El Mercado

This is my second meal in Mexico City (D.F.) and it made me really excited for what's to come. I am staying with my buddy Emilio in a neighborhood called Tlalpan towards the southern end of the city. In the center of Tlalpan is a mercado (market) where one can go to buy groceries, prepared foods, and duplicates of keys (all of which we bought) among many other things. The plan was initially to buy some groceries here and then go home and cook. But this idea was short lived.

You see, when I walked into this market,which I would compare to a really clean flea market in southern Texas, I saw and smelled all the "goodness" that I'd hoped to find on my trip to central Mexico. There was no way I was going to pass up a chance at having food from this magical world. I told Emilio we had to stop at a stand and order some tacos or something. He was game. We looked at the menu and Emilio decided, very casually, on "una quesadilla de huitlacoche (corn fungus quesadilla)." Huitlacoche! This is the food I'd written about, heard about, dreamed about, and it was right here in front of me. Emilio had order this delicacy as if I had been ordering a freaking cheeseburger at Jimmy's in Chicago. I quickly, but politely asked the lady to double up that order up.

When I got the quesadilla, it was all I had hoped for. The quesadilla was a brown, (it's yellow, but not like the yellow I'm used to) freshly made corn tortilla with white cheese and huitlacoche. Huitlacoche is the fungus that grows on corn kernels after they've been exposed to too much moisture from the rain. It was considered an Aztec delicacy when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century and was later looked on as peasant food after the Aztec empire was defeated. It was not until the late 19th and early 20th century that the Mexican elite began to embrace this corn fungus as an acceptable ingredient to be served in nice restaurants. However, the introduction of huitlacoche into society had to be done carefully. Some of the early sightings of the ingredient in nice restaurants was when it was presented as the filling for crepes.

Needless to say, this quesadilla was absolutely delicious. The huitlacoche had the consistency of cooked spinach, but with a more pungent flavor. The corn kernels added a pleasant texture all of which made the fresh tortilla and melted cheese a nice extra.

I also ordered a gordita de tinga that consisted of pork meat, onions, and chipotle on thick floury dough. It was delicious and it was made even better with the green salsa. I thought it was sweet of the lady to give me very little of the salsa, because I guess she thought I wouldn't be able to handle it because I was from Texas. It was all very delicious, and only a small taste of what I will be exploring this next month.

Other thoughts:

- We were originally going to go to the grocery store, but Emilio thought this would be more up my alley. I'm interested to see what the grocery stores look like, and how they compare to the mercados.

- They have huitlacoche in the U.S. but from what I have seen, it is mostly in nicer Mexican restaurants. Maybe there are some areas of Texas that sell it at stands, but none that I've seen.

- Here is a picture of this stand that I intend to go back to and try some types of food I haven’t seen like fried grasshoppers.