Go where the locals go. That’s always been Don Day’s golden rule for finding the best restaurants. And the busiest food stand/restaurant by far at San Miguel de Allende’s Tuesday Market is Ceci.

Ceci serves only one thing. Gorditas. So Ceci is obviously the go-to place for gorditas. It’s certainly the place where the 20-somethings go. And it’s certainly the place where the can’t-even-remember-20-something Don Day goes when he wants a gordita.

So let’s start with what a gordita is. Literally, in Spanish, gordita means little fat thing and though Don Day has heard this word used affectionately to describe certain women, Don Day would never risk using it himself. Don Day instead uses the word gordita to refer to one of his favorite Mexican foods and the simplest way to describe a gordita is a fat little corn tortilla which is slit open and a filling placed inside.

Gorditas remind Don Day of hockey pucks though they’re much more enjoyable to get hit in the mouth with. They’re maybe an inch or two wider than a hockey puck and not quite as chubby. At Ceci and anywhere else that serves gorditas they are made fresh. At Ceci, but not everywhere else that serves gorditas, they are made by hand, not with a press, then fried on a huge griddle in vegetable oil before they are split open and stuffed.

At any one time there will be 50 or more gorditas on the griddle at Ceci and Don Day likes to stand and watch with a silly, fascinated look on his face as the ladies roll and shape them into balls with their fingers, squeeze them a little flatter between their hands, give them a little slap and set them on the grill to sizzle. The ladies orchestrate the gorditas production line like the plate spinners used to on The Ed Sullivan Show. Aaaahhh, the simple pleasures of life.

I once asked one of Ceci‘s employees, of which there are about fifteen and which is probably twice as many as any other market restaurant, how many gorditas do you sell in a day? It was hard to get a definitive answer but the rough guess was around 2000. I would guess more but that’s still about 1998 more than Don Day eats in a day. And even though you’re only eating two, there are some tough decisions.

The first decision you have to make when you order your gorditas (and unlike some other stands at the market, there are waiters who come to your table) is whether you want regular or blue corn. If you are someone who likes white sliced Wonder bread, you will order regular. If you are like Don Day and are fond of crusty brown or rye bread, you will order blue. Blue corn has greater nutritional values than yellow corn but Don Day doesn’t really give a tinker’s damn about that. What Don Day cares about are the taste values and with blue corn gorditas you get a richer, sweeter, nuttier taste. The best gorditas should have a little crunch when you bite into them and Don Day also thinks that the blue corn gorditas have a little more crunch (but can’t explain why).

The second decision you must make in choosing your gordita(s) is an extremely difficult one. You must decide how you want them stuffed and there is a menu to help you decide. Please be advised, however, that finding a menu is also often quite difficult. The menu has 14 items on it. Don Day knows this because Don Day took a photograph of the menu and is looking at it as he types this. Luckily you only have to look at the first two items on the list. If you are an average eater, you order the second item, barbacoa de res en chile pasilla. If you are a larger than average eater like Don Day, you order the second one and the first one, asadura (carne de puerco).

The barbacoa is a shredded beef that Don Day would guess comes from the short rib area. It is very juicy and melts in the mouth. The chile sauce that it comes in is quite mild so do not be afraid.

The asadura (which Don Day does not know the equivalent English word for) is also shredded and I’d guess the meat comes from the shoulder. There is little other taste to the filling, just that of the pork and it’s reminiscent of carnitas.

If you go to Ceci as often as Don Day and would therefore like to experiment and try other gorditas that are on the menu, Don Day would suggest two from near the bottom of the list, bisteck which I’d guess is skirt or flank steak and rajas con queso which is poblano chilis with cheese and, again, don’t be afraid, this filling is not too spicy hot.

There are also some fillings that Don Day does not recommend. The salchicha is, unfortunately, wieners and not very good ones; the chicharron is pork rind that’s too spongy; and pork and chicken with papas are a little too much like eating potato sandwiches.

I should warn you, by the way, that gorditas are incredibly messy. They are what Don Day refers to as a five napkin dish. And when you’re as messy as Don Day and eating something as messy as a gordita, you will inevitably come home with the brightest orange under your fingernails and at least one stain on your jeans.

Oh, and one more thing. When Don Day takes someone to Ceci for lunch, he always insists on picking up la cuenta. It may have a tiny bit to do with a Ceci gordita costing 13 pesos (or about $1).

So how to find Don Day’s gorditas place when you go to the market. Well beware that Don Day’s favorite gorditas place seems to have two names. On some signs it’s called GTC which stands for Gorditas Tradicionales Colon. I think that’s because their home base is on Avendia Colon in Queretaro. On most other signs, the menu and the aprons, it’s called Ceci. So that’s what Don Day calls it. And the location? It’s just in from the Southern edge and I’d say it’s almost exactly right smack in the very middle of the market when walking from East to West (or, of course, West to East).