@El Meson del Marques Perhaps the best dining experience ever. According to the menu, this huge house dates to the 1600's, was passed from generation to generation, and then became a hotel/restaurant in 1967- All the seating is arranged around this courtyard- candlelit by night and remarkably cool during the extreme afternoon heat. The staff is great, the prices are reasonable, and the other diners, on this day at least, are mostly travelers. The food is outrageously good. The specialty here is Yucatecan cuisine, which is markedly distinct from other Mexican food traditions, though there is some crossover. We ate here twice today, and noticed others who'd done the very same. Between the two of us, we had pollo escabeche (chicken with a huge pepper and pickled onions in a vinegary sauce- the first time in my life I've enjoyed chicken), cochinita pibil (pork rubbed with a red adobo wrapped in leaves and slow-cooked in an underground oven), Longanizas Valladolid (Valladolid style sausage, loaded with spices), sopa de lima (a chicken soup with lime, poc chuc (a sort of barbecue grilled pork), and the ever-present fresh or fried tortillas. Valladolid, Yucatán, México August 3, 2010