Eating Huitlacoche in Mexico: A Traveler’s First Taste of Corn Smut

The family in search of the perfect taco in Mérida

Let Them Order the Smut

One of the best travel food tips I can give you is this: ask locals what they eat and where they eat it. Doesn’t matter if you’re in Malaysia, Morocco, or Micronesia—just ask. And on our first morning in Mexico, that’s exactly what we did.

We wandered over to a small neighborhood market near Parque de Chuburná in Mérida. Like most markets, there was a section packed with food stalls, each cranking out breakfast for hungry locals. We walked up to one of the stalls and asked the woman behind the counter, “What’s your favorite thing to eat here?” (Seriously—learn how to say that phrase wherever you go.) She smiled and served up cochinita pibil tortas. It was our first ever cochinita, that glorious, slow-roasted Yucatecan pork. It was messy. It was rich. It was everything a first meal in Mexico should be.

Fueled up, we set off on a four-hour drive from Mérida to Cancún. I’d read some horror stories about driving in Mexico, but the Yucatán is supposed to be the easiest part of the country to navigate—and it was. Just beware the massive speed humps that authorities lovingly camouflage in leafy shadows. Hitting one at full speed will definitely knock the joy out of your rental car. Oh, and bring pesos. The toll from Mérida to Cancún ran us about 500 pesos (ouch).

We checked into our place in Cancún, took a brief rest (because sitting in a car is exhausting), and then walked over to Quesadillas Tierra del Sol, a casual joint I’d read about. As we stood in line, my wife and I tried to decipher the menu. A local man standing nearby overheard us and offered help—in English.

He said everything was good, but we definitely had to get the chicharrón sopes and something else. I didn’t quite catch the second thing.

“Sorry, could you say that again?”

He said it again: “Lacoche.” Then corrected himself. “Huitlacoche.”

I nodded like I understood. I did not. So I Googled it.

Translation: corn smut.

Yup. Smut. A fungus. That grows on corn.

It sounded like something you’d scrape off and throw away.

Except… it turns out it’s delicious.

Let me introduce you to huitlacoche, one of Mexico’s most surprising culinary curveballs. It’s a fungus, yes—but a delicacy. Earthy, rich, a little smoky. Like mushrooms and roasted corn had a secret lovechild. It’s seems to me like something you’d expect to see served with reverence on a chef’s tasting menu—but they were offering it at the hole-in-the-wall quesadilla joint on a tourism-focused street in Cancún. And that’s amazing.

But standing there in line, we didn’t know all that yet. All we knew was that we’d asked for a local recommendation and it felt rude not to follow it.

So, we ordered the smut.

And bam—it was good. Really good.

Whoever first looked at a moldy ear of corn and thought, “I wonder what that tastes like,” deserves their own culinary holiday.

So if you’re in Mexico and someone offers you huitlacoche, do the right thing. Don’t Google it. Just eat it.

Because travel teaches us that the things we may think are strange, are really just new to us.