36 Hours in Oaxaca, Mexico

Take a cooking class at La Cocina de Humo, a tiny restaurant that opened in 2021 in the historic center. The wood-fueled clay stove, wooden tables and adobe walls recreate the village kitchens of the chef Thalía Barrios’s hometown in the state’s mountainous south. Grill tomatillo and chile costeño on the clay comal, or griddle, and then smash them in a mortar and pestle; you’ll swear there is no other way to make salsa. Plunge your hands into cornmeal for the tamal, and add cumin and cloves to a mole. Book ahead. The 90-minute classes in Spanish — only at 3 p.m. — cost 2,620 Mexican pesos a person, or about $150. An English translator is an extra 300 pesos. A few blocks away, Ms. Barrios’s other restaurant, Levadura de Olla, is one of the city’s new hot spots.

Most nights, the Marimba Orquesta “Hermanos Carreón,” a nine-piece band featuring percussion and brass instruments, sets up outside on the sidewalk terrace of Del Jardín Café Bar on the Zócalo, a plaza lined with arcades and shaded by giant laurel trees that is the heart of the city. The family band plays salsa, cumbia and danzón from 7:30 p.m. until 10 p.m., and dancers gather spontaneously to step to the beat or glide with grace. Even the most rhythm-challenged are welcome to join in — or simply watch with a snack and a drink from the terrace of El Asador Vasco, the restaurant upstairs from Del Jardín. The Zócalo, framed at one end by the 19th-century state government building (during the day, you can visit its courtyards and murals depicting Oaxacan history), is regularly packed with families enjoying ice cream and vendors selling balloons — and sometimes, in this politically volatile state, with protesters.

Start your evening at Origen, a restaurant one block from the Zócalo, by sipping Cómplice, a smoky mezcal produced from tobalá, a rare type of agave (315 pesos). The first-floor dining room, with its high, beamed ceiling and clay-tiled floor, is simply decorated, a contrast to the complex, experimental dishes offered by the chef Rodolfo Castellanos. Plantain dumplings are bathed in a sauce of native heirloom tomatoes, dried shrimp, chilcostle chiles, cream and local cheese. Pork tenderloin is served with hoja santa (an anise-flavored herb), bacon, seasonal mushrooms and a velvety corn-and-chile sauce called chileatole. Dinner for two (with mezcal) is about 2,000 pesos. For a nightcap, head a few blocks north to Sabina Sabe, where the wide mezcal selection, cocktails (all 190 pesos) and the hipster décor of exposed brick walls, patterned floor tiles and metal chairs attract a festive crowd.

Since Boulenc opened a decade ago on a side street a few blocks north of the Zócalo, it has become Oaxaca’s breakfast mecca. The shabby-chic décor may be just a little too fashionable and the crowd just a tad touristy, but the conchas, croissants, cinnamon rolls and other breakfast pastries, baked in-house daily and not too sweet, strike just the right balance. The coffee is excellent, and the breakfast options range from shakshuka with a touch of chile (106 pesos) to French toast served with dulce de leche (130 pesos). Sandwiches made with Boulenc’s signature sourdough, focaccia and ciabatta are available all day (95 to 180 pesos). Get there before the doors open at 8:30 a.m. to beat the line.

Take a taxi about 20 minutes south to the village of San Juan Bautista La Raya to Alfonsina, the restaurant the chef Jorge León opened five years ago on the site of his childhood home after working in Mexico City and New York. For lunch, Mr. León’s mother, Doña Elvia (as her staff respectfully calls her), cooks a five-course menu of small dishes (600 pesos, without drinks) served in a courtyard canopied by a mulberry tree. A bean soup with wild mushrooms is accented by broccolini leaves in citrus juices. Native tomatoes, chile de árbol and epazote (a pungent herb) lift a pork tamal. Two moles — black and red, both based on the local chilhuacle chile — are served over chicken for the main dish. The dinner menu, prepared by Mr. León, is more elaborate and based on fish and vegetables.

Back in Oaxaca city, discover the region’s rich tradition of handicrafts and textiles. Visit shops that feature work by co-operatives or collaborate closely with communities. 1050 Grados is a cooperative of potters from villages in Oaxaca, Puebla and Chiapas states. Its small shop, a few blocks north of Santo Domingo, displays minimalist designs using traditional techniques, including elegant plates (360 pesos; the shop closes at 7 p.m.). A few blocks south, Los Baúles de Juana Cata, piled high with woven tunics called huipiles (1,500 to 55,000 pesos) and shawls (2,000 to 42,000 pesos), is a Oaxaca institution. Nearby, La Casa de las Artesanías de Oaxaca is an emporium with a dizzying mix of handicrafts, textiles, pottery and rugs that is run by several collectives of artisan families. There is something for every price range here. (Both are open until 8 p.m.)

The Chávez family has been serving tacos filled with lechón (chopped suckling pig) from El Lechoncito de Oro, a nighttime stand on the corner of Libres and Murguía, for three generations. Just a couple of blocks east of the historic center, the neighborhood is quiet at night, its stores closed. Tacos are 17 pesos each, sandwiches (tortas) stuffed with lechón are 40 pesos apiece. Enhance the flavor by adding chicharrón (crispy pork rind) and a helping of spicy salsa. A steady stream of customers turns up throughout the night for the classic dish, standing as they eat, bathed in the stand’s neon lights. Open till 3 a.m.

Coronita is a throwback, which is why oaxaqueños like it. In business since 1948 in a commercial district a couple of blocks west of the Zócalo, the restaurant is known for its moles. Its breakfast classics include a red mole over enchiladas filled with tasajo, a dried and salted beef cut, and a black mole over enchiladas with Oaxacan cheese or carnitas, crispy pulled pork (both 189 pesos). If you are hankering to try the ancient delicacy of chapulines (fried grasshoppers), you can order some to go with your eggs. (They mostly taste of salt.) Look around to see original works by Oaxaca’s most famous artists, including Rufino Tamayo (whose museum you will visit next), Toledo and, more recently, Sergio Hernández, on the far wall. As you enter, you will see photos commemorating famous visitors, television appearances by past chefs — and a framed 1985 Mexico travel story from The New York Times, in which Coronita gets a brief mention.

The Museo de Arte Prehispánico de México Rufino Tamayo finally reopened in August under the management of the state government after it closed during the pandemic. Tamayo and his wife, Olga, amassed around 1,000 pre-Hispanic artifacts from across Mexico, choosing them for their beauty rather than their archeological significance, and donated them to the state in 1974. The collection of figures — human and animal, deities and warriors — spans more than 1,500 years and is housed in a handsome 18th-century limestone mansion. The pieces are displayed chronologically across five rooms, each painted in a color of Tamayo’s artist palette: blue, green, pink, violet and orange. Admission, 60 pesos.