Update: This spot is sadly no longer open. Until not long ago, Francisco I. Madero was a typical – and rather uninviting – street in Mexico City’s Centro Histórico, uneven and full of potholes, with narrow sidewalks. The avenue was constantly clogged with car traffic trying to make its way to the Zócalo plaza in the center of the neighborhood. In short, it was a mess.

Mexican dishes are known for their bold flavor combinations, from complex mole sauces that incorporate ingredients as diverse as chilies and dark chocolate to the multiple different food items and seasonings that go into an authentic pozole. But an equally key element in Mexican food culture is that most basic of flavorings: salt. From savory dishes to fruit and candy to alcoholic beverages, Mexicans have a taste for – and a habit of – pairing salt with almost everything.

Update: This spot is sadly no longer open. Come Sunday, we often find ourselves strolling through leafy Parque Sullivan, which hosts Mexico City’s largest outdoor art market. The art here ranges from modern to whimsical, abstract to landscapes, created by artists who no doubt have dreams of being the next Diego Rivera or Frida Kahlo. When we get hungry, we usually head over to nearby Sullivan Market to get a taste of the culinary artistry of the food vendors working there. But on a recent Sunday, we decided to follow the advice of friends and try something new in the neighborhood: the gorditas over at Las Laguneras.

Editor's Note: Sadly, this spot is now closed. Sometimes bureaucracy can be a blessing in disguise. Cruz del Milagro, an informal restaurant in the popular nightlife area of Zona Rosa, was originally intended to be a simple mezcalería, a place where owners Dora Jiménez and daughter Diana Herrera, the third and fourth generation in a line of mezcal producers, could share the family brand, El Rey Zapoteco Mezcal, with the growing base of mezcal aficionados in Mexico City. They were informed, however, that because of a city law, they would either have to also serve food or open a traditional full bar. Fortunately, they chose the first option and decided to focus on the specialties of their home state of Oaxaca, resulting in a menu that’s far from being an afterthought.

Editor’s note: This is the second installment of “Spring (Food) Break 2013,” our weeklong celebration of spring’s culinary bounty. This guest post is by Lesley Téllez, a freelance writer and the author of the blog The Mija Chronicles, who recently moved to New York after four years in Mexico City.

Humanity came from corn, or so says the Mayan creation story, the Popol Vuh. After creating the earth and animals, the story goes, the Maker decided to create beings in his likeness. After failing twice with dirt and wood, the Maker formed man and woman out of the “nourishing life” of ground corn. And so began Mexico’s deep relationship with one of the most widely used crops in human history, one that seems to be present in almost every aspect of Mexican cooking.

Update: This spot is sadly no longer open. For weeks we had been passing by a small venue that filled the sidewalk with the heavenly scent of butter and pastry dough, before we finally had the chance to stop in and investigate. The source of the intoxicating aroma turned out to be Pastes Real de Pachuca, a neighborhood bakery in middle-class Colonia Tabacalera that makes excellent empanadas and pastes, a type of pastry that’s a specialty of Mexico’s Hidalgo state but hard to find in Mexico City.

One of our favorite markets in Mexico City, Mercado Jamaica is a fantastic destination any time of the year, offering everything from festive Christmas decorations to a large selection of fruits and vegetables. After the markets of Xochimilco, Jamaica is also one of the city’s best flower markets, with block-long aisles filled with freshly cut flowers and plants of almost every imaginable color and type. But as much as we love getting lost in the sweet scents of these green alleyways, what keeps us coming back to Jamaica is El Profe, an excellent eatery inside the market that specializes in barbacoa. El Profe ("The Prof") looks less like your typical market food stand and more like a mini restaurant, with small brass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling that provide more in the way of ambiance than actual light. Waiters and cooks in matching blue uniforms hustle and bustle around the customers, who come and go from the counter at a steady pace.

The holiday season is one of the more subdued times of the year in Mexico City. Many people leave the city for vacation or to visit family and friends in other parts of the country. We, however, tend to stick around more often than not, traveling around the city and enjoying the relative peace. That’s how we happened upon Coox Hanal, a restaurant hidden inside a century-old building in the Centro Histórico that specializes in the cuisine of the Yucatán, the peninsula that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea like a hitchhiker’s thumb.

Dear Culinary Backstreets, We’ll be visiting Mexico City and are wondering about the organic food scene. Will it be easy for us to find organic produce? How can we know whether or not something we’re buying is really organic?

The first time I tried to photograph La Central de Abasto in Mexico City, it was without permission, which was utterly impossible. As I walked through the market’s immense corridors, every time I tried to get a shot I would begin to hear cackles and whistles from the vendors. Their chatter had a signature sound like a backwards catcall and it traveled through the high market rafters from one stand to another, like birds squawking in the treetops through a vast forest. This alarm would consequently bring a plain-clothes security guard, who blocked my passage and asked me to show my permission papers to take pictures. When I could produce nothing, I was escorted sternly and quickly outside the market doors. I tried my luck at shooting in another section of the market but, yet again, a rising whistle would start and another security guy would appear and cut me off. I gave up.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved mornings, a preference that likely – perhaps counterintuitively – originates from my experience working bright and early at my parents’ fonda. Almost every day, we would arrive around 7 a.m. to prepare the day’s menu, slicing vegetables for salsas, putting together moles, boiling chicken and arranging everything necessary for the daily rush of customers. The warmth and aromas rising from the large clay pots filled the air and never failed to make my mouth water. It was a scene that had been repeating itself since my grandfather bought our fonda back in the early 1960s.

Markets in Mexico City are as integral a part of the culture as mariachi music and tacos, providing a place for neighbors to come together for shopping, gossip and family outings and playing a key role in keeping the social fabric tightly woven. While most neighborhoods have their own brick-and-mortar locations, their street markets are far more colorful. These crowded, boisterous shopping areas – some so large that their colorful tarp roofs can been seen on satellite photographs, stretching for miles – are also an essential component of the city’s culinary scene.

The past year has been a very good one for food in Mexico City. We’ve had a wonderful time exploring new restaurants, tracking down exciting dishes and meeting great people along the way. There have been so many memorable moments over the past year that it was hard to sit down and come up with a list of the ones that really stood out the most. Through debate and discussion (and some revisits), we narrowed down the worthy field to our top favorites. Here are our Best Bites of 2012 from Mexico City. El Pozole de Moctezuma First up on our best food experiences of the year would have to be the pozole at El Pozole de Moctezuma. Located near Metro Garibaldi, the building is nondescript and shows no sign of the deliciousness that lies within, so if we hadn’t been taken there by a friend, we never would have known about it. But what a discovery! The friendly staff showed us exactly how to build the perfect bowl of pozole, from choosing the color and flavor of the broth to adding oregano, chili powder, lime juice and, of course, a splash of mezcal. A bowl of soup never tasted so good or filled us up more satisfyingly than that at El Pozole de Moctezuma. Best of all, the place is a long-term neighborhood fixture that celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2012, a fact that bodes well for future visits.

Mexico City is probably not the first place one thinks of when it comes to ice cream. Enchiladas and tacos, sure, but ice cream? In fact, the city has quite an established ice cream scene, with spots in nearly every neighborhood. La Especial de París, an ice cream parlor on the edge of Colonia San Rafael, stands out as a family-owned venue that – unlike many of its competitors, which have increasingly turned to selling mass-produced dairy products – still makes all its ice cream the old-fashioned way, by hand and with fresh, all-natural ingredients.