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FijiFlavors · Mérida
Thin, crispy batter cooked on a round griddle and rolled like a tube, filled with queso de bola, a cheese of the Edam type. A street sweet from Mérida, created by a family of ice-cream makers in the city and sold at night from carts in the plazas.
Traditional sweet from Mérida, Yucatán
Also known as: marquesitas
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Marquesita — Mérida, Mexico
The marquesita is a thin batter, similar to a crepe, but cooked until crisp on a round iron griddle with a lid. While still hot it receives the filling and is rolled into a tube. The traditional filling is queso de bola, a Dutch cheese of the Edam type, grated; the contrast of sweet batter and salty cheese is the sweet’s hallmark.
The marquesita originated in Mérida between the 1930s and 1940s in a family of ice-cream makers. According to the Diario de Yucatán, it was created by Vicente Mena Heredia, known as Polito, son of Leopoldo Mena Bonilla, who had an ice-cream business since 1910. Tired of making cones, he began rolling the batter and testing fillings until he settled on queso de bola. Other sources credit the father; the similarity of the nicknames adds to the confusion.
The name also has its story: it is said that a marquis’s daughter loved the sweet so much that the vendor named it in her honor. There is no official version, and the Diario de Yucatán treats the account as oral legend.
Today marquesita carts spread through the plazas of downtown Mérida, especially at dusk. To the traditional fillings have been added cajeta, condensed milk, jams and chocolate creams, but queso de bola remains the classic order.
Mérida , Yucatán
Street sweet created in Mérida by a family of ice-cream makers, sold from carts in the downtown plazas.
Batter of wheat flour, egg, sugar and milk; queso de bola (Edam type) grated. Common extra fillings: cajeta (goat’s dulce de leche), condensed milk, jam, chocolate creams and fruits.
Handheld, hot and crispy, immediately after being rolled, bought from street carts. The classic order is just queso de bola; many people combine cheese with a sweet filling.
Year-round, especially at night, when the carts set up in the plazas of downtown Mérida.
Your questions
A Dutch cheese of the Edam type, shaped like a ball, long consumed in the Yucatán Peninsula. Grated, it is the traditional filling of the marquesita.
A family of ice-cream makers from Mérida, in the 1930s and 1940s. The Diario de Yucatán attributes the creation to Vicente Mena Heredia, Polito; other sources mention his father, Leopoldo Mena.
It is said that a marquis’s daughter adored the sweet and the vendor named it in her honor. There is no official version; it is regarded as a legend.
Flavors of Mexico
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White fish taco coated in a light batter and fried until golden, served on a corn tortilla with cabbage, tomato-and-onion salsa, mayonnaise or cream, and lime. It originated around 1960 at the stalls of the Mercado Negro, the fish market at the port of Ensenada.
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Freshwater fish with a long snout, grilled whole over coals and eaten with tortilla, lime, salt and chile amashito. It lives in the rivers and lagoons of Tabasco and is one of the state’s most representative dishes, with roots in pre-Hispanic cuisine of the southeast.
Distilled spirit from blue agave named after the city of Tequila, in Jalisco, surrounded by agave fields. It has a designation of origin since 1974, and the agave landscape and the region’s old industrial facilities are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Salad of romaine lettuce leaves with a dressing of egg, lemon, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese, served with croutons. It was created in Tijuana by the Italian cook Caesar Cardini on July 4, 1924, according to Tijuanan historian José Fernando Escobedo de la Torre.
Red snapper cooked in a tomato sauce with olives, capers, garlic, onion, herbs and pickled chiles güeros or jalapeños. A coastal Veracruz dish, from the Gulf of Mexico, considered one of the country's best-known fish recipes.
Pork marinated in achiote and bitter orange, wrapped in banana leaf and slowly cooked in an earth oven, the pib. A Sunday family dish from Yucatán that combines the pig brought by the Spaniards with a Mayan cooking technique.
