Market

Markets(mercados)

TIANGUIS

I was initially thinking of writing more elaborately about the various foods which I mentioned in my previous blog. However just postponing the idea I am writing few things about the markets in Mexico city . There are ofcourse 24 hour Supermarket, Sears, Walmart, Comercial Mexicana,Chedraui and other big places from where one can buy the stock for the month. But there are weekly markets in many localities which are called Tianguis. These are like Tuesday or wednesday markets in India where one can find local vegetables,fruits, fishes, meat, daily use articles, clothes, flowers, games, books, beauty items, soaps and so on. These were called tianquiztli by the Aztecs in Nahuatl language which means marketplace. these are mainly mobile shops which travels to different localities in different days of the week. The vendors are basically part of a loosely organized, informal commercial association. Each market has its own leader who is responsible for assigning each vendor his position on the street and who secures the necessary permission from the local government for setting up the market in the public thoroughfare. Often, this "permission" consists only of an understanding between parties, and rarely involves any formal paperwork.The owners of each stand pay their leader a daily quota for the privilege of doing business with the group. The amount varies according to the location of the stall within the tianguis itself, and the kind of neighborhood where it is situated. Even the prices of the items vary depending on the localities.

The vendors start coming with their tents and steel rods from 8:00a.m in the morning and while they have their breakfast with tortillas, sopes,tamales(vapoured corn wheat with sauce)which are sold by food vendors who had their stalls sometimes even before day breaks. In an hour or so the place starts reverberating with latest music from the cd shops, with people chatting and hawkers shouting to sell their items. Children and babies love to buy their favourite video games, or barbie doll accessories or dinosaur or Ninja toys at cheap prices. Its easy to find bonsai, or chillie plant, or buckets of roses and chrysenthemums. There are shops which sells shoes and sandals, shops selling junk jwelleries and sometimes one can find them making it there too, shops of lipsticks,nail polishes, eye brow curlers,hair rollers,artifitial nails, colourful hair bands all are available.Vegetables are fresh and one can find some vegetables which are otherwise not available in big markets too. Potatoes, tomatoes, brocooli, peas, cauliflower,beet,turnip,raddish , carrots,cabbage, brinjal, ginger, garlic, spinach, chillies of different types like habanero, jalapeno etc, lemon, beans, calabasa(its like pumpkin), squash, capsicum, mushrooms all are available(desponible aqui,in Spanish:) ) There are shops for different mole(mole is a mixture of some 20 ore ingredients of spices and sometimes chocolates) mixtures,spices like cumin, pepper,and lentils like frijoles. Different parts of the chicken are also found like claw,feet,breast,liver separately. Fish vendor comes with varities of fishes like red snapper, sharks, mojarra, sierra, ponfrets etc and there are elaborate beef and pork shops too. Pozole , tacos, tamales,hot salsas, carnitas, tocinos, chicharron(pork skins fried) shops are the most visited places where people can be seen to have lunch or late big breakfasts. Varities of cheese can also be found. Cheese of the cow , goat milk are tasty too. I heard its amazing how all these items were craftly collected from different places and sold in these tianguis as some items one can find at cheap rates too. some people sell self made foods and woollen clothes , table clothes, decoration items . The tianguis is a good example of pre columbian market culture with practicality of modern times. The tianguis in my colony is only few blocks away and are on Wednesdays. So its the day when I visit the market to buy vegetables, wools for the scarf I knit, fish, chicken, makeup items or honey, rice etc.

SAN JUAN

The next market which I will be writing about now is Mercado de San Juan. It is located near the central place called Zocalo. Spaniards started this concept of Zocalo in every cities where there is main church, governor or president palaces . People congregate here , sell items, celebrate big events and just enjoy. San Juan is a big market in the heart of the Mexico City. It used to exist during Spanish time too just like the Tlatelolco market. It attracts the French food conosiurs, Chinese and oriental food conesiurs equally. Here one can find meat of the chicken, beef, rabbit, lambs, baby piglets(lechon) ,iguana, armadillo, duck, ostrich,buffalo,crocodile and even lion(which is not recomendable to eat) !!. Pheasant meat, tortola (like pigeon, its from chile) ,quails. They import meat from Honduras and also wild boars(jabali) from Texas. The fish section has varities of fishes, crab from Alaska, sharks on ice, frog legs, skunk, and sell viper meat, caracoles, octopus, prawns small and big ones.

Cheese from Argentina, Hungary, Spain, France, Chile and also Oaxaca which is used in quesadillas for its elastic texture. Cheese with garlic, some herbs, chipotle, cashewnuts are sold.

Also different types of seeds(mexicans use these to make moles or use it in soups). Seeds like that of Amapola poppy(used in cakes and has medicinal value), sesame seed, mustard seeds,crushed parseley seeds,roasted pumpkin seeds(used to give green colour to sausage), tomillo or thymus which is used to flavour meat, soups and stews,oregano .

Apart from these among spices azafran, cinamom, romero,vanila veins,aniseed, alcapara, cloves, cumin, pepper black, red , white , alholva(fenugreek), moles, bay leave, laurel leaves, cilantro,mint leaves, albahaca or basil, are also available. All sorts of dals or lentils and chick peas and rajma can be found here. Salsas which can be red or green are also sold. Different varities of vineger, italian pastas, olive oils are available too.

Varities of meat products like salchichas(or sausage,, chorizzos, jamon cerrano from Italy or Spain, Chistorras (Spanish sausage which are mainly used as a starter and are cooked with garlic, paprika by frying in olive oil) , proscuitto (ham for italian)are all found here.

Some rare vegetables and fruits like exotic mushrooms, green banana, bitter gourd, asparagus, spring onions, bottle gourd(lauki), european pepino or cucumber , french beans,tuberculos of the Caribbean like Yuca(or cassava), Chinchayote is root of the chayote or squash which are eaten as potato, malanga(starchy root looks like yam or sweet potato used for making flours,chips, in soups), name, blackberries, mamey(tropical fruit)used for drinks and sweets, mangoes, Guanabana, Naranj(h)as(like oranges) can be seen.

However this place is very near to Barrio Chino which means chinese locality and Chinese resturants so one can find tofu shops(home made), or soya sauce shops and varities of mushrooms. Here people comes and asks directly in Chinese, never bothering to translate:).Things like Lo Pa is a white radish, Shishuan is Chinese pepper and Tofu and cheese made from soya., vineger rice, sesame oil and sesame seeds, chícharo chino,algae for the soup, noodles all at one place.

Outside the market ant eggs or escamoles and grasshopers or Chapulines and Maguye worms can also be sampled and tasted. They are usually fried with salsas and tastes interesting. Tasty tacos and tamales and atoles(corn drink which is sweet and energetic too)are served hot in some shops as breakfast. So after a hectic shopping one can just sample and eat food also. The photos above shows ant eggs and fried grasshoppers.

There are some other important market places like La Merced, whitchcraft market of Sonora, Ciudadela for artesenia and handmade products , loacted in Balderas, and La Central de abasto is the central big market area from where all big items get distributed through out the city. Its incredibly huge.

Chao,

Will write more on tortilla based foods next time then.

My first blog

Never written a blog. So this is my first blog. Have been thinking about writing a blog for quite sometime though. Today is November 18th.Let me share some thoughts about the Mexican food and culture which we have been experiencing and enjoying for the past 3 years . Me and my husband shifted our base here in Mexico city on 2006. So its been quite a long journey through the food culture here. Here everybody likes to eat corn bread called Tortill(y)as. Tortillas are like fast food, street food, and staple part of the food. Tortillas are made from maize. Hand made ones are more delicious than the factory generated ones. tortillas are known to have dated back to 3000 B.C. The traditional name of tortilla was Tlaxcalli(Nahuatl language).The Spanish conquistor Hernan Cortes named it tortilla.After the SPanish influence wheat tortillas are also made here. Tortilla making made by curing maize in lime water in a process known as nixtamalization which causes the skin of the corn kernels to peel off . This is a recent phenomenon ,3500years old .Next is grinding which is done in metate made of stone slabs and are pre cooked and then made into dough, then they are pressed into flat patties which are put on comal (terracotta earthenware) or nowadays metal sheets are also used . In villages the young girls still take some time in perfecting this art!! In Mexico machine tortillas which are much finer are common however in Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize hand made tortillas are favourite. They are eaten hot since when cold it becomes rubbery. Tortillas are usually 6 inches across however some Tezoatlán Mixtec cultures can make it 10 to 11 inches accross. Withe advent of machines everything has become mechanised. The fun, frolick and learning is slowly getting lost in many parts but no doubt machines are producing tortillas in plenty and it is saving a lot of time . From Tortillas several foods are made like Enchiladas,Tacos, Tostadas, Flautas,Quesadillas,Chilaquiles, Tortilla soups. Wheat tortillas can be used to make burritos and quesadillas. Corn tortillas can also be fried to be eaten with salsas and guacamoles or avocado dips.

It will be interesting to discuss about each of these foods, their ingredients, recipes, eating times and all. I will write my next blog about all these foods.