The corridor of smoke

Not enough has been said in this little blog about the food in Oaxaca — at least not in my opinion as this trip is largely about the food!

I don't know if it has an official name, but at the Mercado 20 de Noviembre is a corridor that serves grilled meats. I call it the corridor of smoke because as you enter, you're assaulted by the smoke of dozens of charcoal grills being fanned by ladies cooking up meats, many kinds of meats.

I had read about it a bit in advance but otherwise the place makes absolutely no sense. You walk in and both sides of the corridor are lined with meat sellers. As you go by they loudly try to convince you of the superiority of their products and prices. But to me, they all seem the same, selling thinly sliced beef and pork as well as fat little chorizos and tripe; there's occasionally some other option. You order by weight, so if you know how much you want, you can tell them, or you can just give them a measurement with the space between your hands, ie: I want "this much."

But, first you actually need to go to another vendor to get yourself fresh chiles de agua (hot and grown only in the state of Oaxaca) as well as the delicious small white onions. Once you get those in a little basket, head over to a meat vendor, order up your meat, and then give them to the lady at the grill.

She'll chuck your chiles and onions right into the coals under the grill. Then the meat dude gives her the meat to cook. In the meantime, go find yourself a seat back with the vendor from whom you got the chiles and onions. From them you can order drinks, including beer, which is a delight in the smoky furnace of the place. They will also bring you a wide selection of side dishes including salsas, guacamole, pickles, fresh vegetables, and other stuff. You pay 15 pesos for each of these side dishes. So it does actually pay to go with a bunch of people 

At some point, your meat along with a few fresh and very large tortillas will be delivered to you and then you pay directly for that (I believe the ladies who cook and sell the tortillas are also independent vendors but as noted, it's a bit confusing). 

Well finally after all that, it's just up to the eating. I went with just one other person and we had way to much for just the two of us. I will say the chorizo was absolutely the best. Totally out of this world. The beef, carne asada, was tasty but a bit chewy. I didn't try the pork but my companion suggested it was tastier than the beef. 

I've seen now this meat selling, grill as you stand there thing in a few markets but the one in 20 de noviembre is by far the biggest and most elaborate.

This is me enjoying it all! Thanks to my pal Alice for sending me this (and insisting I post it!)

Beyond the corridor of smoke, this market, which has just been renovated (like last week) has dozens of places to eat traditional Oaxacan food. On another day, a school friend and I went and basically picked the counter that had the most Mexicans having lunch there. Unlike many of the other places, there was not someone yelling out to you to and sticking a menu in your face. We sat down and this place and asked for a menu and the dude was like, 'we have five things, pick one.' So I picked the chicken in salsa verde, which was also ridiculously good. And he topped me up with rice and sauce. Who doesn't like a place that gives you seconds. That and a drink cost 40 pesos. That's about $3.50!