Today is Saturday, market day,
and Demetrio is taking us to the nearby town of Tlacolula
near Oaxaca for breakfast and shopping.
Tlacolula boasts one of the largest markets in the area.
It stretches onward block after block, indoors and outdoors,
with vendors selling everything from farm tools
to fresh produce.
People come from as far away as
the mountain villages to participate.
In this place,
one will find many different indigenous people wearing
their traditional costumes and speaking in dialects
far removed from the universal Spanish language.
Huge sections of this cavernous place are devoted
to just one food item,
as is the case here in the bread market.
Every conceivable type of crusty, flaky,
sweet and savory concoction is available to complement a meal,
from sweet breakfast breads to crispy rolls stuffed
with chorizo sausage.
I was ready to dive in right away to consume
some of these tasty bits,
but Demetrio had other ideas.
Let's try the empanadas, which is really great.
What's inside?
The empanadas.
The empanadas what they have, it's yellow mole and tortilla,
and also has kind of like a mint leaf, what we call yerba santa.
It's actually delicious.
I think we should get some like right now, okay?
I'm starting.
It sounds salivating.
Yeah.
So let's go walk this aisle and we're going to...
Demetrio has his favorite places to eat in the market,
and his friend's empanada stall proved to be exceptional.
The owner quickly assembled this traditional street fare for
myself and the crew,
undistracted from her duties even by Demetrio's humor.
Cups filled with fresh squeezed orange juice were ordered up
from a nearby stall to accompany our breakfast.
In Oaxaca, large tortillas are known as blandas,
and the traditional queso, or string cheese,
melts like mozzarella.
Demetrio, who is a regular here,
demanded a quick adjustment on his empanada,
with the addition of some yellow mole,
and made sure that everyone else received the same.
As we gobbled up our breakfast,
we discussed some of the other foods available in the market.
I have a lot of friends here.
I noticed.
The people...
Everybody says hello to you.
We chatted away as we wandered past a group of Indian women
selling tortillas filled with grilled meat and ramps,
a type of green onion.
They love the fat.
Do they?
You know what's the fat for?
They just kind of like put it like a butter
into the tortillas.
Oh yeah?
And then they put the meat plus the chilies and avocado,
and it's a really good taco.
I bet it is good.
Is the fat beef fat or pork?
Yeah, it's beef.
It's beef.
I was excited to try more food,
so Demetrio led us to his other favorite spot,
the barbacoa stall.
So we're very close to the section of the barbacoa.
So here you can tell that they have it
into those big pots and...
Oh right here, this is a really good one.
Oh great.
So this comes straight in from the...
Straight from the pit to here.
So they say if you would like to try, try it.
See?
They have this with this covered with salsa and the one
that it's just white.
So see?
It's vlanca?
Vlanca?
Uh huh.
The carnedo?
It's an .
Oh this is lamb, and the other one is goat.
Muy bien.
[speaking foreign language]
Chocolate?
Chocolate [speaking in foreign language]
This is good.
So good.
That is delicious.
We came from so far away.
We have to try some.
Legend has it that this cooking method was developed by the
Chichimeca people from northern Mexico.
It's a method of slow cooking done underground.
So tender it falls off the bone, barbacoa is scented with smoke,
seasonings, and other flavors.
Look.
This is how this one works.
You take the salsa and you cover it like this.
See look.
It's hard to catch it.
Look.
Yeah.
Oh man.
I don't think I'm going to go back to the States for a while.
As we pass the equipment vendors,
I decided to try my hand at grinding corn on a metate.
These basalt stone tables were designed by the ancient people
to grind the dry ingredients for their food.
The owner was happy to allow a gringo
to make a fool of himself,
so I selected a table and got started.
I struggled with my technique, amusing everyone around me.
Her husband, watching the scene from behind,
was moved to remind me that this is considered women's work in
this country and demonstrated the fact by
forcing me to dress the part.
Sheesh.
I just can't get a break.
Anybody else want to try that?
Finally, Demetrio introduced us to a pulque vendor.
Pulque is an ancient brew made from the sap of
the maguey plant,
which is also used to produce mezcal.
This is, it's called aguamiel, or it's known as a pulque,
but also they make a tepache with it,
but they blend it with brown sugar,
which they known as
[speaking in foreign language]
Tepache.
Tepache, but they put panela in it.
It's a sugar.
It's a brown sugar.
So try this.
So this is directly from the agave.
That's the juice of the agave.
[speaking in foreign language]
It's good.
It's a little tart, but it has a sweetness too.
Yeah.
And this, this is now fermented with the brown sugar.
Oh, okay.
See?
The color is different.
[speaking in foreign language]
And this is the pulque now.
So tepache is nonalcoholic.
No.
And the pulque has alcohol.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Oh.
Either of them, either of them, either...
They're not alcoholic.
I mean, they have so much sugar, natural sugar,
that if you drink a lot of it, then it will make you...
Crazy.
...crazy, because of the sugar.
But it's not alcohol.
Cheers
Salute