Photos by Josh Meister Photo.
We’ve only had a couple of opportunities to explore Puerto Vallarta since we moved to San Pancho, so when we were thinking of some good activities to do with visiting parents, a food tour I’ve been wanting to do jumped to the top of the list.
PV is just an hour south of us, but it’s a whole different vibe there. The place put on the map by the Richard Burton 1964 movie, Night of the Iguana, fairly quickly transformed from a quiet town with a dirt road airport landing strip to a buzzy city flush with tourists and an abundance of well-groomed landing strips on display in the gayborhood clubs every night.
We decided on Vallarta Food Tours’ Original Downtown tour and chose a Saturday, because it allowed us to drive into PV early and check out the weekly market in Old Town, which also, conveniently, happened to be the meeting point with the tour guide. The market is full of artisans, music, tons of food (which we skipped obvs.), and #oldpeopledoingthings including a 75(our guess)-year-old very fit gentleman pumping out dance pushup reps to the stylings of a performer singing Carly Simon. All at approximately 10:15am. So yeah, PV feels a bit different from San Pancho.
Our guide Amanda was born in Mexico to American parents and grew up in Puerto Vallarta, so both her English and Spanish were perfect, which was great for our little group of gringos. The walking tour focuses on the Romantic Zone of PV, or as Amanda defined it, the cute part of the old town. Totally accurate. Lasting about three and a half hours, the tour included nine stops. If you’re thinking that that’s a whole lot of food, you are absolutely correct. We were advised to not eat anything beforehand, and for very good reason. Each tasting was more than generous, stuffing us like piñatas with delicious bites of traditional Mexican cuisine.
In addition to all the eating, we got a nice overview of regional culture throughout the tour. Amanda told us that Mexicans aren’t typically fans of places that offer a lot of different options. When a stand or restaurant specializes in a certain food, they know it’s going to be good, and those are the places they frequent. And that’s where they took us.
Our first stop was a taco stand just off the Malecon, or boardwalk adjacent the beach. They specialize in carne asada, and we were trying a taco that was half chorizo and half steak with multiple salsa options. Amanda pointed out that we should avoid the pre-packaged bottled salsas when in Mexico and always opt for the fresh ones made by the place we’re eating – those are the best ones, and they’re unique to each place, made to elevate the specific cuisine they’re serving. In this case, she encouraged us to go for a mix of a few of them, even a couple of drops of the super picante one that wusses like me avoid like the plague. Of course she was absolutely right, and it was a delicious start to our day of binging.
The second stop was for fried tacos filled with birria, a slow braised beef or goat stew (we got to try both) that’s very typical of Jalisco state. This is considered a hangover cure, which we knew well, as one of our favorite breakfast spots in San Pancho constantly runs out of their version on Sundays. I was not super excited about this stop as I’m not a huge meet eater and tend to steer clear of, well, most things that aren’t steer. But I gave it a shot, dipping the taco into the meat broth as advised for maximum effect, and holy crap, it was my favorite food of the day!
After that, it was time for some traditional refreshments, and we made our way to a popular agua fresca stand. Aguas frescas translates literally to fresh waters, and they’re a variety of beverages made up of varying combinations of fruits, seeds, flowers, and vegetables blended with sugar, water, and ice. They’re an essential part of daily life in Mexico. We got to taste three – a mandarin, a pineapple basil, and a barley horchata. All were super yum, but the pineapple basil was easily the favorite.
Next we hit up two different places for mariscos, or shellfish. The first stop was for a seafood chile relleno taco, which was my dad’s favorite food of the day, and the second, the #1 TripAdvisor seafood restaurant, was for Puerto-Vallarta-style ceviche, which entails mincing the fish instead of cubing it.
The next three stops were sweets stops. First we hit up the chocolate factory and learned a bit about the role of the cacao seed in Mexican cuisine, including mole. Then it was on to the candy factory, and after that (how are we still eating BTW???), a paleteria for popsicles. Paletas come in different forms – you can choose milk-based or non-dairy water-based, and both offer a ton of flavors from natural fruit combinations to less healthy options like chocolate, coffee, cheesecake, etc. Our usual go-to is coconut, and we also opted for a guanabana (soursop) pop.
The última stop was for tequila along with one last dish to completely ensure we didn’t need to eat for another 24 hours, chicken mole. The tequila was served banderas(flag)-style in the colors of the Mexican flag. First, you have a tiny bit of lime juice, then you sip the tequila – 100% agave por supuesto, swallowing before exhaling, and then you finish with some sangrita, a blend of tomato juice, orange juice, salt, lime, and pepper. And then, in the words of our guide, “rinse and repeat”!
It was a super fun day, my parents thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was a great way to get an introduction to both Puerto Vallarta and the regional Mexican culture. If you want to take this tour, or any other Vallarta Food Tours (they have a lot!), use coupon code SOCIETY for 10% off!
All images TM & © 2019 Josh Meister Photo and Shari Margolin (unless otherwise stated). Please don’t steal or “borrow” – just be cool, be cool.
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