I’ve always found that food is one of the best ways to get to know a new culture.  So, in order as part of an immersion into the culture of Mexico (my first trip to Mexico!) Eli and I headed to the Mexico City’s San Juan Mercado – one of the largest food markets in the city.

It didn’t disappoint.

A warning for the faint of heart / vegetarians among you: the relationship between meat and the animals it comes from in Mexico is… more direct. I’d consider this a good thing, but others (aka – pansies) might see this as a bit macabre.

Enjoy.

First, a tour of the market:

 

After wandering around the market for a bit, we were good and hungry. We sat down at one of many informal restaurants  - basically a counter surrounding a series of long simmering pots. We enjoyed a surprising delicate veggie soup and chicken mole – served with freshly pressed tortillas.  This particular spot was a family run operation, where the patriarch played host, and his son cooked.

 

Last was one of our highlights from the day – a cheese stall welcomed us, poured us a small cups of wine, and started passing tasting after tasting of queso.

When I tried to pay, they would only let me pay by taking one more picture.

It was a great start to the trip.  Much, much more of Mexico coming soon.

Tags: Butcher, Mercado, Mexico, Mexico City

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 26th, 2009 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Flickr, Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.