A few friends in Oaxaca warned me about how crazy-insane the Central de Abastos was. It’s huge. Don’t expect to see it all, they told me. You’re going to get lost and you have to be okay with it.
I’m a fan of Mercado de la Merced in Mexico City, so my [...]
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My only knowledge of chile piquín prior to Saturday was that it was sold two ways in Mexico City: as a wrinkly, small red chile, or in powder form. (The powder is often used in spicy cocktails here.)
Last Saturday, a stand at Mercado Medellín had little bags of fresh piquín [...]
Continue Reading →My friend Ruth leads culinary tours in Mexico City. Last week, after months of hearing her fabulous stories about the Xochimilco market — where one woman peddles frog-leg tamales, and ladies sell fresh blue-corn tortillas, and green, spicy chile atole sits in a big olla, just waiting to be tasted (this [...]
Continue Reading →Bacalao is the Spanish word for a slab of boneless, skinless dried salt cod. The filets — long, snowy looking things — pop up in all the Mexico City grocery stores and markets during Christmastime.
I had eaten fried bacalao a few times in Spain, but I’d never tried it the Mexican [...]
Continue Reading →If you’ve got a few minutes, check out my guest post over on Ever The Nomad, a travel blog maintained by writer Anja Mutic. I wrote about three of my favorite Mexico City markets and why they’re so great. (Hint: pig uterus tacos, anyone?)
Be sure to leave a comment if [...]
Continue Reading →While at Central de Abastos last week, I spied squares of this jellied, lemon-yellow substance. “Acitrón,” a hand-painted sign read. They were 15 pesos each. (That’s little over $1.)
I remembered reading something about acitrón in the newspaper awhile back, but I couldn’t remember exactly what. So I bought some. Took it [...]
Continue Reading →Nearly every piece of wholesale produce in Mexico City starts out at the Central de Abastos. The gigantic maze of tunnels — can it even be called a market? — is huge. It has 2,000 stands. It shelters more than 30,000 tons of produce each a day. Located south of town, it’s the [...]
Continue Reading →Here she is.
“You remembered me!” she said, when I went back on Tuesday to buy eight chicken thighs.
“Of course!” I said. “This time I’m making korean-style chicken.”
Her eyes widened. “Is that sweet or spicy?”
“Both.”
She smiled. “Ay, que rico….”
We chit-chatted some more, and [...]
Continue Reading →Yesterday Alice and I went to Mercado Juarez, a huge indoor market at the Cuauhtemoc metro stop. We happened upon the chicken sellers first, and as we scanned over everyone, trying to figure out who sold the best birds, I immediately spotted the woman I wanted to buy from.
She stood at a small [...]
Continue Reading →A few weeks ago, I was strolling around Mercado San Juan when I spied some white, donut-shaped peaches at a back stall.
“Can I have a taste of these?” I asked the woman.
She grabbed one and cut off a thick slice. One bite — one juicy, sweet, summery bite — [...]
Continue Reading → Who is Mija?
Mija is Lesley Téllez, a food writer and culinary guide in New York City. I spent four years in Mexico's Distrito Federal, which launched my deep love for Mexican food and culture. In 2010 I co-founded the tourism company Eat Mexico.
