Everyone loves Mexican food. Tacos al pastor, burritos, quesadillas. Except what if that was just scratching the surface of arguably the greatest, most diverse cuisine on planet Earth? What if the best is something most of us have never seen before? So I'm traveling all across Mexico-north, central, and south-to find the best Mexican food in the world. The world thinks they know Mexican food, but we're about to open up the other 95% that people have been missing out on all along. And it all starts in Oaxaca. If you could find where Mexican food was born, you'd probably be looking

here. And our first stop blew my mind. Arguably one of the most insane markets I've seen in my life. I'm so hyped! They got grills lined all the way down this entire thing. Charcoal grills. They're flaming up over there. This is basically like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Grill your own adventure. It's a happy place. This is my happy place. I say it first. Joining me yet again is the greatest food guide in all of Mexico, my friend Gaby. And she's enlisted Oaxaca native Coco to help us out. So let the adventure begin.

Mira, ¡qué linda es ella! Chorizo. Suadero. This part here? Yes. And after we got our meats, it was time to grill. This is fat I think she's gonna use to grease it. And look how quickly it renders. Now she's essentially greasing and glazing this, kissing it with melted beef tallow. This puts Korean barbecue to shame. After watching the master at work, I finally was handed the reins. I didn't know I was gonna be cooking. I'm hyped about it, though. She really cares about making this a great product. While I was cooking, she brought over some fresh, still hot from the griddle tortillas to just use as a landing zone for the meat.

You put the meat down and the juices soak into the tortilla. This is so smart because instead of squirting it with oil, you get this slowly rendered beef fat so there's not a ton of flare-ups and you just kind of brush it. You're treating the chunk of fat as your brush. Those beautiful peppers over there are called chiles de agua from the state of Oaxaca. Nowhere else you find them. We'll have a touch of incredible flavor that we are not going to find anywhere else. And after Gaby threw on the veggies from the grill, we had our final plate. That was incredible.

I don't know if we made meat or if we made love. We have here a bunch of incredible meat: this beef, chorizo, suadero over there. We have some guacamole, aguacates, lime, and special onions. Oh. Unbelievable. There wasn't a single bad bite on this plate. You tear some tortilla, and then you assemble multiple combos of meat. I was in a state of bliss. But how did the exclusive Oaxacan peppers taste?

Chile de agua. Cheers. Not too spicy, but what I love about it, so flavorful. Like, one of the most flavorful peppers I've ever had. Take a little bite of that. A little bite of this. Magic. What makes it super incredible is that grills are communal. It makes it a community. so we can meet people, and then, of course, grilling our own food. You do feel the communal aspect. Everybody's selling something different. Oh, I want a little bit of this. I want a little bit of that.

You can create, essentially, a chef's tasting menu out of different meats, vegetables, salsas, fresh chilies that are grown, like, right here, picked fresh the moment before you grill it. The experience alone is a 10 out of 10. The food is so fresh, it's so delicious. You're going to walk away feeling good, full, maybe ready for mezcal? Absolutely. Ready for mezcal. Oaxaca is known for the land of seven moles, and this iconic Mexican staple was invented here. So according to Gaby, there is no one place with the singular best. But there's so much variety, and frankly,

it's all kind of up to personal preference. I tried all seven of them at a spot called Los Pacos for what I'll call a crash course. in mole. And while they were all tasty, it's kind of difficult to pick a favorite because they all have completely different applications, but also more specifically, because we have even more mole later on. Up next, Gaby is taking me to a very special spot, La Teca. This is. coastal Oaxacan food. I'm very excited because I'm with my very beautiful friend, Deyanira Aquino, known as La Teca. We call Teca to all the women that were born in Istmo de Tehuantepec. So this is a strong, beautiful woman, an amazing cook.

She's bringing all the products from their homeland, and she will cook as her mother did and as her grandmother did. I'm excited. Starting off with a chile relleno taco. This is heaven. That was completely unexpected. This is the best chile relleno I've ever had. This is my favorite chile relleno in the country. Chile relleno is essentially a fried stuffed chile, but oftentimes I feel it's misconstrued. People just kind of stuff whatever in it, and they end up being quite boring. And then the inside has this tender meat, not too fatty, and little chunks of,

like, toasted nuts and olives. It's briny, it's sweet, it's fresh, it's fatty. It's like kind of everything in one bite. All in a nice little satchel. Garnacha. Garnacha? Okay. That's a good reaction. You cannot try it anywhere else. This is what makes Oaxaca so magic and so amazing. The quality of the corn and the technique behind the corn matters infinitely more than anything else. You're down here with a corn tortilla in a bag. Then you have your first fresh one you're, like, up here.

But then you go to Oaxaca and you see how they treat corn and you're like, way up here, dude. This is, like, so delicate. The topping is delicious as well. I love the grated cheese. It's almost like the Oaxacan version of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It's delicious. Two great bangers at the gate, and we still had a feast. in front of us. But what stopped me in my tracks was the mole.

We had the seven moles, and this wasn't even on the menu for us. She just brought it out, one of her random moles, and it's so dark. I was like, okay, I'll give it a little try. It is absurd. It's so rich. It's like, dark and deeply cooked and toasted. The texture is, like, smooth. It's a little fatty. It's got a sweetness to it as well. It's deep of, like, this roasted chili combined with, like, this dark chocolate, almost espresso-like level of flavor.

It turned the pork into. a Michelin-star bite. I mean, this is. like a transformative sauce, and that is a perfect example of the power of a good mole. My brain is opening up to the idea that we might just be getting started here. I mean, if that's where we're at now, who knows where we'll go next? Moving on. We started Oaxaca on the street, but now it's time to hit the Michelin Bib Gourmand level at Alfonsina, where the whole M.O. is to create all their foods as sustainably as possible.

Instead of using granulated sugar, they squeeze it out of fresh sugar cane. on site in front of your eyes. We did a simple four-course. Solid dessert. And like everything else Gaby has had me try in Oaxaca, it was. wonderful, and it turns out the food is inspired by the chef's mom's home cooking. So jokingly, I asked, is her food even better? And, well, he sent me to his mom's house to find out. And you know, cooking runs in the family because Tia Elvia runs a breakfast-only restaurant out of her home. And it's a beautifully short menu. But here's the thing. They have no restaurant cooktop. It's just two bricks, a wire rack set over a flame, and a massive stone comal.

Something tells me this lady does not f*** around. So Tia Elvia took our menus and said, get ready. I was born ready. First off, eggs cooked in hoja santa on a warm, handmade, freshly ground corn tortilla. It was so simple, it had me concerned that it might be a little boring. The salsa is incredible. Better than any bullshit breakfast taco you're going to get in Austin or everywhere else. The texture is insane. The fragrance of the corn combined with the egg. They actually seasoned it properly. And then that, like, herbaceousness from the hoja santa.

I don't want anything else at all. Perfect as it is. But also, this salsa is incredible. That's tremendous. Next up, Tia's original mole recipe. That's absurd. Perfect. I think this is my favorite mole I've had. It's so viscous. It coats your palate almost like peanut butter. I taste the intensity of the mole. I taste the salty sort of brininess of the cheese. And of course, the fragrance of that sweet, beautiful corn. I want to come live here with her.

Okay, what's next? The hits just kept coming. I'm already tapped in. Memela. A perfect corn tortilla topped with lard and fresh cheese. Oh. Oh, my God. That is incredibly good. Another chile relleno taco. Jesus, Gaby. Even chilaquiles. This is absurd. One of the best chilaquiles I've ever had. And last of all, we might have something special here. Costilla frita, fried ribs cooked in a fresh tomato salsa. This is. ridiculous. 10 out of 10, no changes. Zero. How often do I say that? That bite was easily the best of the trip so far. And this is like a pinnacle example of the culture and the food,

not just of Oaxaca, but of Mexico. It's like an attention to detail that is bar none. And it feels like we're experiencing it in the way that it was meant to be experienced. Very, very traditional. We're literally in her home, in her front yard. She's not even cooking with conventional equipment. It's like wood-fired everything. She's making this as hard as possible. She has every reason to miss something here, and she's fucking nailing it better than most chefs do.

I mean, it's fucking insane. So we're in search of the best Mexican food in the world, and I almost feel like at this point, we've found it. How do we keep going from here is my question. Really good local ingredients prepared properly. Is the food just being cooked in someone's home in Mexico the greatest Mexican food in the world? Only one way to find out. Okay. Our final destination of Oaxaca is Casa Oaxaca. There's so much to say about this restaurant.

It's arguably the most influential modern restaurant in all of Oaxaca. Many, many, many, many, many restaurants have been influenced by this place. We're here to try everything. Just get the last final strong tasting of Oaxaca before we move on. We were presented with a simple tlayuda to dip in salsa, a chile de agua filled with ceviche, a tostada with crab, and finally, an insect tostada with crickets and mealworms. But the best bite surprised even me. That's the best tomato salad I've ever had in my life.

It's fucking insane. I feel wrong saying this, but out of everything, this simple little tomato salad is remarkable. It's so balanced, and it leans directly into, like, the unbelievable produce of Oaxaca. So you got mini tomatillos, local red tomatoes, grapefruit supreme, and this black sapote. I'm not a huge tomato salad guy, and this is my favorite dish in the whole restaurant. Oh, margarita time. Mezcalita time. I do not know how anything will top the experience we've had so far. In fact, the spots we've been going to have been so good, I started saving every single place on my maps.

And the reason I can do that easily is because of today's sponsor, Saily eSIM. Saily offers a wide range of data plans across more than 200 destinations. If you're visiting multiple countries, you can choose a regional or global plan and stay connected through your entire trip. No SIM cards, no airport kiosks, no roaming fees. Just install it once and good for the trip. So if you're traveling anytime soon, download the Saily app and you get an extra 15% off if you use my code, Joshua, or just go to saily.com/Joshua. The link's in the description. Now, on to the next stop. Of course I love Oaxaca, but everyone talks about really two places when it comes to food in Mexico.

Oaxaca and Mexico City. Those are the best places to eat after all, right? What if there was a hidden gem that has never gotten the love it deserves? I have no expectations, but a lot of excitement for this one. Los Mochis in Sinaloa. I had never even heard of this place until my chef friend Luis, who's from there, told me. I think it's the best trip. See you soon. I love you. Luis, I love you too. We've got restaurants literally floating in the sea, supposedly the greatest seafood in the country, and more styles of aguachile than I knew existed.

Turns out we might not be walking into a hidden gem, but a damn near seafood mecca. But then Gaby surprised me again, proving there's even more to northern Mexico than mariscos. So we're in Burritos Beli. Los number one. Los number one in Los Mochis, but around. This is an amazing experience. Since you're watching how they're doing the flour tortilla, this is an expertise that only this woman will have. Like, in this region, the elasticity is very important for the tortilla, and this is the perfect size for a burrito. They're basically rolling every tortilla, immediately cooking it, immediately stuffing it, and then you eat it.

This might be the fastest burrito rolling I've ever seen in my life. So there's so much fat in the tortilla that it creates a translucency in the final dough. That's a good thing. That's a good sign. They're so thin. You can see the filling from the outside. We have three here. This one is the potato. This one, I think, is the barbacoa. The chicharron. Oh, my God. Insane. First of all, the tortilla is so tender, it, like, melts in your mouth. And it's buttery, too.

It has, like, a buttery quality to it. But the filling, this is my big thing. It is seasoned perfectly to the absolute limit with salt. The porky flavor comes through. They're kind of frying it in its own fat because you're getting a little bit of crunch from the exterior of the meat, a little bit of chew. That fatty, sort of gelatinous chicharron skin melts in your mouth. It's chewy. It's crunchy. This is probably the best burrito I've ever had. It doesn't need anything else. There's no rice in it.

There's no cheese in it. There's not, like, a bunch of tomato, onion. It's just literally tortilla, bean, meat, and it's unbelievable. Next up, barbacoa. He's burrito drunk. What am I doing wrong? The meat is incredible. Even this sort of, like, fibrous part of the meat is so tender, the second you chew, it just, like, gives way. These are things that are made every day. They're lifted up by the culture. But if you were to go somewhere in, like, New York and put this out for $20, everyone would be like, oh, my God, you're the best of all time.

These guys are doing it every day. They're just doing it the right way, And respecting the tradition of the recipe of their family. I'm blown away, and we're starting off at a level I don't know if we're going to recover from. I've eaten in all sorts of insane situations around the globe, but our next spot is something I have never even seen before. But first, meet Gaby's friend Irma, our Los Mochis expert. I trust her because her family owns El Farallon, one of the most legendary seafood restaurants in Los Mochis. So I blindly followed Irma onto a boat, and after the most beautiful,

relaxing ride of my life, and a little show from the dolphins-by the way, shout out to the dolphins-and maybe a little bit of boat shopping for Gaby. Let's buy that one! That one? Okay, I'll have my guy call them. We pulled up to a restaurant in the middle of the sea. This is the best. I'm blown away. I have no words. Well, I have some. The first two words that come to mind are: I'm hungry. Now, I know this looks like a floating shack, but it's actually a seafood oasis called La Casita del Ostion.

This is the stuff I love. We walked on and they hammered us with a massive spread of fresh seafood. I mean, we hadn't even exchanged anything beyond a quick hello, and they went to work on oysters. Not so sure about this guy's technique, but you know what? I'm not gonna question it. First of all, listen. Nothing. That might be the best part. Peace and tranquility. Okay, so we have oysters here, fresh, shucked right in front of us, very simply. Unbelievable. Wow. Holy fuck.

Salud. Woo! These are the best oysters I've ever had. The texture is incredible. It has, like, a super meaty chew to it. And then we have a really interesting ceviche. They scrape this, and then they're marinating it with lime juice, etcetera, which cooks it. So you get this sort of, like, fluffy texture. All sorts of vegetables I'm seeing. Cheers. You know. I've never, ever had any ceviche like this in my life. As it compresses when you bite it, it becomes actually quite moist, like, because of all the acid and the lime juice that's in there.

This one has, like, a lot of texture in it, and it still has the same meatiness that a nice cooked piece of fish does. It's phenomenal. It's like the essence of the energy out here is translating into the food. I love it. Next, we knocked out some shrimp that were cooked in seawater before our last dish: their impeccable grilled fish, which you assemble yourself on a fresh tortilla. A touch of mayo, add a nice little morsel of grilled fish, touch of onion, and a good amount of salsa. Cheers. Wow. Right?

Wow. Seriously, it's absolutely incredible. And the flavor of the fish, so fresh. The sweetness of the onion, like perfume. Whole fish, a little bit of char on the skin. Clean, simple flavor. Everything we've had in Sinaloa so far has all been about, like, emphasizing natural flavor, just coaxing it in the right direction with really good technique. Welcome to Sinaloa. Thank you. Yeah. And I'm never leaving. Thank you. Now it's on to one of the biggest reasons I came to Sinaloa.

Aguachile. This is the dish that Luis got me to fly all the way out here in the first place. After all, it is the aguachile birthplace. So we got set up with a red and green version. Now, typically, I prefer green, but we'll see which one is the best of the two. There's our bite. Mm. Sinaloa. You can't keep hitting home runs every single time I eat. It's not fair. It's absurd. I've been to one, two, three-star Michelin restaurants that do aguachile, and I can tell that this is what they're going for, and they still can't achieve it at this level.

It's so flavorful, it's so balanced. But also just the freshness is just, like, hitting you from every angle, from texture to flavor to balance of flavor. It's fucking unbelievable. That was just the green. So how's the red? Wow. I'm in heaven. I guess we move on. I don't want to leave, but we move on. Before I left Sinaloa, I got to head to Irma's restaurant, El Farallon, and we finally found Luis. He's been missing for a couple days, but that's all right. We had scallops, shrimp, the whole gamut of seafood. But then I saw a dish that stopped me in my tracks.

I mean, I'm talking as dark as night, made of burnt habanero. So how good could this really be? Favorite that we've had in the world of raw dishes. Amazing marriage of tradition and new. The technique in that bang. Fruity sweetness from it is insane. Combined with the dark flavor of the habanero is absurd. If you look up Sinaloa and you look for videos about food, you probably will not find anything. And after being here, I'm realizing that is probably the biggest mistake that could exist on planet Earth today. I can't believe nobody has really been here to talk about the cuisine here.

Producing some of the greatest food in the entire country of Mexico, in the whole world. And we're not even done. We have one last place. We've covered the origin, Oaxaca. Then we've gone all the way up north to the seafood capital of Mexico. We have our last place, Mexico City, where the pure enjoyment of street food at the highest level is juxtaposed with the beauty of one of the most dynamic restaurant scenes in the world, including the number one restaurant in all of Mexico. But to name the best Mexican food in the world, it's going to require a unique strategy.

We're doing something different in Mexico City. We're stair-stepping our dishes. We're leading to a top of the mountain. We're starting at the base of the mountain. It is the number one obvious example of what Mexico City is about. It is where classic meets innovation. Al pastor would not exist without the introduction of people from Lebanon. The trompo having the spinning rotisserie of meat, and then the Mexican people, combining their ingenuity and cuisine,

has created arguably one of the most iconic tacos in human history. This place is so professional, but this is great. I always feel skeptical when I see chef toques and tacos. It's a game changer, isn't it? Game changer. The tortilla is unbelievable. So fragrant, so soft. The meat is fatty and like perfectly seared on every side. And the juicy, sweet pineapple. I mean, listen, it's a beautiful al pastor. I love it. It's a perfect place to start. But where we are going to end, it's going to blow your mind.

We move on. We couldn't have this video without this dish. Maybe you saw that coming. But next up, things in here that I didn't even know existed from a traditional cantina, a type of restaurant mostly unknown to outsiders, but locals love. Gaby took us to one of the most celebrated, El Sella. And I'm going to be honest, it looks a little too simple. This could be a situation where looks are deceiving, because this could be the best meal in Mexico. Hidden in plain sight. The energy is giving me energy. All the people talking. And the crazy thing is there's no music. The music is just. Just like. this.

We just sat down and already. Yeah. One of the best things about cantinas is the service. The service is amazing here. What is this? Like a. Chamorro? Yeah, this is my favorite dish here. Oh, my God. Another dish. Two different dishes. We have a chorizo, a sizzling platter, and then this beautiful braised pork shank. The chorizo smells. Amazing. Oh, my God, smell that. We call it chorizo a la sidra. Smoky, sweet, porky. I mean, it just smells unbelievable.

This feels like a very Spanish dish. And they even served it with bread. Not just tortillas, but also sliced bread. Wow. That looks tremendous. I didn't even need a knife. It just, like, came out. Cilantro, onion, cilantro, some chili. That's a lot of chili. It's habanero. Oh, okay. I don't want that much. Amazing. I love this because it's just like homestyle cooking. This is exactly what you will find in cantinas.

The Mexican, the Spanish. But the feeling of the homestyle, everything feels familiar here. The waiters, they will know you. They will know what you drink, they will know what you eat. You can spend here hours. It's just very uncomplicated. You don't need to feel stuffy or nervous or like you need to dress nice, throw something on, sit down, and then just eat and hang out with your friend. That's like my kind of day. How do I try the chorizo? I think with bread. Amazing.

I knew you would love it. Yeah. The chorizo is by far my favorite. Really? Seasoned, crazy, phenomenal. It's super acidic, but also very salted, very, like, unctuous. And there's a smokiness to it, and it's just like bathing in its own fat. When you're done eating the chorizo, you take your bread and you mop that chorizo fat up and enjoy that. This is an experience that you have to have when visiting Mexico. No reservation. You show up, eat, hang out, drink a little bit, dip. This might be the most slept on thing in Mexico City.

I love it. On to the next. We started with two classics, but our next step up is Maizajo, arguably one of the best taquerias in all of Mexico City, possibly in Mexico. And a place where they treat corn like gold. But it's their mind-bending taco creations that teach us exactly what makes Mexico City so special. Chef Santi, good friend of mine. Thank you for having us here again. He's a new young chef, but also, more importantly, perfect example of breathing new life into old traditions.

Santi told me he'd give me the best the restaurant had to offer. So we started out with a bang. Dish number one, a shrimp flauta, or his inspiration of it. Whole shrimp left all in one piece, wrapped with the corn tortilla that they make in-house and then deep-fried. The corn tortilla wrapped around the shrimp protects it just like it would its natural shell. The meat should be cooked perfectly, and then the exterior crunchy. Cheers. That is special. It's not a big list of ingredients.

Just like the quality and the technique. It's still keeping that tradition of simple but delicious intact. But it's also creative because simply the way that they're making it. He could just break down the shrimp, wrap it in a tortilla, and fry it, but leaving it whole and making it look nice and presenting it this way. Great example. Onto the next dish. So this is his suadero taco. This one's a little bit more traditional. This is my favorite taco from all Maizajo.

Wow. It tastes like the heart and soul of a proper suadero taco. But then he has all these sort of atypical toppings, like the pickled onion and chili, which I'll put on that slight bit of elevation. The chefiness. Mexico City, baby. We're not quite at the highest level of fine dining. We are at where haute cuisine meets the ultra traditionality. Next up, the New York strip taco. The tortilla is made by hand. New York strip, the best quality meat, sliced ultra thin, plated really beautifully.

Amazing. Doesn't need anything else. Nailed it. Absolutely incredible. The meat is cooked perfectly. It's exactly like I like it, sliced ultra thin, but it has a lot of intramuscular fat so it doesn't go dry, and it's just kissed on the grill. It's full of moisture, full of juice. Seasoned perfectly. Needs absolutely nothing. Truly perfection. We started at the absolute baseline, the foundation of what makes Mexico City, Mexico City. With a simple taco that's been around a long time, and now we're seeing it. Young chefs reinventing the classics. But before we end this video with the number one restaurant in the entire country of Mexico, we first are visiting a restaurant that goes by the name of Gaba.

A place that's supposedly pushing the boundaries of what you can actually eat every single day. We started out with a delicious hamachi crudo, a tomato salad, and a dish that finally made chayote squash interesting to me. But the next dish tops them all. I cannot eat anymore. You're doing so good. I've been eating seven days in a row. Now we have a tartare. They're lightly smoking it and curing it. Now we're stepping it up. Now we're feeling the Mexico City of it all on tostada. It's the best tartare I've ever had. This is made with a cut of beef that has a shitload of flavor, and it's cured and it's aged,

so all that flavor is super compacted and maximized. And guess what? The salt level's perfect. I know we're not rating, but this is like a 9.8. 9.9, maybe a 10. In the world of tartares, frankly, it doesn't get much better than that. And somehow when I thought that they hit the ceiling, an unlikely dish challenged my mindset even further. I have never been a huge fan of tripe. This is amazing. This chef is a baller. He's risky because not a lot of people will get you tripe in this kind of restaurant, you know, but it still has the flavor that we know from a taco,

that he's the source of his creativity. This is a place I will spend all my money. I also will spend all your money here. It's the best tripe I've ever had, and I really don't like tripe. And I went in for a second, third bite. This is how all tripes should be served. And now for the star of the show, the pork chop al pastor reimagined for the modern world. Arguably the largest and craziest al pastor you'll ever see. So how does it compare to our favorite top taco? This is the next level.

Al pastor taco has been around for a long time, but now we have al pastor inspiring a full-on unique dish in and of itself. A beautiful grilled pork chop, bruleed pineapple. Instead of a taco, you have this beautifully dressed lettuce. This is the marriage that makes Mexico City, Mexico City. It is its own dish now, but it's still equally delicious in a new way, while still respecting what makes a traditional al pastor taco amazing, but also new. Also a different experience. Beautifully done. Bravo.

It is modern cuisine perfectly done. And by that, I mean it is deliciousness first, beauty second. And I'm not saying the dishes aren't beautiful. They're stunning, but they're not, like, so lost in making it beautiful that they forget about making it delicious. Some of the bites here have been some of the best bites I've ever had. But where do they fit in the best Mexican food in the world? So we move on to our final location, the number three restaurant on earth and the number one restaurant in Mexico, Quintonil. So you want to talk about innovation meets tradition.

This is the highest form of innovation. We have a lot of courses coming. Let's see what they look like. Can fine dining really deliver the same satisfaction or what they argue, a better meal than all of the original dishes that we tried? First up, the snack course. They started us off with pescadilla, which contains tuna from Baja, caviar, Thai chilies, and a grasshopper salsa. A lot of flavor. Just one bite. It's funny, after eating everything we've eaten, like, yeah, I know those flavors. Not too dissimilar to many of the things that we ate in Sinaloa.

She's joining cultures in small bites. In big dishes, it's not only the taste of a region, it's like a bomba. Like a what? Bomba. Bomba! Oh! Next snack. Mussel tostada, pickled mussel, grilled and glazed. Cheers. These are the kind of moments I'm looking for in this meal. Explosion of flavor. So deeply flavorful, super layered, but also simple. That's a bite. I could eat probably 30 or 40 of those.

Okay, we're rolling well so far, but could I really eat 30 or 40 of this next dish? Fried escamoles, ant larva. They call it the Mexican caviar. That's a better angle. It's like an aged cheese flavor. A little fried donut. This reminds me a lot of my grandmother. She used to do, like, a pasta like this en tomate, very simple. And then she will add cotija cheese. I think it's like a ratatouille, like, effect. You know, ratatouille or I don't know how to pronounce it. Pulling the emotion out of you.

It's a beautiful thing. Snack time is over. Now it's on to our first main course of the night. Butternut squash salad, a foam of horchata, brown butter, and rice vinegar dressing, and then what looks like toasted pumpkin seed. The more you eat it, the better it gets, honestly. It's like a perfect salad. Perfectly balanced, creamy. Salt level's amazing. It's still the same mentality, though, which is super simple, done really, really well. We've seen tlayuda in Oaxaca, and it was phenomenal. But in front of me, we have the fine dining version, completed with a crab salad, a sauce made of pipián and galangal.

Very Asian inspired. Yeah, that is impressive. This is where they're really starting to blur the line and create their own cuisine here. You can taste the inspiration of, you know, Mexican flavors in there, but it also. Thai flavors, these Asian flavors. This is where the innovation is now, creating its own cuisine. Now we have reached a course that is touching tradition. Pork tamale with an onion ash. Wow. This feels like an iconic reinterpretation of a classic. But speaking of classics, the mole has arrived, and I'll be honest, I'm nervous for Tía Elvia back in Oaxaca.

Will this be the best mole I had in Mexico? Wow. What a dish. It is probably the best mole I've ever had. It's absurd. I want, like, a big fucking cup. This mole, take home with me. Quintonil's was absolutely delicious, but so was Tía Elvia's, so I gotta give it to Tía. Come on. I feel that we're reaching a crescendo here. We've come all the way back to traditional flavors, and they're really hitting heavy now.

I'm full. The final dish of the entire evening. This is where it all comes together. A cornbread base with a passion fruit foam and a burnt corn leaf ash. Oh, my. That is a 10 out of 10 dessert. That is a banger of an ending to an incredible meal. A beautiful crescendo by Quintonil. But we have to ask, what is the best Mexican food in the world? On one end, I'd say the burrito and the seafood in Los Mochis was probably at the top of my list. But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So was Gaba kind of at the same level. And also, so was the cantina, and so was the incredible breakfast made by hand.

So how are we supposed to pick a winner here? I think what I'm realizing is these were all equally great in their own way. And this isn't a cop out. It doesn't matter how much money you spend or how fancy your meal is. Sure, you can have great on both ends of the spectrum, but really, it comes down to making it the right way. Taking the ingredients that they have that are already around them locally and just treating them with respect and actually giving a when they make the food. And Tía Elvia cared just as much as Quintonil cared.

Quintonil cared just as much as the cantina cared. And everybody in those individual restaurants seated next to each other were having a great time. And that is what the best Mexican food is all about. Love you. Subscribe. Bye.