During my adventure to the lighting store with my landlord's husband & their electrician, we passed by a taco stand which the husband pointed out as among the best he's been to. The electrician piped in immediately to say it was his favorite. Since it was exactly half-way between Mercado San Juan (for artisanal wares, not the food market) & a major food market who's name I'm still not clear on, I figured it was a great destination for a stroll. As it lies roughly 3 miles from my apartment I figured it would take a while to walk so I left my place around 10:30am with a good guess where I had to go but no definite path in mind. I managed to find my way with only a little self-doubt and no missteps so I was rather pleased with my navigational skills (sometimes it's the little things that make me happy).
My aim was a street called Lopez in the Centro Historico area. Just "Lopez" with no "Street", "Avenue" or "Boulevard" attached. The major food market is on the corner of Lopez & Arcos de Belen while Mercado San Juan is on Ayuntamiento one short block off Lopez, and there are only 4 blocks or so between the two. Right in the middle was my first target: Taquería Gonzalez. I got there around 11:45am & despite the mountain of meat (seen in the photo above) & the large sign listing the hours as open every day at 11am they weren't serving tacos. There were 2 fellows waiting when I walked up. I asked if I could have a taco & they said they weren't open. Over the next 20 - 30 minutes, many more people stepped up & were told the same, never accompanied by any explanation. Once there was 15 - 20 of us circling like vultures & drooling from the spectacular sight & aroma of the bubbling cauldron of meat I started to worry that a riot would break out if they didn't start making tacos soon. Suddenly a red Italian-made sporty car comes tearing down the street & slams on the brakes right in front of the taquería. The driver jumps out & runs for the trunk accompanied by 2 of the guys from inside the taquería. Out of the trunk comes buckets of guacamole, non-spicy pico de gallo (the spicy version was already on the counter), limes and stacks of tortillas. The taco-making brigade finally sprung to action & the crowd surged towards the counter.
Let me take a second to explain this kind of taco as they are quite different than the tacos al pastor I previously raved about. Taquería Gonzalez serves what's usually referred to as tacos de guiso in the DF and tacos de cazuela in the rest of the country. This means any taco made from ingredients cooked or stewed in a sauce, usually a red & meat-based sauce even if the main ingredient isn't meat. The typical set up looks like a giant pot with an upside-down wok in the center. The meat gets cooked & stored around the sides where the deep channel holds the sauce while the dome in the middle stays dry & is the perfect place to warm tortillas before turning them into tacos. There can be many different types & cuts of meat and vegetables depending on the place and when I was there I had 3 choices of meat: chorizo (the famous spicy Mexican ground sausage), thinly sliced & diced steak, and a pork product that I think is what locals call cabeza- diced choice bits from a pig's head including skin, fat, cheeks, ears & if you're lucky a little snout. Every taco came with a choice of sliced nopal cactus or diced potatoes which were also cooked in the same sauce & pot. The end result looks much more like the tacos we're used to in the US then the small & odd tacos al pastor, especially when adorned with pico de gallo & guacamole. I went with one chorizo and one pork/cabeza and if you'll pardon my language they were holy shit good (special thanks to the fine fellow next to me who steered me towards the spicy pico de gallo). I could have stood there for hours stuffing myself but there was too much more to see & eat, so I paid roughly $2 and tore myself away.
Next stop was Mercado San Juan. It's a long, narrow 4-story building laid out so that when you walk in you slowly circle around & up until you've walked through the entire place. There are hundreds of stalls & shops on your stroll carrying the full range of artisanal goods from around the country interspersed with cheesy gifts, tailors & craftsmen making everything from musical instruments to furniture. I took my time & browsed my way through, then doubled back to buy a belt. As is typical in these kinds of places, haggling is encouraged & the poor woman was no match for my combination of NYC savvy & Semitic heritage. I got her down to slightly more than half of her asking price, in part because I was lucky enough to be wearing an old belt I purchased in Spain some years ago which I convinced her cost much less than her price (Spain is looked up to in pretty much every Spanish-speaking nation in the Western Hemisphere so this was the turning point in our negotiation). I didn't have time to bask in my glory as there was too much more on my agenda.
After one tiny taco al pastor (you may remember El Huequito is right across the street from Mercado San Juan), I started back down Lopez towards the food market. The entire stretch of Lopez between Arcos de Belen & Ayuntamiento is lined with stalls, stores, restaurants & carts all dedicated to food, both raw & prepared, so I had lots to look at & make notes of as I walked. Then I walked in the door of the market & I swear I heard a chorus of angels singing. It was laid out in the typical Mexican food market style with a section of restaurant stands on one side with the bulk of the market made up of stalls selling every ingredient imaginable. Produce stands that are nearly inconceivable to your average New Yorker. Butchers hacking into every animal you can think of. Herb stalls to rival any greenhouse. Dried chile stands with nearly infinite options and always a variety of pastes & concentrates to start any sauce with a helpful shortcut. Dairy shops, grain stands, charcuterie stalls, bread vendors & a breathtaking dessert case are among the long- & admittedly incomplete- list I browsed. If you stare too long at any one item there's a good chance the proprietor will force you to taste it. For example, the chicharrones stand in the photo above that seemed to have skinned a pig & thrown the whole hide into a deep fryer. The lovely old woman wouldn't take no for an answer when she saw me admiring her wares and once I had a taste I had to buy a little piece for later. After that I needed to buy an avocado, a cup of pomegranate seeds and a little bag of fiery vinegar slaw called escabeche all because my curious looks brought forth a sample. This made me hungry.
I headed for the prepared food section & did my usual check to see who was busiest, then sat down (the final photo above). As I was right underneath a sign proclaiming "Rico Pozolé" I ordered a bowl. Pozolé is a spicy red soup with hominy kernels which usually also contains random pork chunks, fresh herbs and radishes. You are served raw onions, sliced limes for squeezing, dried oregano & chile powder on the side for dressing it up & I can't resist a hearty dose of each in my bowl. It was indeed "rico" & was just what I needed to fuel my long walk home.
Before I finish I want to offer an explanation to those of you who think I eat nothing but meat, cheese & corn in huge amounts here. Unlike my habit in NYC of eating 2 - 3 full meals a day with little snacking, I tend to eat small snacks several times a day here with rarely a large meal as part of my day. One of those snacks is almost always "jugo verde" or green juice. The stands that sell it (along with many other juice options) are a two person operation. When I order, one person starts juicing grapefruits while the other cuts up celery, pineapple, nopal cactus & xoconostle (the red version of the tropical fruit called "tuna" in Spanish which is not related to the aquatic animal which they confusingly call "atun"). Everything comes together in a blender & the end result is a delicious & energizing concoction that supplies all kinds of vitamins & health benefits. I learned to love this drink in Oaxaca where they usually substitute parsley for the xoconostle & it appears to me as if a large portion of the population here gets their fruits & veggies from this kind of drink rather than having salads or side dishes as we do up north. ¡Besos!
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