A Movable Feast: The Joys of Street Food in Los Cabos
The most satisfying food experiences in Los Cabos aren’t all found in restaurants. There is something to be said for context, and I can assure you that at 3 a.m. a burrito from a street food vendor is just as delicious as cuisine served in the area’s finest dining establishments. Depending on how many drinks you’ve had, maybe more so.
No, there isn’t any polished silver. You’ll have to eat from a cup or a paper plate, probably with your fingers. And there probably won’t be any spectacular Sea of Cortés or Land’s End views, either. The best street food in Los Cabos is found near the downtown areas of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, although not necessarily in the neighborhoods most popular with tourists.
Fact is, many tourists are a little (or a lot) wary of Mexican street food. It’s unregulated. The vendors rarely speak any English. There are no guarantees about the sanitary conditions in which the food was prepared. It seems sketchy to some, and hardly worth the risk to try something they may not have heard of anyway.
Raspados, or snow cones, provide a refreshing antidote to the tropical weather of Los Cabos. Image: Alejandro Linares Garcia
I certainly would not try to talk these people into something outside their comfort zone. I will say, however, that these tourists don’t know what they’re missing! The longer I live in México, the more I appreciate the pleasures provided by street vendors: cups of fresh fruit topped with salsa in the morning, chicharrones or papas slathered in Valentina, rompope-flavored raspados, late-night tacos, tamales, or burritos. These are simple pleasures, but eminently satisfying ones.
Some street vendors are always on the move, especially those offering candy, camote, chicharrónes, papas and tamales. So running into them always feels rather serendipitous. Taco, burrito, esquite, and fresh fruit vendors, on the other hand, usually stake out a favored corner. Over the past few years, I’ve filed away quite a few corners for late night food runs, and I’ll share a few of my favorites.
For travelers with a sense of adventure, I recommend a gradual immersion into the world of street food. Start at the stand-up taquerías or burrito stands, or buy a tamal from one of the vendors like Ciro who visit the local bars. During the winter, you may even be able to pair it with a cup of atole. Tacos, burritos, and tamales are so widely available in the United States that they are familiar foods, although I will say that even the best I’ve had in California pale in comparison to those found in Los Cabos, or in fact anywhere in México.
El Gran Pastor is one of the best stand-up taquería in Cabo San Lucas.
Taquería El Gran Pastor is located just down the street from the Hotel Mar de Cortez on Lázaro Cárdenas in Cabo San Lucas—my favorite fresh fruit stand is on the other end of this downtown block—and is one of the top local stops for stand-up dining. El Gran Pastor is particularly popular late night, when crowds of people mill about on the sidewalk, wolfing down tacos.
See that big piece of pork on a spit, hopefully with some pineapple perched on top of it? That’s where the tacos al pastor are coming from, and they’re delicious. The pork has been marinated in chile and spices, and the pineapple contains an enzyme that helps tenderize the meat. Add cilantro and onions and your choice of salsa, and you’re good to go.
Prefer burritos? There are two stands that I favor in Cabo San Lucas, and each is within a stone’s throw of the other. One is located in the street on the corner of José Morelos and 16 de Septiembre, and this guy not only makes wonderful burritos—your choice of meat—but you can even get a side order of French fries. Don’t bother looking for him before sundown. Like tacos from El Gran Pastor, street burritos are a late night staple. The intersection’s other good burrito stand is located just across Morelos, in front of the bar El Toro (also known as El Toro Bravo).
Fancy tacos al pastor? Image: Matt Saunders
Chicharrones are, to me, the classic Mexican street food. There are always many vendors out and about, most with little umbrellas on their mobile carts to protect their precious cargo of friend pork rinds from the sun. Are chicharrones healthy? Probably not, but I don’t care. They’re the perfect snack food to nibble on when you’re walking around Cabo San Lucas. To really get into the local spirit, drizzle them with Salsa Valentina, a tasty hot sauce from Guadalajara. Most chicharrón vendors carry Valentina in a repurposed plastic Coca-Cola bottles, and the hot sauce is also perfect for papas, which are fresh homemade potato chips. (Valentina is also perfect for popcorn).
As a sidebar, chicharrones are also great when crumbled into other foods, particularly pozole verde, a Guerrero-style version of the hominy-based stew often heralded as the national dish of Mexico. The rojo- and blanco-style pozoles are widely available at restaurants throughout Los Cabos, but for some reason the verde—the best, in my opinion—is extremely hard to find. But there is a place in Cabo San Lucas, El Rinconcito, that will deliver to your bar of choice on Thursdays. Just call Claudio at (624) 110-1428. As an added bonus, excellent barbacoa (lamb cooked in a pit) tacos are available on Saturdays.
On a hot day, few things are better than raspados, better known to gringos as snow cones. The difference is that in México, the fruit flavors come from actual fruits. My favorite, however, is rompope, an rum-based eggnog seen most frequently around the holiday season. There seem to be more raspado stands in San José del Cabo than Cabo San Lucas, although my favorite stop is in the Tourist Corridor, right outside Walmart in Plaza San Lucas.
Many street foods popular on the Mexican mainland are harder to find in Los Cabos. I have found camote vendors well off the beaten tourist track, but finding them with any regularity is difficult. And that’s a shame, because the delicious sweet potato treats are something of a delicacy. Camote carts contain a pressure cooker, with steam released through a built in pipe that occasionally whistles like a tea kettle. So if you hear this sound, run in that direction immediately.
There is only one esquite vendor that I know of—esquites are bowls of corn with lime, mayonnaise, cheese and chile powder—located across from the beloved local restaurant Pollo de Oro (yes, the Golden Chicken) on the corner of José Morelos and 20 de Noviembre in Cabo San Lucas. Other than that, you’re on your own.
¡Buen provecho!