Text and photos by Mary L. Peachin
Vol. 24, No. 1 October/November, 2019
¡Proteínas! Oaxaca’s cuisine is flavorful and unique. High on everyone’s list for munchies are chicatanas and chapulines translating to crispy, salty black ants and crickets. They can be addictive like potato chips. Oaxaca is even better known for its seven varieties of spicy to savory and chocolate flavored mole sauces.
Suzanne Barbezet, owner of Discover Oaxaca led us on a four hour street and market food tour. Pre-selecting her vendors, she buys only from pre-select and tested vendors.
Oaxaca City’s Mercado Sanchez Pascuas is home to Tamales Cande. Corn husks bulging with chicken, beans, and salsa verde are Cande’s speciality. A young boy outside the market is selling Nicuatole. Indigenous to Oaxaca, this corn based gelatinous dessert is frequently filled with chunks of fresh coconuts.
La Cosecha is considered an organic market. Sitting at a plastic checker clothed table, we sipped aqua fresca, a cool passionfruit drink. Our drinks were served with memelitas, blue tortillas with soft tops and crispy bottoms filled with squash, peppers, and a delicious corn smut or fungus called huitlatoche.
Tortas La Hormigo serves the Mexican equivalent of a sandwich made with chorizo and cheese. Hormigo use to be a food cart located in Conzatti Park, a well-manicured place where people picnic, get their shoes shined, or just relax on park benches. Now Hormigo operates out of a small retail restaurant.
Benito Juarez market, Oaxaca City’s primary market, was our next stop. We sat at a crowded counter tasting a bowl of Tejate. The refreshing drink’s primary ingredient is cacao, which foams when stirred, corn, tea of mamey, a flower called rosita de cacao, and agua de chilacayota. This nutritious filling drink is also indigenous to Oaxaca.
20th of November Market (the date of the Mexican Revolution) offered pan or bread de yema and pan de Casuelade Tiacolula baked with chocolate, raisins and cinnamon.
Sitting at a long table at Carne Asadas Juquilita’s beef and chorizo, Suzanne selected a variety of thinly sliced beef, pork, and chorizo. As the meat grilled, we were serenaded by a guitar musician. A small elderly woman passed by selling handmade felt tarantulas on a string. Purchasing one from her, I saw her cross herself. I was her first sale of the day.
Our final stop was Mayordomo La Casa del Chocolate, a chocolate store. Its Cacao or chocolate goes thru two grinders with sugar typically added for moles or hot chocolate.
Certainly satiated, we learned from an expert about Oaxaca food. It’s not for everybody, but foodies will delight in this tour.
