How 'Eat Mexico' Author Lesley Téllez Started Writing About Mexico City's Street Food

This article is part of Palabras, the Latin Post Latino Author Series.

"Eat Mexico" a colorful and attractive cookbook authored by journalist, homecook and entrepreneur Lesley Téllez, tells the story of the antojitos, the street foods of Mexico City.

Mexico City's fare beckons tourists and locals to the countless stalls and taquerias that line the streets. The flavorful and robust tamales, chapulines (roasted grasshoppers), quesadillas, elote (roasted corn on the cob) and tacos al pastor prove that there's nothing more chilango ("belonging to Mexico City") than tasty food.

Téllez, a third-generation Mexican-American blogger, grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where she developed an early connection to food, which coincided with an early love of writing. Nonetheless, the two passions wouldn't correspond until long after the start of her journalism career, but before the launch of her culinary tourism company, Eat Mexico.

In the early 2000s, Téllez and her now-husband moved to Mexico City. In an attempt to justify her move to her family, the author began blogging about her life in Mexico City. But, quickly, that blog turned into a catalog of cultural adventures, local culinary foodways, and cooking experiences because those were the things she fell in love with as soon as she moved to Mexico.

"I started to write about what I was seeing on the streets, and all of the really interesting things I'd seen prepared on the roadside," Téllez said to Latin Post. "I started writing about ingredients, what I was seeing in the markets, and places that had particularly interesting tacos. And when I'd go home, I would Google these things and I wouldn't see any information about it... anywhere... in English or in Spanish. I really wanted to write about all of these things, but there wasn't much on there on the internet."

Today, that's changed a bit. Numerous websites, books and bloggers have elected the task of writing about Mexico City's street food and market atmosphere. But, Téllez, who has publically declared her love for her Mexican food via her blog, her culinary education at Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana, her flourishing tourism company, and her upcoming book, proves that she is a foremost expert on Mexico City's delicacies, even those found off of the beaten path. Like her tours, her book will offer a combination of history, food preparation tips and vendor information.

"[While doing the culinary tours], I realized there wasn't a book out there in English that listed Mexican street food, so I thought I could fill that niche," said Téllez. "I came up with a proposal that focused on street food and markets, and listed recipes from places we'd visited on our tours. And in 2012, I found an agent, and in 2013, I sold the book."

Téllez shared that she wanted readers to smell and hear Mexico City and imagine being in Mexico City when thumbing through the book. She wants Mexico City to jump off of the pages. When creating the book, she looked at old cookbooks that are no longer in print, compiled different recipes on her own, and wrote in recipes, tweaking them so they tasted authentic.

"That's my whole intention with the cook book... I really want to create a culinary love letter to the city, just sharing recipes and my love for Mexican food. Mexico City captivated me and continues to captivate me," Téllez said. "I tried to write the book in a way that captured what the food in that specific area of Mexico City is really like... what it tastes like, where you can find it, and who sells it. And I also really wanted home cooks to feel empowered to cook this food."

Now a New York City resident, Téllez understands all too well the longing one might have for traditional Mexico City street foods, such as cactus-topped tlacoyo, tortas with pápalo and slow-cooked chile-rubbed rabbit. She no longer has access to the bounty of delicious foods once made freely available to her, so it suddenly became imperative to find out how to create those dishes at home.

"I wanted to write the recipes in a clear enough way to where people feel, 'okay, if I invest the time, this recipe is going to come out right.' My two main goals: to write a clear, easy recipe to follow and capture the sense of what this recipe's importance is in Mexico City. Also, what does it taste like, and why do I love it?" said Téllez. "And I wanted to report all of this with glorious, full-color, on location photography. As readers are looking through the book, readers should get a feeling of what this food is really like; the markets and the fondas. I also want them to feel like they're traveling somewhere, like they're leaving the book."

The young journalist clarified that the recipes aren't Tex-Mex recipes or California Mexican recipes; instead they are intricate, flavorful recipes from the vibrant epicurean capital, Mexico City. With her words and photos, she wrote a book that captures the integrity of the original dishes.

"Mexico is always going to be important to me and its always going to be in my heart, as cheesy as that sounds. I would love to keep exploring Mexican food. I feel like there is so much to learn. At the same time, I'm also intrigued by other types of food. I love Indian food; I love Middle Eastern food and flavors," Téllez said. "I live in a predominately Italian and Chinese neighborhood in New York, and I would love to learn more about those flavors. I'm open to a lot of different ideas. But, at this point, I have my business, and the tours are going strong. And I'd like to continue to focus on Mexico for the time being. "

"Eat Mexico: Recipes and Stories from Mexico City's Streets, Markets and Fondas" is due out July 7, 2015, and it will be made available on Amazon. Also, aside from writing, Téllez, the Queens-dwelling writer, is also a new mom to her two-month old son, Tomás.