Mérida: 3-Hour Walking Food Tour
Taste your way through Mérida on a 3-hour food tour. Explore the downtown areas of the city and savor authentic Mexican specialities.
Relleno negro is a Yucatecan stew of turkey or pork in a deeply black sauce made from charred dried chiles, the dish's distinguishing colour and smoky flavour coming from the burnt-chile recado negro paste.
The dish is one of the oldest Mayan stews to survive into modern Yucatán cookery, traditionally cooked for Hanal Pixán (the Yucatán Day of the Dead) and family feasts. The recado negro paste (charred chiles xcatic and chile dulce, garlic, cloves, allspice and burnt tortilla) gives the deep-black colour; the technique is to char everything to ash on a comal, then grind and rehydrate. Stuffed turkey or chicken cooks in the inky stock for two hours; hard-boiled egg and pork meatballs (bolitas) ring the plate. La Chaya Maya, La Tradición and Restaurante Kinich in Izamal are the canonical sources. The dish appears across Mérida tasting menus during November.
3 editor picks for Relleno negro in Mérida, ranked by editorial score. All Mérida signature dishes · Relleno negro across every city.
La Chaya Maya ★ 4.4
Santa Lucía · Calle 55 459 esq. Calle 60, Centro, 97000 Mérida, Yucatán
La Chaya Maya on Santa Lucía in Mérida pours tortillas on a clay comal in the dining room and runs sopa de lima, poc chuc and panuchos seven days.
Manjar Blanco ★ 4.4
Paseo de Montejo · Calle 47 496, Zona Paseo Montejo, Centro, 97000 Mérida, Yucatán
Manjar Blanco on Mérida's Calle 47 corridor near Paseo de Montejo runs cochinita pibil and queso relleno (Netflix Taco Chronicles featured) lunch-only.
La Tradición ★ 4.3
Paseo de Montejo · Calle 60 293 x 25 y 27, García Ginerés, 97070 Mérida, Yucatán
La Tradición on Calle 60 in Mérida runs chef David Cetina's Yucatecan recados, poc chuc and queso relleno from a family kitchen of two decades.
Learn to cook it, or eat it with a guide
Relleno negro makes more sense with someone from Mérida explaining it. These are the classes and tours we have checked, with booking links.
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