Sunday Breakfast in Mexico City

Avenida Paseo de la Reforma is closed to cars on Sunday mornings.

Mexico City is one of those cities that shuts down the main roads in the downtown core to motorized transportation each Sunday (except for buses in the special bus lines). Which explains why the street was bizarrely empty when I headed out for breakfast and a coffee.

Normally when I travel internationally, I pay for the "breakfast included" option. And nearly every time, the quality of the breakfasts range from very good to spectacular. I've stayed at Barceló hotels in other cities and the breakfasts lean heavily toward the "spectacular" end of the spectrum. But I forget to opt for the "breakfast included" option when making my reservation and, tragically, since I am in one of the world's great food cities, my appetite has been weak. So I've been getting by with coffee and a couple of pastries each morning. 

 

Did I say "getting by"? I found the most awesome bakery just a block or so down from my hotel. El Globo. It's probably a chain. But if it's a chain, why have they not opened a branch in my town? On the plate are two different pastries both of which feature the most delicious pastry cream ever. You know that song from the 90s where the Bare Naked Ladies sing "Vanilla is the finest of the flavors"? They must just have eaten a pastry from El Globo. I'm going to use two words that very very rarely -- if ever -- are paired together, but es verdad: This is the most intensely vanilla flavor I have ever tasted. Yes. "Intense" and "vanilla" in the same sentence. And they belong there together.

The coffee is very good, too, although I went upscale today and ordered a cappuccino. Because. I'm on vacation. Do I need a reason to order a cappuccino for breakfast?

Of course, there's not enough coffee and vanilla pastry cream to get me to run the cleared-off streets of Mexico City on a Sunday morning.

I can't even be shamed into bicycling.

Back to the hotel to get ready for my busy day of tourisming.