{"id":4961,"date":"2016-02-20T19:26:35","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T02:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/?p=4961"},"modified":"2016-09-08T16:00:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T13:00:29","slug":"dinner-at-la-chaya-maya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/dinner-at-la-chaya-maya\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinner at La Chaya Maya, M\u00e9rida"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wanted to try Yucat\u00e1n cuisine while I’m here (duh!) and yesterday Buzzfeed Mexico helpfully published a list of 12 of the best Yucat\u00e1n restaurants in M\u00e9rida<\/a>. Number two on the list, La Chaya Maya<\/a>, was about 2KM away and really well reviewed, so I decided to go there for dinner. I must have walked close to 20km today, btw!<\/p>\n

I’ve passed these former beauties several times today:<\/p>\n

\"IMGP2925\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are two Chaya Mayas and the best reviewed is this one at the corner of Calles 62 and 57.<\/p>\n

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I was given an English menu. It was actually pretty well translated, but not particularly helpful. I gave up trying to imagine what anything tastes like and zeroed in on this “Flavours of the Yucat\u00e1n” deal that would give me four different items for just $95! I ordered it as “sabores del Yucat\u00e1n,” though. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\"IMGP2928\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I ordered a XX beer, but the server said that the bartender wouldn’t sell me one because they weren’t cold enough. Dinner was off to a good start! I picked a beer at random, Montejo, and discovered that I have a new favourite Mexican beer! It is a pale lager that is incredibly smooth. I could have downed several of those!<\/p>\n

Beer came with totopos, two kinds of refried beans, habanero sauce, and salsa mexicana (“pico de gallo”). The habanero sauce took out a layer of my taste buds. The brown beans had a strange flavour that was okay, but not really to my taste. The black beans were awesome and the salsa mexicana had an extra ingredient in it, possibly sweetened vinegar, that made it addictive!<\/p>\n

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So here’s my meal. Isn’t it pretty?!<\/p>\n

\"IMGP2931\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The turkey\u00a0on the left was soaked in a black sauce reminiscent of squid ink in appearance only. The middle one was also turkey\u00a0and I’m pretty sure the other two were pork. Yucat\u00e1n is not an agricultural state like Sinaloa and so the cuisine is very meat-heavy.<\/p>\n

Using their online menu and my incredible powers of deduction, I think I had:<\/p>\n

Top: vaporcito (not on the menu). It’s shredded meat with masa around it and a red sauce over top.<\/p>\n

Bottom Left: relleno negro taco (black-filled taco). The black apparently comes from a mixture of a bunch of spices and chiles…<\/p>\n

Bottom Middle: panucho (black beans smeared on a tortilla) with shredded turkey and veggies.<\/p>\n

Bottom Right: cochinita (pulled pork marinated in sour orange and other things) and topped with purple stuff.<\/p>\n

Everything was just delicious (and nothing was even remotely spicy!). It was all foreign to me and I’m having a hard time remembering what each individual thing tasted like. I know the panucho turkey tasted like a well roasted turkey that had been brined, but had no other seasoning. It was the best plain fowl I’ve had in Mexico. The black stuff was my favourite. I sampled everything, then worked my way around the plate to finish with the black taco. I left one and a half tortillas and the egg behind, but otherwise gobbled up everything. I really need to go back and try each thing individually. But, hey, now I know there are four things on the menu that I like!<\/p>\n

The bill had a cute presentation:<\/p>\n

\"IMGP2932\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I found the beer very pricy at $31 (and I ordered off the cheap menu!), but even with a generous tip, my dinner came to only $150, or 12.35CAD. I know! If that’s the going rate for a gourmet meal in M\u00e9rida, I’ll be able to eat out like this every night!<\/p>\n

Needless to say, I’d recommend La Chaya Maya!<\/p>\n

I was pretty stuffed and actually looked forward to my walk home after. But I did mull over whether that was a good idea. I’m in a very residential neighbourhood that is very dark and quiet at night. It is well kept up, though, and the bulk of my walk was up a street with buses passing frequently, so I decided I was okay to walk. I passed three people on my walk home and they were all women about my age walking alone. There you go!<\/p>\n

Not only does M\u00e9rida have street name signs and addresses, it actually let’s drivers know they are turning on a one-way street and which direction to go. *squints at Guam\u00fachil<\/a>*<\/p>\n

\"IMGP2933\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to try Yucat\u00e1n cuisine while I’m here (duh!) and yesterday Buzzfeed Mexico helpfully published a list of 12 of the best Yucat\u00e1n restaurants in M\u00e9rida. Number two on the list, La Chaya Maya, was about 2KM away and really well reviewed, so I decided to go there for dinner. I must have walked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[895,14,635,3,894],"tags":[853,796,794],"class_list":["post-4961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-merida","category-mexico","category-north-america","category-travel","category-yucatan","tag-accommodation","tag-city-tours","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}