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Visitors move through the corridors of the market, accompanied by the chattering atmosphere that the music invites. The band, dressed in leather jackets, black hats and red bandanas around their necks, plays son huapango, a genre from the Huasteca Potosina region. Spurred on by the fiddle and violin chords, the crowd slowly moves from stall to stall, eyes amused by the great gastronomic offer. Located in the heart of central Mexico City, the variety of international food on offer at the San Juan Market is dizzying..
The Spanish offer is one of the most generousblack pudding from Burgos, Catalan sausages, chorizo from Salamanca, extra green olive oil from Jaén; Manchego, Basque and Asturian cheeses, cured and aged. A wonderful array of artisanal sausages that vendors display on trays in honor of countries across the ocean and practically all over the world; the most diverse seaweeds and vegetables from China, the most colorful tubers from the Caribbean.
There are three constants that this market adheres to: variety, quality and originality., which rank it as one of the main tourist attractions of the capital. This historic place of traders welcomes more than two thousand visitors a week, faces of all nationalities collide in the narrow corridors where the shouts of local vendors and foreign languages mingle.
“The people who visit us the most are primarily gringos, but also many Europeans and Asians.“, says Mrs. Amalia while cleaning vegetables. Much of Mexico’s gastronomy is shaped by its landscapes: the banana and mango trees of the tropics, the cornfields on the slopes of the volcanoes, its spectacular deserts where the nopal, the country’s iconic cactus, sprouts. “It is eaten raw or fried, in tacos, in a salad, like lettuce, squeezed and stuffed with cheese, in scrambled eggs and with guajillo,” explains the shopkeeper.
LAMA, ZEBRA, JALAMA, LION, ANTELOPE, BUFFALO OR CROCODILE MEAT FOR SALE IN “BIG HUNTING”.
Chicatana ants are seasoned with this brilliant, reddish dried chili at the stall next to Doña Amalia’s fruit shop. “But we don’t add spiciness because we have a lot of foreigners who can’t stand it,” says Vicky Rosas. He has been dedicated to cooking for over a decade gourmand and his specialties are insects and exotic meat. El Gran Cazador, a family business with more than 40 years of experience, distributes its meat products to some of the city’s top establishments, such as Puyol and Quintonil restaurants.. It also works as a small dining room. Its menu, one of the most original in the entire market, offers cuts of ostrich, antelope, llama, buffalo or zebra. “The favorites are always crocodile and lion, which come from certified farms,” says the chef, sampling a table of six different meats. “Don’t you want to try it?” he asks a group of tourists passing by the stall with a smile. “Its taste is strong, the meat is firm and chewy, because it is very muscular. “Lyutsov is the most different from all the others, it is one of my favorites,” assures the chef. In front of him, two friends taste the crocodile concoction. They say the reptiles taste like fish, “but for the palate to determine the taste, you have to try it,” insists Rosas, stirring a giant Madagascar cockroach in a pan. “They are fed oranges and apples, so they acquire a sweet taste mixed with salt. If they get rid of their prejudice, they will enjoy it a lot.”
In front of his small kitchen, which is open to the public, foreigners gather to view the sauce boats made with locusts, samples of maguey worm salts, the succulent plant from which tequila and many other Mexican liquors are made. “They have to taste our mezcal,” says the chef, pointing to the table of insects in front of the bottles.Grasshoppers seasoned and broken up in a stone mortar, sliced flying beetles, baked parrots, “which are the plague of the avocado tree and taste really good,” says Rosas.
Among all these snacks with roots in pre-Hispanic cultures; visitors can also find escamoles, ant eggs, considered Mexican caviar or fried scorpions dipped in chocolate.. “Toasted tarantulas taste like chicken with a slight shrimp flavor. The little hairs left my tongue asleep,” says a Chilean. Next to him, the Colombian couple is happy for the toasting spiders. “they taste like popcorn.”
Among the countless products for sale, we can find spiced grasshoppers, chopped flying beetles, baked parrots, escamoles, baby ants (Mexican caviar) or fried scorpions dipped in chocolate.
According to the chef at El Gran Cazador, “people are increasingly encouraged to try exotic foods“. However, most of the visitors to this market come there in search of the best fish and seafood. The seafood offered here ensures the fairest prices for the pockets, with rows and rows of displays where fresh oysters, crab claws or chocolate clams appear between the ice cubes, products that come from the farthest shores of the country, such as; as Baja California Sur.
“They serve the best ceviche in this market,” says Guadalupe. He is 78 years old and is a customer. “Today, since it’s Thursday, is Acapulco’s Pozzole Day, I came to try it.” This broth, from the southern tropics, “is made with dried corn and part of a pig’s head and seasoned with lemon juice, salt, hot sauce or ground pikin chilies, carrots, sliced radishes, chopped onions, and minced oregano.” “, – explains Victor, the owner of the restaurant.
He arrived in the city more than a decade ago from Acapulco and opened his business in the market, so far from the sea that he missed his origins. “But here we try to replicate the most traditional cuisine of my coast“, assures the southerner before serving two plates of ceviche to a couple from Japan. They have been in Mexico City for four days and have been offered different markets. This is the room they visit and their favorite, “because of the colors and the variety of people walking through it,” they say. But, above all, to invite a unique gastronomy that mixes between countries and past and present cultures, between the exotic and the everyday, so many borders that disappear in the lively corridors of the San Juan market.
Pictures: Javier Cortez.