The Best Finds at Mexico City's San Juan Market

(upbeat electronic music)

One of my favorite things in Mexico,

or really any place I'm traveling to

are visiting the markets.

The markets you can find pretty much anything

from fresh produce, dried produce,

proteins, seafood,

I just want to take a sample of all of this stuff.

So when you're used to fruit in the United States,

unless you're going to the farmer's market,

what you get in the store is not always ripe.

Sometimes they're hard as a rock.

Generally when you're in a market in Mexico,

things are ripe.

This is the place where you do get

incredibly sweet, delicious fruit.

Que tipos?

Tengo haces mucho varidades tengo ataulfo.

Okay, this is the ataulfo mango.

Mango ataulfo.

Mango Manila.

Manila?

Okay.

So buttery and so sweet, oh my god.

I don't have enough hands.

Wow, it's a little bit more tart.

Still equally as sweet.

This is mamey.

It's got a really interesting flavor and texture.

It's almost like you're eating

some kind of a dairy or pudding.

This would be amazing in a dessert

or just served fresh with a little lime

and a little chile.

Really good.

Gracias.

So I'm taking you to my favorite stand

in this whole market.

It's the dried chile stand.

Dried chiles are so amazing to me.

They remind me of home, my mom used to cook

with them when I was little.

This is pretty, this is a fucking amazing ancho.

This is a poblano chile that is grown to maturity,

so it turns red.

Then they dry it.

You can see it's dry but it's soft.

It's almost like dried fruit.

If you smell it you can smell that sweet,

raisiny kind of smell.

These are cascabels,

these are a little bit hotter.

The flavor is a little more intense

so you use fewer of them.

Really incredible.

This is a true chipotle chile.

This is a dried and smoked jalapeno.

You can see they're pretty leathery,

they almost look like tobacco.

They have a really intense, smoky flavor.

Quiero chiles.

Que tipos tiene?

Hay dulces, hay gosos, hay...

Bueno.

Venga, venga.

Cascabel? Cascabel.

Que?

Ese pica.

Pica? Si.

Mas o menos de que.

No, mas.

Mas, okay. Mas picante como el arbol.

Oh, really.

Si.

So she said that this is a...

Como se llama?

Catarino.

Catarino, which is actually hotter than the arbol.

Pretty scary.

Si.

(merengue music)

We're coming into the fish section.

This fish is brought in everyday

from all over the cost of Mexico

surrounded by both the Pacific and the Gulf.

Look at those snapper.

Those are so gorgeous.

Like... that's amazing.

Hola.

Como esta?

Es de Vera Cruz?

Si.

Si, okay.

So I'm getting these amazing, head on prawns.

They're really beautiful.

These are from Vera Cruz.

I'll probably do a really nice, little marinade.

Make a little salsa for them,

throw them on the grill.

They're gonna be incredible.

This? Si.

Tres vente.

Tres vente.

(merengue music)

So deep in the heart of the market,

I found a woman that has hoja santa

which is actually, sort of difficult

to get here in this part of the country.

Hola, como esta?

Hoja santa.

Hoja santa, si.

So hoja santa is actually in United States

it's called a root beer plant,

in the southern part of the United States.

If you crush the leaves and smell it,

it kind of has that weird, anisey,

root beer type flavor.

They put it in tamales.

They make mole sauce out of it.

Tienes epazote?

Si. Si.

So another pretty common herb in Mexico

is epazote.

This is another one of the herbs

that's a little bit hard to find in the US.

Si.

It's got almost like a cross between

cilantro and oregano kind of flavor.

Chayote, si?

Si.

Okay.

This is chayote, it's actually,

it's almost like a cross between an Asian pear

and a really mild apple.

One of the things that I haven't really played around with

very much are these very small tomatillos.

They can be very acidic,

which this woman was telling me,

is that the smaller ones

are actually more commonly used in salsas

here in Mexico.

They tend to be a little bit sweeter

and less acidic so you can actually put lime,

which a lot of times in tomatilla salsas,

you don't put that much lime

cause it's already really, pretty acidic.

(merengue music)

I love this market so much.

I am completely loaded down.

I got some gorgeous prawns

that I'm gonna throw on the grill.

I got some greens

that I'm gonna make some quesadillas with.

And I got some gorgeous vegetables

to make a beautiful salsa.

Can't wait.

(merengue music)