You may be just minutes into having met me for the first time ever to discover I love food. I love making it, I love learning about it (shout out to Gastropod!), and, above all, I love to try it. It has been my absolute pleasure to witness Mérida’s culinary growth; I’m old enough to remember back when a pizza al pastor was a new, revolutionary creation by an up-and-coming taco place in Tanlum, and went to try the very first sushi bar when it opened, near the Gran Plaza gas station, if memory serves. I still grieve for plenty of places that, for whatever reason, are no longer with us, like the very first Indian restaurant (on Avenida Cámara de Comercio), or the outstanding French restaurant Bruno Bistro (on Avenida José Díaz Bolio).
I’m very lucky that, as part of my job as editor of Yucatán Today, I often get to try new places that my less foodie friends would require plenty of convincing to go to. As a home-grown Yucateca, I also go to those very traditional local restaurants that have endured for decades. And while food bloggers and influencers in Yucatán are a dime a dozen, I managed to convince my lovely boss that there may be someone out there who might be interested in reading my restaurant reviews every once in a while.
It’s very important for me to make the following very clear: I do not get paid to review restaurants. As a matter of fact, when I set out to begin this column, my first concern was that many of the restaurants I’d like to review have invited me to try them in my position as Yucatán Today editor. The treatment can be very different when you’re personally invited, compared to when you’re just another face in a crowd of diners.
To make it fair, the rule is that I’ll never mention a restaurant if I’ve only visited as part of a courtesy visit. As a matter of fact, I’ll never mention a restaurant I’ve only tried once. However, keep in mind that everyone’s susceptible to an off night, and that both people and circumstances never stay the same for too long. Your mileage may indeed vary.
This month, Kōfuku.
