Hola!
Wow! Only part of the day is finished, but we are both squashed flat like banana peels! In fact, we may have actually eaten banana peels today; very hard to be sure! So … to begin at the beginning. Up about 6:30 am and up for breakfast about 7-ish. We needed to meet Diana, our guide for this adventure at 9 am at the Mercado de San Juan. It was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, but R was concerned, so we took it slowly and actually got there about 20 minutes early. Lovely cool morning though, and the mercado was just opening up. Diana arrived a little after 9, and we could tell right off that she was very passionate about Mexican cooking and especially, fresh produce.
After a short introduction, into the mercado we plunged. Well … Wow! Apparently this market is able to legally obtain just about anything in the world that can or has ever been eaten, and is the only one of its kind in the entire country of Mexico. This includes, to my definite distress, not only all kinds of bugs and insects, but exotic animals as well – lion – zebra – antelope – crocodile – really? Truly not necessary for any reason at any time (sorry, this is probably as political as I will ever get in a blog!).
As Robert will tell you, he does like his morning coffee, so that’s where we started. The gentleman whose booth we visited is apparently nationally renowned for his coffee beans, and recently came in the top ten of all coffee sellers in Mexico – something like 280+ contestants. He has lots of photos of famous chefs the world over drinking his coffee, as well as having appeared on TV, documentaries, etc. Very, very nice man; made me the best hot chocolate I have ever had! [And – I must add – great coffee! – R]
Expert coffee (and chocolate!) maker!
From there we headed to veggies – and we have never seen so many types of unknown veggies or types of veggies we actually had heard of in different shapes or colors. We probably spent a good hour just looking and tasting and hearing the history of plants and herbs. Turns out that while Diana has had professional training as a chef, she went back to school and studied anthropology. She knows the derivation of many of the native fruits and vegetables, and can talk about what Mexico gave to the world like peppers, tomatoes and squash, but also what came back to Mexico in the form of different types of tomatoes and squash. We learned so much – how to find the best and spiciest peppers to what to look for in a good tequila and mezcal! (Information I certainly never thought I’d make use of, but as the saying goes: you never know!)
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| Amazing vegetable lady! |
From veggies, we moved on to fruits. Again, I have never seen anything like the variety here. Turns out that we Americans know lemons – but “our” lemons are rarely used at all in Mexican cooking. Instead, they have “limes” like ours, known as “limons” and also something else that very closely resembles an American lime, but is orange inside and tastes like our oranges! It’s incredible! We tasted relatives of pomegranates that were really excellent but very, very strange appearing – they definitely look like they would be slimy, but they’re not at all! And my very favorite, something that sounds like “mamay” – it grows in Mexico between April and early September, and is so sweet – it is used, especially in Oaxaca, to make their favorite drink, as well as ice cream! I’m so bad at describing flavors, but it was sweet and delicious, and I’d love to have it again!
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| Walnut meats used for national dish |
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| Not sure what it's called, but it was good! |
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| Excellent fruit man! |
From fruits, we headed to an interesting shop that carried all kinds of dried peppers as well as nuts in many forms. The shopkeeper also makes his own spicing for mole – we got to taste six different kinds of mole spices. Apparently there are at least 40 ingredients in every mole, but when I asked the difference between mole and sauce, it was what I conjectured – it’s basically the same except for the amount of different ingredients in the moles. So! There you have it! It was also here that we were able to taste some different (and delicious) Mexico cheeses, as well as chocolate … AND have a shot of mezcal with Mexican oranges! According to Diana, mezcal (and tequila) are only chugged to either 1) get drunk, or 2) mend a broken heart! So, rather than chug, one sips one’s glass, and between sips, takes bites of the orange lemon. It’s a really terrific combination – and this coming from someone who prefers anything alcoholic to come in the form of wine! Who knew?! We got through the food tasting without sampling any of the more exotic items that one finds in traditional Mexican cuisine – at least, we think we did. [A list of “exotic” items will be provided upon request. – R]
From here, it was already past noon – oh! Forgot the truly last stop! The tortilla booth! Here we got to see the masa as it is combined with water – those are the only things that go into a corn tortilla! Then it is fed into a machine that takes the masa, flattens it, cuts the tortillas, and sends them into an oven – and out they pop on the other end! The leftover masa from each cut out is then recycled back into the bin to use again, until all the masa is made into tortillas! We got to try them truly “hot off the press” and they were really delicious! According to Diana, every single neighborhood has at least one shop that makes the tortillas for everyone in the area. She also said that most Mexicans have at least 3 tortillas for breakfast, 3 for lunch and 3 or more for dinner! That’s a lot of tortillas, when you think about it!
So … now, ever further past noon, and we still had to walk to her apartment and cook. R was very concerned about the walking (we are at over 7,000 feet elevation, remember!) but we took it slowly, and there was certainly plenty to see! We walked from the market through China Town, and out the gate on Juarez Avenue, (where our hotel is.) Then, past Bellas Artes and the tile house that I passed yesterday, and down to the Zocalo.
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| Diana and I in front of Bellas Artes |
Diana gave us a wonderful overview of some of the buildings and churches lining the street. We hadn’t realized that originally, many of the churches built by the Spanish were built of very heavy stone and materials. That meant that while the city settled, the churches settled even further. There was one church on the street that actually had a bridge from the street to the church, as it had settled what looked like something like 9 or 10 feet! It’s amazing!
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| Walking towards Zocalo on sloping street! |
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| Local department store ceiling |
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| I really love Tiffany glass! |
To say the crowds were building is truly an understatement! There were people everywhere! The Police had started blocking streets, and the entire area around the Zocalo, which made things a bit more difficult, and already, at around 2 pm people were lining up to hear the concert at 8 pm and the President’s ringing of the bell and announcement of liberty at 11 pm. More concert afterwards of course! (Our Fiesta tonight may really end up going until 3 am…).
And, we still had several more blocks to walk to get to Diana’s – and cook! I think we all just got carried away at the market, because there was no way we could get to her apartment, cook anything, eat it and get back to our hotel at a reasonable hour. I was also concerned that there was NO way Uber could reach us at all, and it was only getting more crowded. So, at this point, I pulled the pin and said that we really needed to get back sooner rather than later! Diana, truly gracious, did see the point of the discussion, and very, very kindly got us onto a city bus (very crowded) and walked us right back to our hotel! Wow! A truly incredible day, but I don’t have anything to report on the cooking front – sorry! And, as Robert says, we don’t even have that many pictures! However, I will post the ones that we have, and only say that we are now resting in our room, before we have to make ourselves presentable and head to our Mexican Fiesta at 7 pm! So – probably no more today from me … but hopefully lots to report tomorrow! Turns out, the parade takes place tomorrow morning and actually goes along the street right in front of our hotel! Don’t know if this is the military parade or what, but we’ll see what happens!
Lots of love and Adios!
m
xxx
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