Flavors of the Mexican Caribbean
The Mexican Caribbean is a paradise for travelers looking for new culinary delights. The region has lots of excellent restaurants, with options ranging from the simplest dining hall to lavish establishments.
In tourist areas such as Cancún and Riviera Maya, Mexican, European, American, and Latin American chefs are blending regional and international ingredients and recipes to create new and exciting dishes.
Cancún offers a culinary journey of flavors that go hand in hand with excellent Mexican hospitality – and usually served up in restaurants overlooking the Caribbean Sea or the beautiful Laguna Nichupté. Around its extensive hotel zone, visitors can enjoy all types of Italian, Asian, Argentinian, and French specialties, as well as authentic Mexican delicacies.
Today in Quintana Roo, we already realized that the tourists wants and demands local cuisine, wants to know the smells, flavors, traditions and above all the origin of the ingredients of traditional Mayan cuisine,
Chef Federico Lopez
The most demanding foodies will be happy to discover that many restaurants located along the Mexican Caribbean have received the highest recognition from the renowned American Automobile Association (AAA); such as Le Chique, which is also the most awarded restaurant in Mexico. This restaurant is located in Puerto Morelos, one of the destinations of the Riviera Maya.
The Riviera Maya became a gastronomic destination thanks to a few unique factors, starting with its original inhabitants. Due to its coastal location, the Mayans who once lived in this region developed a slightly different cuisine than their inland counterparts, with distinct flavors and ingredients. And to make things even more tasteful, in recent years, traditional gastronomy has been transformed by mixing regional ingredients and recipes with contemporary techniques, resulting in a new culinary fusion.
We try to take classic Mexican food and present it in a modern way in a 21st Century concept and still have respect for the classics
Jonatán Gómez Luna Chef of Le Chique
Many of the finest restaurants in the Mexican Caribbean belong to acclaimed and prestigious chefs. All of them are interested in using local ingredients and sustainable products to fully capture the true essence and textures of the dishes in the region. One of these restaurants is “Axiote, Cocina de Mexico”, located in Playa del Carmen, which is owned by award-winning chef Xavier Pérez Stone.
At the forefront is indigenous cuisine, with ingredients that haven’t changed in hundreds of years, such as corn, beans, and chili peppers. Some of the dishes that exemplify this mix of regional ingredients with the gourmet flavor are the octopus salbute with dried candied Hibiscus Flower, Ceviche Negro and Ceviche Verde.
Mexican gastronomy demonstrates unquestionable antiquity and historical progression. It is collectively elaborated. It supports products native to the land and boasts great creativity from its chefs, who have been perfecting it over centuries.
About 90 per cent of the ingredients we use in the kitchen are from Mexico. We use venison from Mexico, we use lamb from Mexico, we use fish and vegetables from Mexico. We try to represent new flavors with classic ingredients
Chef Xavier Pérez Stone
Furthermore, the Mexican Caribbean’s cuisine combines contemporary techniques that give it a character of innovation and constant adaptation. Thanks to this, it has managed to remain influential for generations, feeding the people of the region for millennia and now equally delighting its visitors.
