The Real Deal: Authentic Mexican food at the best price

By: Blanca Lopez Olmedo

Professor Boyd,

I am sorry to disappoint you but the best Mexican food is not Señor Sol here in Athens, Georgia. Now, if you are looking for that authentic Mexican flavor, I know of a perfect place that will take you back to streets of Mexico. This place is in the middle of nowhere. I could tell from the location that it wasn’t going to be your typical mainstream American Mexican restaurant. I knew I was up for authenticity, something almost every Mexican restaurant lacks around here. This hidden treasure is La Michoacana Antoijtos Mexicanos, a local ice cream parlor and Mexican snack bar that serves fresh and the most authentic Mexican food in town.

I always thought the best Mexican food was found in the outskirts of the town. I guess Dr. Boyd didn’t get the memo on how to search for a good Mexican restaurant. As a picky Mexican eater that I am, I can tell you that this place was worth every penny I spent on the Uber and every vegetarian bone I ever had in my body. It served the most flavorful food with the original spices that reminded me of my childhood in Mexico. It’s located off Old Jefferson Road, a 15-minute drive from downtown Athens, but it’s the perfect place to kill multiple birds with one stone.

You know what annoys my boyfriend about me? I am the worst person when it comes to making a decision! That’s exactly why I love La Michocana Antojitos Mexicanos. It has everything that I crave for and dream at night. Whether I want something sweet, salty, sour, or spicy, ther’s always something in the menu for me. Life has never been so easy as well as complicated with their extensive menu.

It serves over 100 natural popsicle flavors, 40 ice cream flavors, 5 tamal flavors, 5 agua frescas (natural flavored water) flavors, and over 20 prepared antojitos (snacks/cravings).

With a menu of more than 100 natural popsicle flavors, 40 ice cream flavors, 5 tamal flavors, 5 agua frescas (natural flavored water) flavors, and over 20 prepared antojitos (snacks/cravings), your options are almost infinite. The menu will blow your mind! Never in my life have I seen so many options but making a decision is the easy. You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu.

Their tamales are the bomb with more than 5 different flavors to choose from perfectly paired with a champurado (a drink made with corn flour mix, chocolate, and brown sugar) or with a classic Mexican Coca Cola bottle. Let me stop, my mouth is watering!

Dr. Boyd suggested to try as many items in the menu as possible and recommended taking someone with you to try out more food and not look suspicious ordering 20 items. I wanted to try a little bit of everything, but I was not going to let anybody pick on my food. Yes, the people there probably thought “dang this girl can eat”! I decided to go by myself and order as many items that my bank account allowed. Ready for this? I ordered four tamales, a red sauce chicken, a green sauce chicken ,a jalapenos and cheese, and a sugar coconut tamal with raisins. I also ordered an agua fresca lime flavored water drink with chia seeds and a champurrado. But my ultimate favorite snack is an esquite, corn on the cob with mayonnaise, cheese, and chili powder.

I know it sounds disgusting! But, it’s a must try! Finally, I ordered a scoop of homemade mango ice-cream and a crepe, maybe not the most Mexican thing ever.

Where do I start?! The tamales were cooked to perfection with the right amount of salt and corn dough mix. The chicken and sauce in them were combined so perfectly with a perfect amount of spice in them. The champurrado was just liked the one my grandmother used to make me with right amount of brown sugar and chocolate served in clay mugs. The equite, my guilty pleasure, was by far my favorite. Many people eat ice cream when they’re sad, but I prefer to eat me a good warm esquite. With every bite I took out of the corn, flakes of cheese would fall off. It only took 2 minutes for me to devout it, and this is coming from the girl that never finishes eating her food.

However, I was not a big fan of the ice cream as much nor the crepe, maybe because I had eaten 20 pounds of food already . I wish the ice cream could have had a creamier texture to eat with more chunks of mango. The crepe was well done better than other places whose specialty is this. What I didn’t like was the decision of adding crepes to their menu. Did I tell you guys how much I spent though? I only spent 10 dollars on all of this! Now that was the best part! I love this place because it included more than just “Mexican” tacos, Coronas, and churros that you find in almost every white stream Mexican restaurant. It included the real deal.

I knew finding an authentic Mexican restaurant was going to be hard in Athens. I mean we're are definitely not like in L.A. My hopes and expectations were low since I had tried other Mexican restaurants in the area. None of these places convinced me. I wanted to rate Mexican food not because that's all I love to eat but it's because it's the hardest taste to mimic. All of our Mexican food is done from scratch, from the dough of the tamales to the agua frescas or chapurrados. Fatima Mendoza, owner of this parlor, can feel more than accomplished with what she and her husband have done for the community. She said she wanted a place where her people could feel identified and welcomed, a place that reminded them of their childhood in their Latin American countries. La Michoacana Antojitos Mexicanos surpassed by far any other restaurant in Athens with food that had flavor and soul in every bite.