MAZATLAN: Chuchupetas (Villa Union)

[glbtrtr]

Intrigued by the reports about Chuchupetas. Will be arriving by ship for a day and wondering how to get to this restaurant in Villa Union from the ship dock.

Also are their good places to eat near some of the main pottery shopping places in Mazatlan? Would one pottery place be in the Central Market, like for tall garden pots?

[dlglidden]

Your first question is asked and answered frequently on various Mazatlán message boards and fora. Here is the text of a March, 2009 Q & A regarding restaurante Chuchupetas in Villa Union:
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Q :I need to get info on the restaurant in Villa Union that everyone likes. What is the name & location. What days and hrs. are they open? Do you need reservations? Thanks! EEK!

A1: Cuchupetas is the name of the restaurant...
does not open in the evening.
if you get there before 1:00PM you should have no problem
to have a table.
Use the parking lot across the street.

Almost at the end of the first part of Villa Union,
it is the second street on the right after the one that leads to the market.
On the corner, there is a large barbecue with lots of chickens on the grill and a lot of smoke .
you make a right turn... it is two blocks down the street.

The best, is to ask, everybody knows the place.

In my opinion this is one of the few good place to eat fish and mariscos.

Cheap, if you want to go cheap, or very expensive if you chose to...order
lots of fish, Mariscos, Crawfish, Callo de Hacha, etc...
you get what you pay for. But always good.
Very casual place ... no need too dress up.

A lot of the famous people of Sinaloa and DF, including past president Vincente Fox,
have been eating there for years...

Hm .
from Miguel's Kitchen

A2: I read somewhere that when Vicente Fox was in Mazatlán a few years ago, at a fancy place, he asked for Cuchupetas to cater the food! That's how good it is, EEK. If you have an extra seat, I'll go with you. dee

A3: They are open until early evening...we have been there lots around 5 or 6 pm....I believe they close around 7ish.
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Regarding your second question: Mazatlán is not known for its pottery. Why would you want to buy pottery there (and carry it home on a ship)? I don't think the main mercado sells pottery, but I could be wrong. Coincidentally someone on the WhatsUpMaz Forum (whatsupmaz.org) asked a question about tall garden pots recently, but I couldn't find it in the archives. The answer is probably one of the local viveros, but I don't know them well.

If I were you, rather than posting on Chowhound, I would ask those questions on the WhatsUpMaz forum or the MazInfo forum (mazinfo.com). Most of the people on those fora live in Maz year round and would, I'm sure, be pleased to give you some answers and help. You do not have to be a member of either forum to post questions there.

If you would like additional information on good places to eat in Mazatlán, I'd be glad to help. Post here, or email me at [e-mail].

Hope you have a nice—though very brief—time in the pearl of the Pacific.

[glbtrtr]

Did the search but still could not find specifics about local transportation or what it might cost to take a taxi and how available taxis are in town after the meal. Or hiring a taxi for about three hours to get to the restaurant and be assured we can get back.

Yes, we would put the pottery on the ship since we do not face a plane flight at the disembarkation port, and believe it or not, the travel sites about Mazatlan do tout its "pottery" as a center especially for talavera ware, a special local clay, a pottery craftsman workshop, and yes, way too much hokey "pre-columbian" motif junk.

[dlglidden]

I see you posted your questions on MazInfo. Good for you! Dee Hulen's comments aren't only helpful, they're correct. Dee is a person I often rely on for information about Maz, especially food and restaurants. (She posts on Chowhound from time to time.)

It's only 25-30 km to Villa Unión and by car or taxi usually takes less than 40 minutes. As Dee says, bargain with the taxistas (especially if you engage a taxi right at the docks—they will assume you are a naive, rich, gringo tourist and quote you outlandish prices. But you can easily negotiate a reasonable fare and that's the way I would go. The buses to Villa Unión run frequently (every half-hour or so), cost very little (ca. $30MN each way) but using them would be logistically complicated. You'd have to take a taxi to the appropriate bus terminal, get a ticket, take the ride to VU with frequent stops for people getting on and off, then in VU, get a taxi to take you to the restaurant or try to walk it, getting directions as you walk. So take a taxi, it's no big deal, it won't bust your budget, and you'll have a pleasant excursion.

I was going to write you that my original statement about pottery in Maz was correct, but Dee beat me to it. Maz is a "pottery center" in the same way that Cancún is a pottery center. In popular beach resort towns pottery gets shipped in from all over Mexico for local merchants to sell to tourists and locals with money who are too lazy or busy or unable to go to the source. Yes, you can find Talavera pottery in tourist and high end shops in Maz (especially in the Zona Dorada), but the pottery was produced in Puebla and then shipped to Maz. Most Mazatlecos who are serious about Talavera take a trip to Puebla to stock up. And if they can't realistically arrange a shopping trip to Puebla, they go to Guadalajara where one can find a variey and abundance of reasonaby priced Talavera—almost all shipped to Guad from the factories and artisan cooperatives in the Puebla area.

[cristina]

Not about food, but about talavera: the talavera made in Puebla is extraordinarily high quality and extraordinarily expensive--worth it if you are looking for a particular kind of pottery.

The talavera found in Guadalajara is nothing like that found in Puebla and does not come from Puebla. It's made either in Tonalá, Jalisco (a town neighboring Guadalajara) or in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato. Either way, this type talavera is lovely but much different from that found in Puebla.

Occasionally talavera poblana (the kind made in Puebla) is available in high-end specialty gift shops in Mazatlán, but what is generally available is from Tonalá or Dolores Hidalgo.

To see Puebla talavera: http://www.uriartetalavera.com.mx/
Dolores Hidalgo: http://www.artesangabriel.com/productos2.html
Tonalá: http://tonalamexicanimports.com/talavera_pottery

That's probably more about talavera than you really wanted to know!

Link: http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

[glbtrtr]

I know we are getting off food here, but those links are exactly the types of pots I have been looking for. Hope I find some like these in Mazatlan on our short stop. We also go to Puerto Vallearta and Cabo (and San jose del Cabo). Is it likely we will see the same selections there - where do you think will be the better prices and selections or is it pretty much the same everywhere when it comes to tourist sales? Thanks.

[glbtrtr]

Thank you for your info again on the Chuchupesetas restaurant but I still need more specifics about how much to expect to pay for a well-bargained for taxi round trip. It is hard to quantify "muy expensive" and "not bust your budget". Will it be US$100 or will it be US$25? Or what? Thanks if you can be more specific. And I appreciate your concerns about getting a taxi at the dock versus perhaps in town, but even there we will be "tourists". No question about that. And your precautions about the local bus.

How about any second choice restaurants of similar quality in town in case we can't pull off the trip to Villa Union.

I have trouble accessing the mazcom website so not sure I can get back on it to get any more answers. Thanks for following up here.

[dlglidden]

You're getting great info from the Mazatlecos on MazInfo, so I don't have much to add. The best idea is almost certainly to take the launch across the shipping channel over to Isla de la Piedra and hang out on the beach and eat great fried/grilled fresh fish from any of the various palapa restaurants there. It's certainly a very different and unique experience that 99% of your fellow ship passengers will not experience during their brief time in Maztalán. Walking around in El Centro Historico (especially the Plazuela Machado area) is an excellent idea as well. Though one problem is that several of the very best places to eat are not open for lunch—but enough are so you can eat a good "non touristy" meal and enjoy the atmosphere. La Puntilla, down by the docks, is a bit out of the way, but it's patronized mostly by locals (not tourists) and you can eat very good seafood there. Back in old town, ask someone if Bahía Mariscos is open for lunch. I don't think it is, but it's an excellent restaurant in an old, late 19th century house with a large interior courtyard where one dines. For local funk and good cheap well prepared seafood, consider Mariscos Chon: a small place with no pretension or charm whatsoever in an old building near the plazuela. There is also a small, interesting archaeology museum and an art museum in El Centro Historico that I'm rather sure you would enjoy. Oh, if you do have seafood for lunch, try to order aguachile [de camarones] as an appetizer. It's a Sinaloan specialty. (As is chilorio or carne arrachera, if you decide on having meat. Good food in Mazatlán is NOT limited to seafood. Frankly, I find much of the seafood in Maz to be boring and not particularly tasty.)

You can walk all over the downtown area if you want to—it's actually a small area, but I'd take a pulmonía or taxi ($20-$40MN) to get from the cruise ship docks to old town: Don't waste the short time you have walking through ugly scenery, military facilities, huge concrete parking areas, etc.

You'll have a great day (or portion thereof), I'm quite sure.

[glbtrtr]

Thanks for the follow-up here. No, I don't need to have seafood at all, just seemed like it was the most obvious Mazatlan item to think about. What other special Mazatlan dishes would you recommend for a local sampler? I would love to leave this spot having a really special culinary memory that would always only be associated with this place. And certainly the whole Stone Island experience even for "fish" qualifies as something unique. But you have me intrigued about what other things non-fish I might also be overlooking.

Thanks for responding here- it is hard (for some reason) for me to get to the mazinfo group but I did get a very good list of things to see and do from them, plus enough discouragement to not try to waste my time and money going to Villa Union and Chuchupasetas. (On this trip anyway).

On a prior trip I was so intrigued with trying the "mofungo" in San Juan Puerto Rico since it was such a local, local speciality it seemed criminal not to sample one on our short port stop there - the "mofungo" was a total culinary disaster in my opinion, but remains a wonderful dining adventure tale to laugh about and remember.

[dlglidden]

Doesn't need to be seafood? Well that opens up some possibilities.

Stone Island may still be your best bet, but here are a couple of others.

The restaurant I most enjoy eating at in Mazatlán is Habaneros. It's in a beautifully restored 19th century house just a block off the Plazuela. The house has a large totally enclosed and beautifully landscaped courtyard around which is the dining area. The food is upscale Mexican featuring typical Mazatlán fish, poultry, and meat dishes with some unexpected additions. Their website shows photos of the restaurant and has the complete menu:

http://www.habanerosmazatlan.com/inde...

My wife and I especially like the crema de cilantro soup. Her favorite fish dishes are the filete de pescado papillote and camarones al cilantro; for meat entrees I'd recommend the broiled arrachera or the chamorro de cerdo en salsa de adobo (yes, cerdo—unusual but very good). Habaneros has a nice wine bar and a very good selection of hard to find tequilas. I assumed they were not open for lunch, but after I read your above post, I thought I'd check & emailed them about their hours and they quickly responded. They are open fpr lunch. The bar lunch menu is available from 1–4pm and the dinner menu is served in the courtyard from 1–10:30pm. Most locals and regular visitors to Maz (e.g. me) originally knew the restaurant as Topolo. It changed owners almost two years ago and the new owners originally kept the Topolo name, but for "legal reasons" changed the name to Habaneros about eight months ago. Habits are hard to break and most people continued referring to the restaurant as Topolo. Now, even the owners are resigned and refer to their restaurant/wine bar as Habaneros/Topolo. If you ate there you would be in an excellent position to wander all over El Historico Centro, see museos, enjoy the architecture of the area, or just sit and relax on the Plazuela.

One other possibility: The very best place to eat excellent grilled Mexican beef, IMHO, is El Bambú. The restaurant serves several different traditional cuts of beef and prepares them authentically. (They also have a few other entrees on the menu.) Again, my favorite is arrachera (broiled, extremely tender and flavorable skirt steak). El Bambú is out toward the Zona Dorada near the Gran Plaza shopping center. If you took a pulmonía there you would have a beautiful drive all along the malecón and get an idea of why Mazatlàn and its spacious beaches are so popular. El Bambú is a functional restaurant and its interior and decor is neither romantic nor particularly attractive. Almost all of the clientele are Mexican locals, though a few tourists find their way there, as we have and do. It serves great steaks prepared simply and traditionally.

One other choice would be to head to the center of town (the commercial center where the cathedral, central mercado, main post office, and shopping areas, etc. are. (This is only 5-6 blocks from Plazuela Machado.) In this area you can sample "street food" (very popular and tasty—the food carts and stands are everywhere) or snack/eat at one of the many cenadurías (simple, plain, small, inexpensive lunch places where local workers and shoppers eat). The food in these places is "authentic," in that it's what working class Mazatlecos eat day in and day out.

Well, I'm not out of suggestions, but I'm out of gas. If you have any more questions, observations, etc. it might be better if you email me—it seems that this thread is just mostly the two of us.

Derald Glidden
[e-mail]

[glbtrtr]

What a wonderful reply - and what wonderful alternatives to having merely a tourist experience in Mazatlan. Lovely, gracious and unique dining would not be the typical tourist exposure to this quickie stop. Thank you for taking the time to paint such an intriguing picture for us.