CREATIVE SPIRIT

On a weekend jaunt to Jalisco’s state capital, ADAM ERACE encounters vibrant food and design scenes propelled by an ambitious new guard putting modern spins on regional staples.

- ADAM ERACE

THERE'S A FOREST IN Guadalajara where the mud tastes like white chocolate and matcha. Crumbled pistachios climb over the mire like moss, making a bed for fuzzy sprouts of spearmint and peppermint and ripe blueberries as fat and glossy as sapphires. Red-capped meringue mushrooms shade the miniature woodland like beach umbrellas. They taste like pine.

El Bosque and the other bewitching desserts from Fernanda Covarrubias and Jesús Escalera, the pastry chefs at La Postrería, are among the many reasons to go to Guadalajara. The city is Mexico’s second-largest in population and in business traffic, thanks to the vital tech industry that has turned it into the nation’s answer to Silicon Valley. It’s also the capital of Jalisco, the state famous for mariachi and tequila and the coastal resorts of Puerto Vallarta.

Despite all those distinctions, Guadalajara hasn’t gotten its star turn with visitors yet. My wife and I wound up there, checking in to the chic Casa Habita in the leafy Lafayette neighbourhood, because of a cancelled flight.

“Can you believe you would have missed this?” asked my guide, Germán Salas, the next day as we walked through the neighbouring city of Tlaquepaque, 15 minutes away from downtown Guadalajara. Sweeping his arm, he gestured to the breezy rooftop terrace of 1910 Cocina de México, then to the other colourful restaurants and shops along cobblestoned Calle Independencia, a pedestrian-only arts haven.