A mixiote taco from the tianguis on Coyamel street in the Col. Santo Domingo.
My friend Mojdeh does cultural tours in Mexico City, and for more than a year we’ve been planning for me to go visit her neighborhood south of town. She lives in the Colonia Santo Domingo near Metro Copilco, almost to the UNAM.
There are several tianguis (the Nahuatl word meaning outdoor neighborhood market) in Santo Domingo. The one near her house is on Coyamel street on Wednesdays.
She told me I was going to love it, and she was right. The Coyamel tianguis was larger than the two markets near my house, full of people eating and saying hi to each other and pushing shopping trolleys. Smoke billowed from a taco stand offering fresh cecina cooked on a wood-fired grill. Mojdeh and I waited 30 minutes, along with 15 other people, just for tortillas — one woman sold blue and white versions, plus sopes, tlacoyos and gorditas out of big boxes lined with dish towels. Her steamy, delicate blancas were worth the wait.
We ate and wandered, and ate some more. I bought some gorgeous tomatillos that the vendor told me were from Ixtlahuaca, past Toluca. I bought fresh requesón and homemade pan de pulque, and a white zapote, which tastes kind of like sweet avocado. And I spotted a quelite I’d never seen before — trébol de carretilla (medicago polymorpha).
A few photos:
Tomatillos from Ixlahuaca, in the State of Mexico
Spotted this unusual cinnamon bark. The vendor said he grows it in Tuxtla, Veracruz. It smelled much more intense than the usual Mexican cinnamon.
The cinnamon vendor
A big pile of trébol de carretilla
Serving tacos de mixiote from a gigantic steam pot.
A vendor makes cecina tacos, known as tasajo in Oaxaca, from a wood-fired grill.
A taco with grilled cecina and longaniza. This tasted even better with a few spoonfuls of crema on top.
Here’s a map to the location, in case you want to visit yourself someday (click to open in Google maps):
Oh Lesley. What a wonderful `trip´ I´ve done just by seeing these pictures. Everything looks delicious.
I can´t wait to be home!.
ps. ¿Que tasajo y cecina no son lo mismo?
I always thought cecina was pork and tasajo was beef, or one was marinated and the other wasn’t… but no, you’re right, según Ricardo Muñoz Zurita’s Diccionario de la Gastronomía Mexicana, they’re the same. Both beef. The word is “tasajo” in Oaxaca and cecina elsewhere. Thanks for helping me clear that up Heidi!
I thought mixiotes were seasoned meat, steam-cooked in a parchment bag?
On Saturday Sra. Cuevas and I went out to the Pátzcuaro to Morelia highway, to El Carmen, where we had mixiotes at a somewhat forlorn restaurant. They weren’t bad, just a bit chewy. Alas, they were wrapped in aluminum foil. The jugo de carne was good and the tortillas hechas a mano, from a comal over a wood fire, were a highlight of or visit.
So far, the best mixiotes I’ve had were at La Mesa de Blanca in Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán. However, they are pricey (but worth it.). IIRC, about $140 a plate on one, accompanied by rice and ensalada de nopalitos. The ones at El Carmen are half that price.
At La Mesa de Blanca: http://tinyurl.com/6sbaws7
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
Hi DC: You’re right, mixiotes are traditionally cooked that way, but these were cooked in the bag and then opened and poured in this metal warming tray, I think to facilitate the ease of making a taco. Thanks for sharing your recommendations.
So I went on Wednesday before classes and everything you said was true =) Thanks for this little gem.
I’m glad you checked it out Katie. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I miss the south. Those tacos look great!
Hey! I live just a few blocks away from this tianguis on Delfín Madrigal and I really have to recommend that you go to the tianguis del sábado that starts very close to where the Wednesday’s tianguis is on Eje 10 and stretches for about a mile down to Papalotl. If you want to drink pulque (blanco) and curado (flavoured pulque) -and even “curado”- freshly extracted from the magueyes in Hidalgo, start your tour on the Papalotl end of the tianguis.
Great tip. I’ll definitely check it out — thank you!
I meant to write “aguamiel” not curado twice. Aguamiel is something like pulque before it starts fermenting 🙂