Located less than an hour from Mexico City, and given its charm, Tepoztlán attracts a sophisticated and affluent crowd of weekenders. Catering to them, tourist-class restaurants have sprung up, and I ran into some that are noteworthy.

My favorite is Los Colorines. The name means bright colors. It also refers to a type of flowering tree.

Vivid colors are what greet you when you step through the violet and pink doors.

All those colors somehow combine into a unified theme. The effect is warm and cozy.

The cuisine is traditional Mexican with a twist. Some dishes are served from a counter full of cazuelas, the flared pottery bowls pictured below.

(I like the purple and white papel picado, left over from Holy Week.)

I ordered capeadas—vegetables mixed in a fritter batter and deep fried. OK, OK. Heart patients shouldn't eat them. But these were too unusual to pass up.

Several varieties were on offer: cauliflower, sweet corn. I wouldn't have paid the saturated fat price for these. Then I spotted capeada de flor de colorín, and I was lost. The coral tree, currently in bloom in central Mexico, has brilliant blossoms, and I've occasionally seen them for sale as a foodstuff. This would be my chance to try some.

I ordered one other kind: capeada de huazontle. Huazantle is a green that tastes vaguely like broccoli. Only the tiny flower buds are eaten. The leaves are tough and the stems are woody.

I'm told that huazontle fritters are sometimes prepared by separating the buds from the stems and mixing them into the batter. But real men eat them with stems still attached. You pick up your capeada by the stem end and scrape the flower buds off with your lower teeth, like you would eat an artichoke.

The capeadas de huazontle were tasty. The capeadas de colorines didn't seem to have any flavor other than that of deep-fried batter.

For something completely different, La Diferencia offers a variety of Greek, Italian, North African and other dishes, all excellent. They specialize in fondue. A mother-daughter team owns and operates the restaurant; delightful people. Some friends ate their dinners at La Diferenca exclusively. The only downside is that it tends to be closed except on weekends, because midweek traffic is thin.

Finally, we have La Vista, an upscale place offering Mexican and American dishes, all well prepared. Most of the seating is outside on a terrace with a wonderful backdrop of mountains; hence, La Vista. I included a view of the terrace in my April 23 post.

Misspellings and typographical errors often creep into the English-language versions of Mexican restaurant menus. La Vista's contains an item, "Nachos with beans, Oaxaca cheese and crack."

Hmmm. Surely not what it sounds like. I never did work out what the third ingredient was.

Los Colorines and La Diferencia are inexpensive. For finer dining at higher prices, La Vista is a good bet, but not on weekends unless you have reservations. All three are excellent.