A Fresh Look at Mexico's Tianguis (Street Markets)

Fresh from the fields, these gorgeous pimientos morrón rojo y amarillo (red and yellow sweet peppers) sell for about 60 pesos the kilo ($2.25 USD the pound) at the tianguis where Mexico Cooks! shops.

Nearly two years ago, in August 2007, Mexico Cooks! featured every sort of produce, dairy product, and meat sold at a local tianguis (street market) near Guadalajara, Jalisco.  For the entire month of August 2008, you read about seasonal availability of fruits and vegetables at the dozens of regularly scheduled tianguis (it's the same word in singular and plural) in Morelia, Michoacán.  Mexico Cooks! would rather shop at a hot, crowded, and sometimes smelly tianguis than at an air conditioned supermarket, rather shop for supremely fresh foods at a tianguis than give a second glance to anything frozen, boxed, or canned that's offered for sale elsewhere.

A signmaker with a sense of humor stuck this tag on his fresh Roma tomatoes: "Like you saw it on TV".  These were offered at 14 pesos the kilo (about 50 cents US the pound).

The tianguis, wherever in Mexico it's held, is a basic part of the culture of modern Mexico.   Its name comes from the Nauhatl word tianquiztli, market.  Although Nahuatl markets are centuries old, the present-day form of the tianguis is fairly recent, originating during the 1970-76 Mexican presidency of Luis Echeverría Alvarez.  The author of the tianguis project in Mexico was José Iturriaga, Echeverría's former finance minister.

Cooked in a sweet syrup, whole calabaza de castilla (squash, left), camote (sweet potato, right), and higos (figs, rear) are available at the tianguis by the kilo or portion of a kilo.  They're to be eaten for breakfast or supper.

Although Iturriaga was himself a wealthy, educated, and cultured man, he worried about the ability of Mexico's poor to feed their families.  He was especially concerned about the availability of nutritious fresh foods sold at reasonable prices.  The tianguis, otherwise known as a mercado sobre ruedas (market on wheels), was his idea.  The government took charge of giving Mexico's working-class housewives and other food shoppers stupendous quality at the lowest possible prices.

Beautiful cebollitas de cambray (knob onions), ready for serving with carne asada (grilled meat, usually accompanied by grilled whole onions like these.

Still operated by local government, today's tianguis only sometimes reaches Iturriaga's ideal.  Often the produce can be second-rate, the meats and seafood far less than fresh, and the market's hygeine questionable--while prices are often as high or higher than the días de plaza (sale days) in upscale supermarkets.

Higos--figs, at the peak of maturity and ripeness--enjoy a relatively long season here in Mexico.  We recently paid 100 pesos for two kilos of beautifully ripe figs and prepared half a dozen jars of you-don't-want-to-know-how-good fig conserve.  Later this winter, spread on a toasted and buttered bolillo (small loaf of fresh-baked bread) from our tianguis, served over ice cream, or licked off the finger, the conserve will be an intense memory of summer.

Mexico Cooks! is a regular customer at one of the better tianguis in Morelia.  Our tianguis, set up early Wednesday mornings, is quite near our house.  Our normal purchases include tortillas, bread, seafood, excellent pork ranging from maciza (fresh pork leg) to tocino (bacon), all of our fruits and vegetables, cheeses and cream, grains, and flowers for the house.  We don't eat much beef and prefer to buy raw chicken at a supermarket.

Tiny plátanos dominico (finger bananas, about 2.5 inches long) are just one of the banana varieties we usually see at the tianguis.

Prices at the Wednesday tianguis in our neighborhood, while not substantially lower than those at the supermarket, are still not higher than we care to pay.  We usually budget 400 pesos (about $30 USD) to buy what we need at the tianguis for a week's meals, including pork and sometimes shrimp.  We budget another 400 pesos for purchases at the supermarket. 

On a recent Wednesday--when the refrigerator was bare of produce, as we had been out of the country for more than a week--these were our purchases:

6 large fresh white onions
1 huge cantaloupe
4 big mangoes
6 red-ripe tomatoes
1/2 lb mushrooms
1 big avocado
2 large bananas
1 large papaya
1.5 lb fresh green beans
8 hot-out-of-the-oven bolillos
Total cost: 150 pesos--the equivalent of about $11.00 USD.

Stands offering prepared foods are always popular at any tianguis.  This woman at the Tianguis del Sol in Guadalajara is preparing hand made huaraches (a long, thick oval of corn masa (dough), similar to a tortilla, served with various toppings).

Times and needs change.  Urban Mexico views the tianguis as both a terrible bother (who would want one on their street, with its attendant noise and mess) and a joy (but where else can we get produce this fresh!).  Mexico Cooks! knows people who will not shop at a tianguis, and we know people who will not shop anywhere else.  Come with us some Wednesday and see what you think.

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Comments

[Sonia F. Bañuelos]

One of the things I miss most about living in Baja, the tianguis! It used to set up a block away from my house on Mondays, how I always relished three day weekends and the fish tacos I knew were meant for me! Thanks for the reminder...

[John]

Blogs are so interactive where we get lots of informative on any topics nice job keep it up !!

[Sue on Isla]

We don't have the same type of tianguis here on Isla Mujeres on a big scale, but we do have two small mercados where we are able to buy most of what we need to prepare our meals. The quality of the fruit and vegetables varies, but the offerings are more (and sometimes different) than what we can buy at the supermarket here on the island (we rarely shop at the super). You do have to look past the hygiene sometimes, and give things a good wash at home, but we've never been sick from eating anything we've bought at the mercado.

I enjoyed your post, and would love to see a tianguis such as you describe. Maybe one day we'll get off the island! (sound like Gilligan here). Thanks for sharing!

[Sharon]

Ah yes, we miss the tianguis! That's one reason we love the farmer's markets more and more here in Richmond--at least the food is fresh and local. But not cheap! I'll have to take your list to the regular supermarket with me and add up what the equivalent (not so fresh or gorgeous) would cost.

[Don Cuevas]

We shop for verduras y frutas almost exclusively at the Pátzcuaro mercado. However, the new Bodega Aurrerá supermercado does have some better pepinos than anything we can get in the mercado. Yesterday, my wife was in Bodega Aurrerá, and there was no cilantro! Imagine.