Food, food in Mexico!

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

By Maangchi

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! : )