A trip to La Nueva Viga, Mexico City’s main seafood market

A few weeks ago as part an Eat Mexico tour, Jesica and I ventured out to La Nueva Viga, Mexico City’s biggest seafood market.

It’s also known simply as “La Viga,” which is confusing, because there’s another market in Mexico City — a smaller one — that sells seafood and is also called Mercado de La Viga. This Nueva Viga took its place.

I hadn’t been before, although I’d been to the Central de Abastos, which is directly adjacent to La Nueva Viga. The market sits a few streets over from the Central’s main fruit-and-vegetable complex, behind a long row of seafood empanada stands.

While the Central is a maze-like collection of tunnels and hallways, La Nueva Viga consists mostly of two long concrete rows with small booths carved out along the length. Shipments of seafood from all around Mexico and elsewhere are trucked in daily; El Universal says up to 2,000 tons a day. Buyers from restaurants and fondas around Mexico City flock there in the mornings to purchase their catch.

The market is open to the public, so if you want to buy even one piece of fish, you can bring a little cooler and do that. But get there early — a lot of the freshest stuff is gone by mid-day.

The great thing is that even if you’re only buying a half-pound of shrimp, the vendors are still really nice. They’ll explain where the shrimp came from and whether it was previously frozen, and any other different varieties they might carry.

It’s a fascinating, if smelly, place to visit. Slabs of fresh fish lie on ice, along with slippery pieces of octopus. Vendors troll about in white apron coats and rubber boots and yell the usual, “¿Qué le damos?” There is red snapper, bags of whole shrimp with their crispy heads still attached, crabs, frozen scallops, sole, and many other strange-looking ocean creatures that I didn’t know the names of.

In the center of the nearby parking lot, oblivious to the reeking-fish-guts smell, food vendors sell tacos and other snacks.

We visited on a cool, overcast day; I wouldn’t want to be near La Nueva Viga on a hot day. Thankfully, the fish itself, once we got up close, smelled of nothing. The pieces looked slick and wet and plump. I really wished I would’ve brought a little cooler, to take home some crab meat or huachinango. Or pulpo.

I’d highly recommend a visit there, if you’re looking for the best seafood the city has to offer.

Here are some pictures of the place. For more, check out this neat YouTube slide show. If you’ve been to La Nueva Viga and have any information you want to share, please do — couldn’t find much history on the place on the Internet. I’m especially interested in the history of the old La Viga, the seafood market that came before La Nueva.

LA NUEVA VIGA

To get there, take the Metro to the Aculco stop and grab a pesero out front that says “Central de Abastos.” The pesero will drop you off directly in front of the empanada stands. Or you can take a cab, and tell the Central de Abastos tollbooth worker that you’re headed to La Viga. They’ll direct you to the proper location.