If you are fond of Mexican cuisine, there is a range of culinary experiences waiting for you in the country. Emerging as a culinary destination of Mexico, the city of Oaxaca is full of authentic eateries offering different types of delicacies beyond tacos and tapas. From rustic to fine dining, here are few food spots of Oaxaca to treat your taste buds with something different and challenging.

Criollo

Criollo serves luxury with simplicity in its plates. Delivering tribute to the traditional cooking techniques of Oaxaca, Criollo brings the authentic flavor of the Zapotec region of Istmo de Tehuantepec in its inventive cuisine. Every delicious dish of their seasonally changing menu is based on fresh local produce. Owner of award-winning restaurant ‘Pujol’, chefs Luis Arellano and Enrique Olvera are the creative brains behind this eatery. Their signature creations on plates make Criollo the perfect venue to enjoy a stylized hearty brunch with friends and family.

La Mezcalerita

True to its name, the rustic foods of La Mezcalerita are best paired with Mexican ‘Mezcal’, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave. Craft beers and ‘Pulque’, a fermented drink made from various types of agaves, can also work superbly with La Mezcalerita’s botanitas or mouthwatering munchies and Oaxacan nachos. This is an excellent place to enjoy a perfect pub grub, especially its artisanal beer-infused ooey-gooey ‘Queso Fundido’.

Casa Oaxaca el Restaurante

Casa Oaxaca is the ultimate place for a distinctly different gastronomical experience. For your first course, you can order a bug tostada, and a delicious montadito or traditional sandwich with cheese, bean paste, and crunchy grasshopper. If you fell in love with grasshopper, bring it back by ordering ‘Kampachi Tiradito’, which is a type of onion-less ceviche with grasshopper mayo. For entrée, enjoy the delicious mole turkey. Lastly, save room for a sweet finish with the Oaxacan chocolate spheres with ginger and hibiscus sauce.

While there’s a wild pandemic spreading around the world and people are quarantining at home, book sales have gone up to 33%. It seems Netflix has some real competition these days. Travel memoir books are the perfect way for anyone to escape, draw us out of the mundane routine to an imaginative, unpredictable adventure. Reading is also a chance to keep your mind off staying put, let’s call it settling in instead.

Check out four impactful memoirs that will carry you to faraway places all while staying at home.

1. The Longest Way Home By Andrew McCarthy

In this memoir, McCarthy recounts his yearlong solo journey around the world. He visited Spain, Patagonia, the Amazon, Costa Rica, Vienna, Baltimore, Kilimanjaro, and Dublin. During his journey, he describes his migration from being a vagabond to a once-again married man. The New York Times said it best, it’s “A long, strange trip on the direction of full-throttle love.”

2. West With The Night By Beryl Markham

In Markham’s memoir, she writes about her childhood in Kenya, her greatest fears, training racehorses, and most notably one of her greatest adventures. In 1936, Markham accepted a challenge to complete the first solo east-to-west flight across the Atlantic. She started off from England, flew for more than 21 hours, and survived a crash-landing on an island near Nova Scotia. This story will definitely keep you on your toes throughout.

3. The Snow Leopard By Peter Matthiessen

This memoir from 1973, chronicles Matthiessen’s trek with zoologist Gorge Schaller into the region of the Himalayas. Schaller’s aim was to study the Himalayan blue sheep, while Matthiessen was to take a glimpse at the snow leopard which is rare to see. According to this memoir, only two westerners over the previous twenty-five years have ever seen the snow leopard in the wild. This book is perfect for those of you who are adrenaline junkies.

4. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Annie Dillard offers us an exclusive insight into her memoir. She chronicles her close-to-home explorations along the Tinker Creek in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains across a one year period. Dillard stays in place while the world shifts around her. She shares the fear, anxiousness, and anger throughout her journey. This memoir is perfect to keep your mind off the current news. Enjoy a good reading!