Nearly every piece of wholesale produce in Mexico City starts out at the Central de Abastos. The gigantic maze of tunnels — can it even be called a market? — is huge. It has 2,000 stands. It shelters more than 30,000 tons of produce each a day. Located south of town, it’s the one meeting point for food that ends up at taco stands, fruterías and fondas all over the city.
It’s open to the public, and I’ve been dying to go there, just to witness the spectacle. So Alice and I went last week.
We got lost on the way there. Her guidebook said to get off at Metro La Viga. We did, and all we saw was a man on a bench reading a newspaper. We asked him where to go.
“Take the Metro to Aculco,” he said. “No, better yet, ask the poli in the metro station.” Poli (pronounced POH-lee) is slang for policeman.
Inside the metro station, we asked the woman inside the ticket window. She shook her head. “Ask the poli.”
Finally, we asked the policeman, who looked bored while he leaned against the turnstiles. Yes, he said, Aculco was correct. And then after that, we should take a pesero that said Central de Abastos.
About 1 1/2 hours after we started our journey, we hopped off the pesero and walked over a sky bridge to the Central.
Once inside, the first thing we saw were the bananas, hanging from one stand. They were so bountiful, they looked almost fake.
And then there was the garlic.
Alice tried to buy some, but the woman said she only sold it by the half-kilo, minimum. That’s 12 bulbs of garlic, más o menos.
I wanted to wander down the aisles, open-mouthed. Maybe zen-out over the mound of watermelon.
But we really couldn’t. The place was too busy. Men carted around produce on their backs, pulling dollies stacked high with produce boxes. Most had at least a half-dozen or more. They’d whistle — a sharp tweet-TWEET! — if you were in their way. I got whistled at a lot.
The onion aisle was pretty, empty though. Probably because of the overwhelming smell.
We wandered around some more, marveling at the burlap sacks of dried chiles, the plastic buckets of loose cereal (guess this is for the morning street vendors), and the buckets of wholesale cajeta, yogurt, and fruit marmalades.
Central de Abastos also had a regular, neighborhood-style market, where you can buy produce by the half-kilo or less, or by the piece. It didn’t have much beyond what my local tianguis would carry, but it was fun to just walk around in a daze and stare at the lettuce, grapes, peppers, pimply noni fruit, guayaba, strawberries, a few random chocolate fountains, cheese, chorizo, honey. They were also quite a few stalls selling kitchen items: mops, cheese graters, lime juicers.
As we walked, we literally could not see the end in sight. The aisles stretched on that long.
“Crayton would be in hell,” I told Alice. He hates wandering and browsing without a specific purpose in mind.
We wandered a while longer, until our feet hurt. Then we found our way out and hopped on another pesero, which took us to the Cerro de Estrella metro station in Itztapalapa. Got home about an hour later.
Overall, I would highly, highly recommend the trip for anyone who’s interested in Mexican food, or Mexican market culture. Just be
prepared for a long day. The place ain’t easy to get to, and it’s exhausting to walk around and see everything.
What I ended up purchasing, if you’re curious: 1/2 kilo green Veracruz oranges, a block of acitrón, 2 cups of unsalted peanuts, 1 head red-leaf lettuce, 1/2 kilo of dried guajillo chilies
Central de Abastos
To get there: Take Metro Line 8 to Aculco, and then grab a pesero right outside the Metro station that says “Central de Abastos.” The stop is at the end of the line, past the long row of seafood empanada stands.