Mercado Extraordinaire in Oaxaca

We got up and went to the meeting point with our guide to visit the open market and to taste some of the delicacies of Oaxacan cuisine.
Our guide was an english teacher and a lawyer but is now doing tours.  The tourist industry is gearing up.  I have to say that Mexico is no longer inexpensive to tour.  I found the prices much higher than before the pandemic.  Our first stop was the juice stand in this market that goes on for 10 blocks. It is very easy to get lost here so we stayed close to the guide.  The juices were delicious, orange, pinapple, rosemary and guava.
Here we see the chicken stand.  The chicken look very yellow and that is because they give the live chickens marigold petals along with the feed to make them more appealing.  The yellow is from the flower petals.
Here is our guide in front of the grasshopper stand.  We tasted some of the insects that were prepared with chili and garlic and some oil.  Not delicious but tasty.  They also eat ants that are very large and taste a little nutty.  Ant eggs are also celebrated and the one worm that lives in an agave plant, we did not taste those as they are very expensive.  OK by me.
More vegetables, some kind of chocoya?
Still life in the Mexican market
These are sacks of chilis, beans and cumin.
This is a special round chili to make mole, a chocolate based sauce that is very nice with meat.
Dona Vales is a celebrity in the market.  Bourdain did a show with her and she has been on many cooking programs.  She makes very good sauces and has been at the same place for 35 years.  She must be immune to the heat.  The white powder on the side of the steel plate that is the cooking disk is a type of limestone powder and it helps so the tortillas or eggs do not stick to the cooking surface.  They say that the Oaxacans eat rocks.  We also tasted a blood sausage.  I like the tortillas stuffed with meat and vegetables best with guacamole and sauces, yum!

This beautiful black pottery is also sold at the market.  People come from far to exhibit their wares here.


 

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