Food

What to eat

This is highland Hidalgo cooking: hearty, warming, meat-and-maize food that suits the cool air. Nobody comes to Huasca for a fine-dining scene, and that is fine, the good eating here is homestyle.

• Trout (trucha). The regional specialty, farmed in the forest ponds nearby and served grilled, fried, or al mojo de ajo. If you eat one thing here, make it this. Expect roughly 150 to 250 pesos a plate at a sit-down spot (approximate).
• Barbacoa. Pit-cooked lamb, a Hidalgo staple, best at weekend markets and morning stalls. Order it in tacos or by weight with consommé on the side.
• Pastes. The Cornish-style filled pastries that Hidalgo’s mining history left behind. Better and more famous in nearby Real del Monte, but you will find them around Huasca too. A few tens of pesos each (approximate), great to walk with.
• Escamoles and gusanos de maguey in season. For the adventurous, this region does the classic Hidalgo insect dishes when they are around.

Where to eat

• Fondas off the plaza. The best value is the small family kitchens a street back from the square, where a fixed midday comida runs cheap and filling.
• Trout restaurants by the ponds. Bosque de las Truchas and similar spots let you eat the fish more or less where it was raised. Touristy but genuinely good, and a fine long lunch.
• The market. For barbacoa, tamales and cheap breakfast, the market stalls beat any sit-down place on price and honesty.

Honest note: plaza-facing restaurants charge the visitor rate. Walk one block and eat better for less.