Food day trips from Mexico City: Hidalgo, Tlaxcala and more

Mexico City is surrounded by states with cuisines of their own, and many of their best-known dishes are two or three hours away by road. One or two trips out of the capital are enough to eat barbacoa in Hidalgo, pastes (pasties) in Real del Monte, pulque and mole prieto in Tlaxcala, cecina in Morelos or green chorizo in Toluca. In this guide we suggest five excursions, with what to eat on each and when it is worth going.

Puebla, the classic trip, we cover separately in our mole route through Puebla and Oaxaca.

Hidalgo: barbacoa, pasties and the Valle del Mezquital

Lamb barbacoa

Central Mexican barbacoa is lamb wrapped in maguey leaves and cooked for hours in a pit in the ground, over hot stones. Out of the pit comes the meat, tender and fragrant, and the consommé, the broth collected underneath, with chickpeas, rice and chile. In Hidalgo, Actopan and other towns in the state are known for their barbacoa, which is eaten mainly at weekends in the morning, in tacos with salsa borracha and onion, alongside a bowl of consommé.

To understand how it differs from birria, see our article barbacoa versus birria.

Pasties from Real del Monte

In the mining towns of the Sierra de Pachuca, above all Real del Monte (Mineral del Monte), the most famous dish is the paste, a wheat-pastry turnover descended from the Cornish pasty. It was brought in the nineteenth century by Cornish miners who came to work in the area's silver mines, around the 1820s. The traditional filling is potato with minced meat, onion and chile, but today there are versions with mole, beans, pineapple or rice pudding. Since 2009 the town has held an International Pasty Festival, whose official date since 2025 has been the second weekend of October.

Valle del Mezquital

North-west of Pachuca, the Valle del Mezquital, Otomí country, has a semi-desert cuisine: escamoles (ant larvae) in spring, maguey worms, mixiotes wrapped in the skin of the maguey leaf and ximbo, meat in maguey leaf cooked underground. It is also pulque country.

Tlaxcala: pulque, mole prieto and tlatlapas

Tlaxcala, the smallest state in the country, is a little over two hours from the capital and has one of the least-known cuisines of central Mexico. Its great tradition is pulque, the fermented drink made from the aguamiel (sap) of the maguey, which was produced for centuries on large pulque haciendas; some can be visited. You will find it natural or as fruit-flavored curados.

To eat:

• Mole prieto: a dark mole thickened with maize dough, served at festivals.
• Tlatlapas: a thick soup of toasted, ground beans with chile.
• Tlatloyos: the Tlaxcalan name for tlacoyos, filled with beans or alverjón (dried peas).
• Mixiotes and barbacoa, as in Hidalgo.

The small, peaceful city of Tlaxcala and the archaeological site of Cacaxtla, with its murals, round off the trip.

Pulque: how and where to try it

Pulque is the oldest drink in this region: it is made by fermenting aguamiel, the sap extracted from the heart of the pulque maguey. It is white, somewhat thick and slightly sour, and is drunk fresh because it keeps fermenting as the hours pass; that is why it hardly travels and is much easier to try where it is made than in the city.

You will find it in two forms. Natural pulque, just as it comes out of fermentation, and curados, blended with fruit, nuts or oats: guava, pineapple, strawberry, pine nut, celery. In the villages of Hidalgo and Tlaxcala there are traditional pulquerías and producers selling it by the roadside, and some old pulque haciendas organize visits to see the maguey being scraped and the fermentation in vats.

If it is your first time, start with a curado, which softens the texture. And remember that, although its strength is low, it is drunk in large glasses: take it slowly, especially if barbacoa is coming afterwards.

Morelos: Yecapixtla cecina and Tepoztlán

South of the capital, Morelos has a warm climate and a market-based cuisine. In Yecapixtla they make cecina, very thin sheets of salted, dried beef, which are grilled and served with cream, fresh cheese, nopales and salsa. It combines well with a visit to Tepoztlán, a mountain town famous for its weekend market, its artisan ice creams in unusual flavors and its tlacoyos and quesadillas from the comal.

State of Mexico: Toluca and around

Toluca, less than an hour from the capital, is known for its green chorizo, colored with green chiles, pumpkin seeds and herbs, and for its fruit sweets and fruit liqueurs. In the Toluca Valley people also eat huitlacoche quesadillas in the rainy season, when the corn fungus appears, and squash-blossom soup. In the area's markets you will also see wild mushrooms in summer.

Another trip in the State of Mexico is Teotihuacán: around the archaeological site there are eateries serving barbacoa, mixiotes, pulque and, in season, escamoles.

How to organize the trips

• A weekend for barbacoa: pit barbacoa is mostly a Saturday and Sunday morning affair. Set off early.
• One day, two destinations: Pachuca and Real del Monte combine well; so do Tepoztlán and Yecapixtla, or Teotihuacán and a pulque hacienda.
• Transport: there are frequent coaches from the capital's bus stations to Pachuca, Tlaxcala, Toluca and Cuernavaca. For small villages, an organized trip or a car with a driver is more comfortable.
• Seasons: escamoles in spring, huitlacoche and mushrooms in the rainy season, pasties with a festival in October. See the food festival calendar.

If it is your first trip, fit one or two of these excursions into your stay in the capital. Our guide to what to eat in Mexico City by neighborhood will help.

Frequently asked questions

What is the easiest food trip from Mexico City?

Pachuca and Real del Monte, because they are close and coaches are frequent, or Teotihuacán if you want to combine an archaeological site with barbacoa.

Is pulque very alcoholic?

It tends to be low in alcohol, comparable to a beer, although it varies with the fermentation. It is drunk fresh, because it keeps fermenting.

Are escamoles eaten all year?

No. They are seasonal, in spring, which is why they are expensive and scarce. Out of season it is hard to find them fresh.

What is the difference between a paste and an empanada?

The paste uses a firmer wheat pastry, inherited from the Cornish pasty, and the filling goes in raw and is baked inside.

Sources

• English-language Wikipedia, «Paste (pasty)» and «International Pasty Festival» (Cornish miners in Real del Monte in the nineteenth century, festival since 2009), consulted on 25 October 2026.
• ADN40, October 2026 report on the Pasty Festival and the 2025 decree setting its date.
• Time Out México, «El origen del paste en Hidalgo es inglés».
• UNESCO, «Traditional Mexican cuisine» (2010), on maize-based cooking and traditional techniques.