only had a snack for dinner.
If you’re looking for an authentic Oaxacan experience, book your food tour now!
