The Pino Suárez open market was one of the first blow-my-mind experiences I had when I first moved to Mexico. It is a spacious, 19th-century market, filled with reasonably-priced food, crafts and souvenirs. After a while, it was a place I always brought my guests, knowing they would either love it or hate it.
Love it ~ for its “real Mexico” experience. It is an entire block of open air stalls selling everything you can imagine. Food is sold in one corner. Clothing, crafts, and souvenirs are in the middle-section. Statues and rosaries, tarot cards and even “spells” are sold in one far-off corner of this huge building teeming with people.
Hate it ~ because it smells of fish and freshly butchered meat. People push and shove their way down the aisles. Vendors accost you at every turn, insisting on bargaining with you rather than letting you move on. The noise can be deafening.
I had mixed feelings about the market. In the beginning, I was lost in the maze of aisles and the crush of people going every direction. After a while, I realized the market’s charm. I discovered my favorite souvenir venders and was eager to introduce them to my guests. Often it was easier to walk to the market for a few items, rather than ride the bus forty-five minutes to shop at Walmart. But I never got used to some of the exotic meat and poultry items, or the smell of blood on the floor.
Fresh fish, chicken feet, lots of intestines, pig’s skins and hog’s heads are all available in the market’s meat section. These were all things I’d never seen before. Some of them are actually scary to look at.
One day a friend asked me if I would walk to the market with her. She wanted to make pozole. According to her cooking teacher, she needed to buy a bag of hominy and a whole pig’s head. We located the items with no problem. The problem was we had no idea how much a whole pig’s head weighed. A lot! Especially if you have to carry it home, along with a five pound bag of hominy.
The pig’s head weighed at least fifteen pounds. It took two of us to get it home and we stopped many times along the way. Because our Spanish was so elementary, we could only imagine what the Mexican people said to each other as they saw two old white women, walking a mile home from the market, taking turns cradling the head wrapped in plastic as if it were a baby. We were gringas locas (crazy women) for sure.
My friend’s cook showed us how to make pozole in a huge soup kettle. I helped cut up vegetables and we shared this wonderful soup with our friends. It was probably the best pozole I’ve ever eaten, thanks to the pig’s head we carried home in our arms.
What a fun story. I wish I’d visited that market on my trips to Maz. Some day…
I wish I had visited you in Mexico when you were there. It is one of my regrets!
I remember el mercado fondly. That’s where Don bought the wallet he still uses, which may or may not have been made from a bull’s scrotum, depending on my understanding of the vendor’s Spanish and/or the vendor’s sense of humor.
I agree. I wish I had visited you in Mexico. These stories make me realize it even more. I have a vision of this pozole with the pig’s head floating in it that I will never be able to lose. Especially when I eat pozole, which I love.
Ah ! pozole. In Deming N.M. our Peppers Market had a whole bunker full of pigs’ heads, and a half isle of lard, but our favorite part was the fresh tortillas from and in store tortilla factory. Living in an RV in the desert we had to eat polole at local restaurants. There were many. Each with a distinctive flavor. One even had a three pound burrito , which Tannis always comments on me eating. It was not as heavy as a pigs head and I carried it inside.