As I gathered photos for this blog, I was very excited to see all these food and market photos again. These are photos of the food I tasted in Mexico. Which one would you like to try the most? I want the taco, Oaxcan style BBQ, and the blue tlacoyos!
This is some Zapotec women in traditional dress at the Tlacolula Sunday Market in Oaxaca, Mexico. This man is either a turkey seller or he bought this turkey. He’s also wearing an extra hat.
Thinly sliced, pounded, and seasoned Oaxca style beef cut for BBQ.
When you buy your meat, they grill it for you. You can also buy the vegetables there. I was fascinated with this system because I had never seen or heard about this before! -Tlacolula Sunday Market-
You can buy extra side dishes and wrap it all in a tortilla!
I bought cactus salad and salsa for side dishes, and the chili peppers were grilled with the meat I chose.
I am buying mangos and oranges in Xochimilko market. When I bought the fruits, the seller was smiling but I never know when he changed his looking of face! : ) I look happy and he looks distracted by something!
I bought 2 bowls from this vendor.
Chicken enchiladas
Octopus Tostada
Shrimp tostada
I had this Octopus soup at a restaurant at the beach in Puerto Escondido. I couldn’t believe that the soup was generously full of large octopus legs! The octopus was very tender – they must have cooked for a long time, and the broth was very tasty. They served this soup with rice and salad. I put my rice into the soup just as I eat Korean rice and soup.
The lady’s colorful fashion looks cool! Next time I visit the market again, I would like to wear that kind of scarf, skirt, and carry that kind of bag! -Tlacolula market, Oaxaca-
Beautiful pottery (Tlacolula market, Oaxaca)
Mezcal: the 2 yellow bottles on the left don’t have worms and the 2 bottles on the right have a worm at the bottom. The seller said the mezcal made without a worm is much better quality because it’s fermented 10 years. And the latter one is made by fermenting 1 year. The yellow bottles were about $20 US dollars which is very expensive in the local market. I believed what he said and chose 1 bottle and carried it during the rest of my travel and shared it with people I met. And I brought the leftover home and posted it on my blog! A few of my readers mentioned, “oh Maangchi, I see the bottle is almost empty, you must have enjoyed it” : )
Cactus. I made cactus salad later, in Puerto Escondido. Yummy!
“Let me go, let me go! Would you be happy if someone tied up your legs like this, huh?”
Wooden spatulas. I bought one.
Mole paste made with many different ingredients. There are many types of mole that come from different regions. I tasted this delicious mole which is made with ground nuts, chili peppers, and other ingredients. By the way, “mole” (pronounced MOL LE) means “secretly” in Korean. : )
Chicharrones: fried pork rinds. Very crispy.
Delicious raw oysters! -Coyoacan market, Mexico city-
Tacos with beef
These colorful bowls are salsa, guacamole, and spicy sauce and pickles. When you eat your tacos, you can add any of these sauces according to your taste.
This roasted banana and sweet potato street food were so tasty! -Mexico city-
Chapulines (fried and seasoned grasshoppers): crunchy and a little salty.
Steamed tamale wrapped in a corn husk.
Open sesame! yummy!
5 different flavors of pulque! Original milky-looking pulque without flavor is in the center. It has a thick and foamy consistency. They mix pulque with fruit juice and sell it.
Pink from Guava, green from celery, red from tomato, orange from tangerine, and the brown from oatmeal. I loved all of them!
Street food: white milky beverage served very hot. I still don’t know what it is but it was very tasty. It’s non-alcoholic and a little sticky. Anybody knows what it is? Is it horchata?
Delicious tlacoyos! I will probably rush to this streetcorner first thing in the morning when I go to Mexico city again. The blue color comes from the dough made of blue corn. When you order this, the seller will ask you: “Which filling do you want?” They have cheese, squash blossoms, mushrooms, beans, and chicken.
Tlacoyo filled with squash blossoms, cactus salad, onion, cheese, and a few more vegetables. Doesn’t it look awesome?
The country of the taco, Mexico gives you the best taco in this takeout restaurant. I went to this taco place 3 times! I was lucky to know where to get this delicious taco! The employees ask you which filling you’d like, and you can choose 2 items from beef, pork, sausage, potato, & cactus. In this photo, I chose potato and cactus. You can add salsa, cooked chili peppers, and lime by yourself. The chili pepper was super spicy. I shouldn’t have looked down on their chili peppers when I tasted them for the first time. In this taco shop, once I put a chunk of chili pepper into my mouth by itself, my mouth was almost on fire! : )
Appetizer cracker with crab meat on top -Mexico City-
Shrimp, salad, and rice served with totillas and lemon.
Indio beer, which is a little dark. They sold this beer at Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico city, where I went to see the mariachi bands play.
They pour the beer into a salt-rimmed cup to serve.
Delicious mango!
Mamay: sweet and soft!
Chico zapote: sweet and flavorful.
Customers are always lined up in this bake shop in Mexico City. Hundreds of sweet desserts are displayed. Very cheap and good quality.
Tequilla served with tomato juice and lime
Mezcal served with salted orange
I found a nice Korean galbi (beef ribs) place in Zona Rosa, Mexico City. All these side dishes look familiar to you? : )
Hi Maangchi!!
I’m Mexican, the -milky drink- is atole, can be vainilla flavor because is ivory color, is a sweet and tasty for the cold days, it’s made whith cornmeal and vainilla, or chocolate or guava, or any flavor, cajeta/caramel is my favorite one!!!
Amo tus videos!!!
Visitanos Pronto! <3
this is recipe for the Atole;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XTxGGs60WM
Oh, that oysters looks sooo good!
Hi, Maangchi. I’m brazilian and I’m going to visit Mexico City in August. And I liked so much your post about food in Mexico. So, I would like to ask you if you still remember where you ate some dishes like tlacoyos, appetizer cracker with crab meat on top, that tostadas, the tacos at that takeout restaurant, that tequilla with tomato juice and all colorful pulques. Did you remember? I would like to taste it. Thank you so much. :)
Maangchi i don’t know when if you have guide touristic for your visit to Mexico but,now you now more about Mexico culture and culinary arts,next time visit to Puebla and taste chiles en nogada it very delicious recipe.and thank you to visit my country.
oh ok, thank you very much for the tip! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiles_en_nogada looks delicious!
Oh I am so hungry! I can’t believe I missed this post earlier. I need to go to Mexico and soon! I agree that the drink looks like atole. The beer you had with salt around the rim might have been a michelada. I love micheladas–if I had beer in the house, I would make one right now.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/drink/views/Michelada-239743
Hi there Maangchi!!!!! I´m your fan!!!! I´m from Mexico and i´m thrill to know you had the chance to visit my home country and the most amazing…you ate “Chapulines”.
By the way, the “Huitlacoche” is usually used as a sauce base for a stew. My mom usually uses chicken or beef. I´m not sure how to make the sauce, but i will look it for you and share it to all!!! We also eat the octopus fried with sliced onion, laurel leaf, thyme and olive oil…really tasty!!! I´m fond of Korea (Cuisine, Culture, History). Sadly i had never tasted Korean Food because there´s not available at my hometown. So i have been “making” my own version…i should keep practicing hahaha!!
About the hot beverage you were talking about we called “Atole” if it´s made with a mixture of corn dough, water, milk and flavored with coconut,rice, nut or peanuts and large list of fruits like strawberry, guava and “Champurrado” if it´s made with chocolate chuncks. We usually drink it during the winter and many festivities like Christmas and our version of Halloween.
I hope to be of helpful to you and the other members.
^^
ah…everything looked sooo delicious!
You can also find those fried grasshoppers and insect in Thailand as well. You are so brave on checking out insects!
mmmm roasted bananas :)!!
I want to eat EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!
Who doesn’t lol…Nice pictures by the way
OMG! Take me with you next time you go! I speak Spanish! I can be your translator, haha… Did you get to try huitlacoche while you were there? I always wonder about that stuff… It looks so weird, but I heard it is really good. I love doing Mexican nights at my house. I make enchiladas, red rice, fresh salsa and other delicious food and then serve it to friends with home made margaritas or even better… palomas! None of that pre-made neon green bottled mix here! Another delicious Mexican drink I love is agua de jimaica. I just made some the other day. It is my favorite!
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Mexican-Ingredients-1032/huitlacoche.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paloma_(cocktail)
http://cocktails.about.com/od/tequilarecipes/r/paloma_tequila.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_tea
Thank you very much for all the useful links! Actually I bought huitlacoche (fungus on corn) without knowing any recipe. I was going to sautee it but it was too bitter even though I soaked it for a few hours. : ) I ended up throwing it away! I wanted to ask anyone in the market what I could make with it, but my Spanish is just survival Spanish. : )
Emily, all the food looks so yummy. After being in Australia and New Zealand for 15+ years, we returned to the USA arriving in Los Angeles-we ate Mexican food every day until we got to New Orleans, then we ate Creole and Cajun on our way to our new home in Florida. Mexican food in Australia and New Zealand was of very poor quality-most of the time, we made our own.
Maangchi,
All the food looks so good. You seemed to really like the cactus. Where I live they sell it in the grocery store, and it grows in my neighborhood. If you are in the south west and you want to buy it, they usually sell it under the name “Nopales”. They even sell it in a jar, like pickles, but I have never tried it.
Nopales, I should remember it. Thanks!
Maangchi, the Octopus Soup looks incredible. They certainly gave you a lot of octopus! Looking at your photos makes me so hungry. Going to make some kimchi pancake now. :D
kimchi pancake sounds good to me! I hope it turned out great.
Great pictures , food look really good too , i really would like to try the octopus soup !!
Maangchi, your pictures are beautiful! I so want to be in Mexico to eat such good food. Thank you for sharing your adventures!
How much weight did you gain eating all that DELICIOUS LOOKING, MOUTH WATERING FOOD? ;) I know I gained 100 pounds just looking at your photos! Ha, ha. Gotta go to the fridge now because you made me hungry!
haha, Actually I lost some weight during my trip because I walked a lot everyday.
Oh my, i wish i was the camera! I would take a bite!
Everything here looks so delicious and colorful! Thanks for sharing your pics. Makes me want to visit Mexico!
thank you for sharing your photos! i love your travel style. everything looks delicious :) especially the tlacoyos!
Bon appetite,!!! I’m in the middle of correcting my assignments and stopped by your blog, now I’m depressed xD of fooddddd ..
*loves, great post, nice photos !!!
OMG so hungry for Mexican food now! The different seafood tacos look delish and the tamale! Oh…. I love love love FRESH tamale
maangchi, i think the white milky and sticky drink you had was champurrado. it’s like horchata, only served hot with some sweet corn masa flour to thicken it and a bit of chocolate. they sell it in queens too from the taco trucks.
Thank you, ravi! : )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champurrado
It was white milky drink. I think it is atole with milk added
Whoa, Maangchi… your pictures just made me so hungry. They also made me really miss Oaxaca!!!
The pic of your mysterious white drink definitely looked like atole- a hot corn drink. (Champurrado is chocolate atole.) Hehe… but it looks like you figured that all out already! My Oaxacan hubby says atole is a total comfort food- I think of it as the Mexican equivalent of juk. Mexican style horchata is made from rice, not corn, and is usually served cold. (There are a lot of regional versions of horchata- for example Salvadorean horchata is made from some kind of melon seed and has some chocolate in it.)
Thank you very much! Yes, I agree with you. It’s Mexican equivalent of juk!
Juk (pronounced “jook”): https://www.maangchi.com/recipes/porridge