If Mexico City has the fine-dining spotlight, Oaxaca has the soul. Many consider it the true culinary heart of Mexico — a state with an Indigenous Zapotec and Mixtec food tradition stretching back centuries, expressed today through its famous moles, mezcal, and some of the best market food in the country.
What to Eat in Oaxaca
Oaxaca is famous for its seven moles — complex sauces built from dozens of ingredients, ranging from the bright green mole verde to the deep, chocolate-inflected mole negro, the most labor-intensive of them all. Tlayudas, often called Oaxacan pizza, are large crisp tortillas topped with beans, cheese, and meat, folded and grilled over charcoal. Chapulines (chili-lime toasted grasshoppers) are a genuine local snack, not just a tourist dare, and worth trying at least once.
Markets Worth Visiting
Mercado 20 de Noviembre is Oaxaca's most famous food market, home to a smoke-filled passage of charcoal grills where you choose your meat and have it cooked to order. Mercado Benito Juárez next door is excellent for chapulines, mole pastes, and Oaxacan chocolate ground to order with cinnamon and almonds.
Mezcal Culture
Oaxaca produces the majority of Mexico's mezcal, and visiting a palenque (small-batch distillery) in the surrounding villages is one of the best food-and-drink experiences in the country — many still roast agave in earthen pits and crush it with a horse-drawn stone wheel. In the city, mezcalerias like Los Amantes offer flights that make the different agave varieties and regions easy to compare.
What to Pack for an Oaxaca Food Trip
Markets and mezcal palenques run almost entirely on cash — the VacationGrabs Genuine Leather Coin Wallet keeps pesos organized for quick purchases. If you're planning to bring home bottles of mezcal or Oaxacan chocolate, the VacationGrabs Large Leather Travel Duffel has the packing room for it.
Book an Oaxaca Food Tour
Mole-making classes, mezcal palenque day trips, and guided market tours through 20 de Noviembre are among the best ways to understand Oaxaca's food traditions in depth. Browse Oaxaca food tours on Viator to plan your trip.
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