Oaxaca Eats Food Tours — Local services in Oaxaca

When in Oaxaca a food tour is a must - after all it’s the cultural capital of Mexico - food, drinks, art and textiles. It’s low season so we had the lovely Rocio from @oaxacaeatsfoodtours to ourselves. Our favourites - pic 1 memelas - the black fungus on the veggie one is hutlacoche - a maize fungus which together with maize kernels makes a vegetarian complete protein. Pic number two - we’d seen people drinking this in Tlacolula market and wondered what it was - it’s tejate- a maize and cacao drink - the white on top is a cream of cacao butter, corn and the seed of mamey fruit - totally delicious! Number 3 that’s a range of agua frescas - basically fruit juice and water - whatever is in season - the rest of the world should get on to this! Our two favourites - limonata, and pineapple and guava but we also love the ginger, cucumber and cactus fruit - then there’s bougainvillea flower and limon, hibiscus flower, passion fruit and mango and many more. All these flavours come in nievas or sorbets. We learned that tortillas which are the basis of every meal are made not only with maize flower but with ground up limestone (we saw a stall selling this at the market). Our favourite dish of the day was entomatada - a deep fried tortilla in the most delicate and delicious tomato soup. We’ll be going back to that restaurant before we leave Oaxaca. Not only is the food delicious but the design and decoration of restaurants here are a work of art! That will be another post! And course no food tour would be complete without a mescal and pulque tasting. The mescal cocktail - ginger, lime and tonic water - we’ll definitely do that again and pulque made from the heart of a type of agave cactus is a light refreshing low alcohol drink - a bit...

This was my second vacation to Oaxaca. On this trip I brought my son down from the USA so he could have a deeper understanding of the people, culture, history of the Valley of Oaxaca. So I did a web search and discovered Oaxaca Eats! A treasure. My only regret is that we took the tour the last day of our visit rather than the first.

On my first visit, I had gone to a single restaurant that advertised a sample plate of the “seven” moles of Oaxaca. After taking the Oaxaca Eats! tour it becomes obvious that food in the Valley of Oaxaca is much more complex. There are eight regions of Oaxaca, each having its own traditions, history, and style of cooking. In fact pretty much every neighborhood has variations on the regional recipes.There are chilis that only exist in the Oaxaca Valley and are called “surprise” chilis (go on the tour to find out what that means). Our guide thoroughly discussed these items and gave us insight to the cultures that developed them.

We had a fabulous time - felt like we got a great mix of culture, education and fun. We had great food, each one worthy of an Iron Chef-like dish and learned fascinating things about the culture and history of Oaxaca through these dishes. Each experience was unique and fun.

One of the business’s founders, an ex-pat named Dean, accompanied us for the first leg of the tour. His vision for the business,as a Mexican business, was inspiring.

Our guide was Rosario. She is charming, witty, knowledgeable about the food, history, and culture. And she is an excellent teacher and speaker.

I will take this tour again on my next Oaxaca trip. I highly recommend it for foodies, tourists,...

The Oaxaca Eats food tour was 100% the highlight of me and my Mother’s time in Oaxaca! Everything was so incredibly lovely and curated, from start to finish.

Our guide, Fernanda, who is a local, was so warm, gracious and incredibly knowledgeable. It was a privilege to break bread with her, chat, and hear her stories.

Our first stop was at the Organic food market, Cosecha. We loved it so much there that we came back almost every subsequent morning for the rest of our stay!

All the food on the tour was phenomenal. I loved that all the places we went to were all Oaxacan-owned and run.

As each dish came out, the chef would come out to our table and explain all of the ingredients and the origin, which Fernanda would translate into English, and add history/context to. This added so much richness and depth to the experience- I low key felt like Anthony Bourdain!

By the end of a leisurely 4 hours tour, we were full- full of incredible food, and of deep appreciation for this amazing state and its people.

You may notice that price point is perhaps higher than other tours-in my opinion, it’s 1000% worth it- the group is small, the guides are amazing, and the knowledge and recommendations they share is a gift that keeps on giving. And, as tourists, it’s a great chance to support local people and business!

(I should also add- we were more than a bit late to the start of our tour (bus/navigation issues) and Lorena, the owner of Oaxaca eats, was so kind and accommodating. She completely turned around a very stressful morning! Also, shoutout to Fernanda for answering our 1 million questions haha.)

Thank you both so...