If you go to Tlacolula on a day other than Sunday, you'll easily be able to see the exterior of Templo Santa María de la Asunción. Be sure to visit both the inside of the church and its adjacent chapel--the chapel in particular is breathtaking. If you go on a Sunday, Tlacolula, an easy drive of approximately 45 minutes south of the city of Oaxaca, has what is in my opinion the most vibrant, colorful, and fascinating market of anyplace in Mexico. I go every chance I get and it never gets old. You'll still want to visit the church, but there will be crowds around it!
Everything you can think of--and a lot of things you would never thing of!--is available at the Sunday market in Tlacolula. Here, beautiful squash blossoms, ready for use in your kitchen. Did you know that only the male blossoms are harvested? The female blossoms are left to develop squash.
The last Sunday in April, just after the end of the 2º Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, my travel companion, chef Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona, and I rented a car at a rental agency just steps from our hotel in the city. Even though I had booked the rental prior to our trip, the paperwork took much more time than we anticipated. Nevertheless, we made it to the market in Tlacolula before noon.
Not far from the entrance to the market, we looked for this delightful woman from San Marcos Tlapazola, a nearby potters' village. We had spent some time talking with this woman at the Encuentro, where she and some other potters had a booth--you can see that they specialize in beautiful, softly shaped red clay kitchen and tableware. She looks very serious, but her sense of humor doesn't quit. We were often doubled over laughing at something one or the other of us had said. San Marcos Tlapazola offers an annual red clay pottery festival--interested in going? I'll find out the dates for 2019 and we'll set up a tour of that town and other artisan towns.
Hanging links of chorizo oaxaqueño, a deliciously spicy pork sausage. The chorizo here is stuffed into natural pork casings; the links are almost always shaped like little oval or round balls, about 2" in diameter.
We were really hungry and were looking for a stand inside the market where we could eat Oaxaca-style barbacoa. There was just enough bench seating at this booth for the two of us, so we slid in to try some of the house specialties.
The barbacoa! We ordered a bowl each, plus a taco for each of us that was much bigger than we could possibly finish. The bowl of barbacoa was filled with plenty of beef and consomé (the spicy liquid that the meat had cooked in overnight); we added our own condiments of sliced radishes, chopped cilantro, onion, and shredded lettuce, plus either red or green salsa. Was it good? My mouth is watering just looking at the pictures!
These guys enlivened our breakfast with their accordion/guitar duets and great songs. Chef Silvana, whose family roots are in Chihuahua, requested that they sing El Corrido de Chihuahua. They did, and what fun! She was singing right along with them, and it felt like old home week.
Any of you who grow cilantro have probably experienced "bolting", the point at which the plant shoots up a tall, frondy stem filled with flowers. Most garden sites recommend that you forget about stopping bolting and plant cilantro seed consecutively so you can always have fresh leaves. On the other hand, you could let your cilantro bolt and harvest the fronds and flowers; that's what you're looking at in the photo above, for sale in the Tlacolula market. Those little fronds are just as flavorful (if not even more intensely so) than standard cilantro leaves. The flowers? They're equally terrifically "cilantro" and are prized in traditional Mexican food! Try it this summer--harvest from at least one bolted plant and you'll be a convert.
These delantales (aprons) are a symbol of home cooks in this part of Oaxaca. Made from typically checkered fabric, they are then machine-embroidered with intricate and beautifully colorful flowers. If you should see a woman wearing one of these aprons in another part of Mexico, you can be almost positive that she bought it in Tlacolula. I have one--you should, too!
What in the world is this! No, not a new-to-you kind of mushroom, and not little rocks--it's a special kind of cacao (chocolate) bean that's used to make chocolateatole, a drink particular to Oaxaca. These cocoa beans, as they're known in English, have been buried in the ground for up to eight months, until the beans ferment and turn this grey and white color. A cook can ferment them herself, or buy them already fermented in the market. See here for more information about the preparation of chocolateatole.
These are Oaxaca-style polychromed jícaras; this style is often used as a drinking vessel, as well as for the preparation of tejate, a cold and refreshing chocolate drink. The jícara is the mature fruit of the Crescentia alata tree, commonly known in English as the calabash tree and in Spanish as the tecomate, or güiro, among other regional names. The immature fruit can be bound as it grows to shape it into elongated bottles, rattles, and other shapes. When allowed to mature without intervention, it is normally round; the pulp is removed from the fruit and the shell is dried. Once dried, the jícaras are either carved (see photo below) or are painted with plant resins, which gives them a totally natural finish that resembles a chemical varnish. Because the jícara is round on the bottom, you'll need a ring-shaped reed base called a rodete or yagua to allow the jícara to sit straight on a table.
Most of the jícaras in this basketful at Oaxaca's Mercado 20 de noviembre are dried and then carved with wonderful animals. The tecomate tree grows primarily in coastal areas and the jícaras are usually dried, carved or painted by artisans who live where the tree grows.
Rodete (base) for the jícara. These are available from the jícara vendor in the size you need to support the size jícaras you purchase. Ask the vendor to make sure you're buying the right size. Photo courtesy Artefacto.com.
These are very large Oaxaca-style metates with their metlapil, or mano (the tool that's shaped like a rolling pin, alongside one of the metates). All of these metates are painted with flowers, and some have the legends "Recuerdo de Oaxaca" (memento from Oaxaca) or "Regalo de los Padrinos" (gift from your godparents--in this case, padrinos of your wedding). It's common for newlyweds to receive this crucial piece of kitchen equipment as a wedding gift. If one whispers your name and you want it for a memento, be sure to try to pick it up before you buy it to carry it home to Cleveland with you. You might reconsider.
The Tlacolula market isn't anything like the sterile experience of a supermarket, where you push your cart around, stuff it with boxed, canned, or frozen items, shove it to the checkout point, pay, pack up your plunder, and leave. Most Mexican markets--whether municipal markets or tianguis (street markets)--are for shopping, for listening to music, for having a bite to eat, for catching up on how the new baby is, whose son graduated from secundaria (junior high school), who's getting married and to whom (and maybe why so quickly), how god-awful much prices have gone up, and simple chisme (gossip) in general. The vendors all get to know you, and if you missed last Sunday's market, they ask if you were ill. You know all the vendors, and you ask how their husbands/wives/children/in-laws are faring. The market--whether it's the Sunday market or a weekday market--connects you to the pulse, the beating heart, of your town. See, your neighbor will help you tuck those tomatoes into your rebozo (long shawl). I'd far rather have this deep connection with my community than anonymous supermarket speed, wouldn't you?
We're back in the chapel at Templo Santa María de la Asunción, Tlacolula. This is Jesús, in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday).
When I took this photograph at the Tlacolula market in April, I didn't notice the section of the newspaper this woman's flowers were wrapped in. As far as I'm concerned, it says everything.
Next week, we travel farther south to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where we eat extraordinary food (cucarachas, anyone?), swoon over local textiles, go to a dance, and attend a couple of parties. Come along with us, you don't want to miss a minute!
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