On Saturday afternoon, we left Puerto Morelos and headed up the coast to Cancun. While Nicole was somewhat familiar with the Zona Hotelera from prior visits for spring break some years ago, I had only been thru the airport and never the city. We drove up the coast and then headed thru the hotel zone. Massive hotel property after hotel property canvassed the coastline, presumably with beachfront on the opposite side of their impenetrable wall to non-guests. The storm we were driving thru was the worst weather yet on our trip, with half of the two lane street flooded. We charged on and then passed thru the club area, with DadyO's, Senior Frogs, Hooters, Katsuya and other big venues. As it was only 7pm, most were closed but after circling a few times we figured out how to approach and valet park at Senor Frogs... the only open place other than Hooters. It was a noisy hot mess, with a handful of tables of people eating. We went up to the empty bar and each had a margarita, which were (a) crappy and (b) a rip off. So we left there quickly and continued on to dinner.
We decided to go to a place called Labna, a traditional Yucatean restaurant in the center of Cancun, well away from the tourist trappings of the hotel zone. This was a place Nicole found and appealed to us because it would offer some more traditional food preparations from the area, rather than the typical Mexican dishes served with soft shell tacos and salsas. But what we found is that without a Garmin, navigating the poorly marked streets of central Cancun was more difficult than imagined. We were driving in a general vicinity of the restaurant, which I knew only because of the main avenues we circled around. But we couldn't find our side streets. Finally we got the blackberry GPS to get us to a nearby place, Roots, a jazz club that we would go to after dinner. We found parking right across from Labna, which I considered a great success after the growing sense we were getting terribly lost.
The storm was still very severe, which I consider a main reason Labna had only one other table when we entered. Our waiter Girardo was very nice, seating us in the middle of the restaurant, and also with a clear view of the stage and three musicians playing guitars and an upright bass. We started with beers, then decided on a couple appetizers and entrees. I started with the Longaniza de Valladolid, the Yucatecan smoked pork sausage, seasoned with mayan spices, and Nicole ordered the seafood stuffed avocado, seasoned with onions, tomato, coriander and radishes. Both were very good, the sausage with nice chorizo-like spice and texture, balancing well with the light shredded seafood salad stuffed in the avocado. For my entree, I had the pibil pork, seasoned with achiote and other local spices, wrapped in banana leaves and baked in a slow oven. The slow cooked pork melted in my mouth, seemed very lean and had great rich flavors. Nicole had the maculam, a tin foiled fish fillet seasoned and baked with hoja santa and spices, a delicacy. Steaming in the natural juices of the fish and vegetables in the tin foil, this opened up a hot, steamy and smooth white fish. The flavors were balanced and subtle, making this a savory but light dish.
Somehow the waiter and musicians caught wind that our anniversary was this weekend (the next day to be exact), and approached our table to serenade us. After playing a couple songs, they played a song that was written in 1940 by a man named Consuelo Velazquez. Called Besame Mucho, or Kiss Me Much, Consuelo herself, she wrote this song even though she had never been kissed yet at the time, and kissing as she heard was considered a sin. For us, the song was a very romantic welcoming to our first anniversary, which we have definitely enjoyed.
We decided to go to a place called Labna, a traditional Yucatean restaurant in the center of Cancun, well away from the tourist trappings of the hotel zone. This was a place Nicole found and appealed to us because it would offer some more traditional food preparations from the area, rather than the typical Mexican dishes served with soft shell tacos and salsas. But what we found is that without a Garmin, navigating the poorly marked streets of central Cancun was more difficult than imagined. We were driving in a general vicinity of the restaurant, which I knew only because of the main avenues we circled around. But we couldn't find our side streets. Finally we got the blackberry GPS to get us to a nearby place, Roots, a jazz club that we would go to after dinner. We found parking right across from Labna, which I considered a great success after the growing sense we were getting terribly lost.
The storm was still very severe, which I consider a main reason Labna had only one other table when we entered. Our waiter Girardo was very nice, seating us in the middle of the restaurant, and also with a clear view of the stage and three musicians playing guitars and an upright bass. We started with beers, then decided on a couple appetizers and entrees. I started with the Longaniza de Valladolid, the Yucatecan smoked pork sausage, seasoned with mayan spices, and Nicole ordered the seafood stuffed avocado, seasoned with onions, tomato, coriander and radishes. Both were very good, the sausage with nice chorizo-like spice and texture, balancing well with the light shredded seafood salad stuffed in the avocado. For my entree, I had the pibil pork, seasoned with achiote and other local spices, wrapped in banana leaves and baked in a slow oven. The slow cooked pork melted in my mouth, seemed very lean and had great rich flavors. Nicole had the maculam, a tin foiled fish fillet seasoned and baked with hoja santa and spices, a delicacy. Steaming in the natural juices of the fish and vegetables in the tin foil, this opened up a hot, steamy and smooth white fish. The flavors were balanced and subtle, making this a savory but light dish.
Somehow the waiter and musicians caught wind that our anniversary was this weekend (the next day to be exact), and approached our table to serenade us. After playing a couple songs, they played a song that was written in 1940 by a man named Consuelo Velazquez. Called Besame Mucho, or Kiss Me Much, Consuelo herself, she wrote this song even though she had never been kissed yet at the time, and kissing as she heard was considered a sin. For us, the song was a very romantic welcoming to our first anniversary, which we have definitely enjoyed.
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