this next place we're gonna film is mad
ohhhh the smell
we're in the state of Oaxaca and we're here to eat this Oaxaca series is all about sharing
with you some of the most delicious food in this amazing state
Oaxacan food is some of the most unique in Mexico this is our fourth video from Oaxaca and we're
taking you into the heart of Tlacolula market this weekly country market is one
of the biggest in Oaxaca state we join the locals at the grill in the smoky
meat hall and barbecue up our own meat feast and share with you a famous
Oaxacan specialty the local food culture here is heavily influenced by
Oaxaca's indigenous peoples and here you'll find food that you won't see
anywhere else in the country in this huge Mexico series we'll show you some of
Mexico's tastiest food from local favorites to traditional recipes you
don't want to miss this series get ready for some mouth-watering food
I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate, we hope you're hungry, let's eat!
every Sunday the town of Tlacolula which is about 40 minutes outside of
Oaxaca city holds a massive market day it's one of the biggest traditional
market days in Oaxaca state together with Ocotlan which we filmed a video at
the other day we'll link it up there this place is just a riot of colour and noise
and delicious food so what we're going to do today is just wander around the
market eat some really really tasty Oaxacan specialties and show you
around a bit
Tlacolula market is a really great place to sample Oaxacan specialties and I've just
spotted a real Oaxacan specialty it's tejate now tejate is a drink that
is from the Mixtec and Zapotec peoples it dates back to the
pre-hispanic times it's really unique really special and it's quite rare to
find outside of Oaxaca so let's go and grab a bowl
hola buenos dias, un tazon por favor
cacao? Si, gracias
gracias
alright so I've got my bowl of tejate
now the lady here is actually preparing the tejate what
she's doing is she's mixing up a paste the paste is made up of toasted maize
flour, there's cacao there's flor de cacao which is a white flower from this
region there's the toasted pit of the mamey fruit she's basically
elbow deep mixing it up mixing up that paste and then she's gonna mix it with
water and that's how it gets this consistency so you can see here it's got a
watery base and then on top it's got this foamy sort of floaty
curd like stuff and that's the flor de cacao the flower which has just risen up
to the top let's just give this thing a taste
so it comes in a really traditional bowl too
oh it's such a unique flavour it's really earthy it's nutty it's a little bit
floral and you can really taste that cacao it's coming through beautifully mmm
the foamy bits on the top the flor de cacao almost have a creamy texture this
is really delicious and as I was saying before it's quite rare so you don't find this
fresh outside of Oaxaca it's a drink that's passed down from generation to
generation through the family so every sort of recipe differs and it's really
neat to be able to share this type of food with you because it's so rare
this bowl of tejate isn't really just food it represents community and family
and history and culture especially because it dates back thousands and
thousands of years it's a real honour to be able to share this type of food with you
tejate
I love the atmosphere of
these tejate stands because everyone just sort of swings by grabs a bowl
of tejate and then downs it and then gets on with their day such a great
snack
muchas gracias
delicioso
gracias, hasta luego
that was just so refreshing and such a unique flavor love it
as well as the outside areas that take over some of the streets of this town
this market has some incredible inside areas so some more permanent buildings
and it is full on in here the air is full of smoke there's music being played
beautiful colors everywhere there's fruit there's vege there's clothing anything you can
imagine but there is a ton of food so all of this area is food
we've come into the main food hall and up ahead there is barbacoa alley
really there's about 10 or 15 stalls all selling barbacoa de Chivo which is
slow roasted goat so it's cooked in a pit covered with a lot of maguey leaves so I
think what we're gonna do is head to Adolfa which is the first stall here we've heard that
Dona Adolfa has been cooking her barbacoa for a really long time
like something like 50 years and you can see the pot of barbacoa and it looks
sensational
hola buenos tardes
barbacoa de chivo? Whoa it looks amazing
so it is, oh muchas gracias
so this lovely lady has given me a taste of the
barbacoa de Chivo
oh man it's melt in your mouth we've got to eat here
we're just gonna nab a seat at this stall this is really
frenetic there's so much going on there's so many people here it's a great
atmosphere really really exciting
dos tacos por favor y un consomme, si, gracias
all right our food has arrived we ordered a bowl of soup but we also need some
tortillas and this lovely lady has just shown up with some tortillas dos tortillas por favor
gracias Senora
so she's got her big pile of tortillas and they'll be perfect
with the consomme they're nice and warm oh gosh they're gonna go really well, quanto cuesta
a lot going on, the are musicians playing, people are all tucking in, full on atmosphere
I really like it so we got this spread of the two tacos so they've got the
barbacoa inside and I think some salad and whatnot
and we also got this consomme which is full of that goat meat look at the meat
super soft in there and that nice rich looking soup I just actually want to have
a little bit of that soup
oh come on that is so good
that is full of flavour but let's get into it properly so we'll get one of these
tortillas that we just got from that lady spoon
all the soup over the top really moisten that up and now on the table
we've got a bunch of stuff we can put with this so I'm here for some salad
so get a little bit of coriander and cabbage
on there some lime the lime all over the top
and we've got
a bit of salsa here so this is a salsa verde
so we'll just dump a whole lot of salsa verde on there
now that is gonna be heaven
oh my god
oh that meat is so soft
and even though it's cooked in a whole lot of spices and you've
got that soup in there with the meat the meat is retaining its flavour so it's got
a lovely flavour of goat
which is really nice because the true depth and all the spice and chilli
that's coming from the soup, the meat's just not taken over the meat tastes great
okay so we ordered two tacos as well so I just want to sort of see what's in here
so I'm just gonna unroll it all right so whoa look at that
there's just like a perfect amount of
goat meat in there it's really chunky there's also some of the cabbage and the
coriander what I'm going to do is just chuck a ton of lime on the inside there
and then also put some of that salsa verde alright roll this baby back up
oh my goodness okay
holy moly that goat is
just packed with flavour
even though I popped the salsa verde and the lime juice on there
the majority of the flavour is coming from that goat it's completely full of
like Thomas said real meat flavor it's very savory it's got a real depth this is so good
this next place we're gonna film is mad look at all the smoke in the air so
these are all butchers shops along here there's all grills in the middle and you
can buy your own meat cook your own meat and vegetables
far out look at this looks like some sort of blimmin end of the world sort of things
going on there's so much smoke in here this is crazy this is gonna be real fun
so each of these stalls is owned separately so we're just gonna pick a
random stall and buy some meat and then hopefully commandeer a grill I can see
some intestines there's chorizo sausage there's tasajo which is thinly
pounded cured beef it is so frenetic in here so we're basically in
the same building so just over the ways where we had the barbacoa we've
literally walked like 10 meters and we're in this huge meat hall so let's go and get
some of our meat
hola buenos tardes, tasajo? Si, uh medio kilo, si gracias, si
so I've ordered half a kilo of tasajo so tasajo is really thinly pounded beef
steak and then it's cured in salt and then you
just cook it on the grill so I think the lady's just gonna give me a
basket with the meat in it and I I suppose we just go and find ourselves a
grill
all right so we've ordered our half kilo of tasajo and the lady is just slicing
it up into manageable slices for us to put on the grill so it's going into this
basket here all of the other stuff looks really good too there's tripa
intestines there's the chorizo there's pork all sorts of cuts there's even beef ribs they
look real good, muchas gracias
there are lots of
different ladies wandering around with vegetables and whatnot so you can buy
spring onions and onions and chilies and whatnot to put on the grill as well to
cook up together with your beef so maybe if we see a roving vege vendor we'll grab
some vegetables as well
so one of the sellers came around with some onions or
some cebollitas this is mad I'm just getting run over by this giant trolley
this place is crazy it's like nowhere we've ever seen in the world there's so
much meat on these grills so many people here it's it's unreal it's incredible I
can't wait to get our meat on there this is like nothing we've ever seen this is
great
what I might do is chuck these cebollitas
on right in the middle of the grill cause they're gonna take a lot longer than
the steak to cook
I think we should make it clear that we have no idea what's going on
here it's it's quite confusing it's super fun but it's really confusing so
we've now managed to get a little space on the grill we have absolutely no idea
where we're meant to eat this food we don't know how long the onions are
going to take to cook we don't know how everyone keeps track of who's there's
because people seem to be coming and going it is wild I'm loving it this is
great fun
so I've claimed this sort of corner of the grill right here meat's cooking up
really nicely the onions are looking good this is gonna be a real feast
all right so the tasajo is looking pretty good I'm pretty much gonna take it all
off the grill now I think the onions just need a tiny little bit longer ohhh the smell it's just
phenomenal
but cecina is muy rico too
they're just chucking some more charcoal under the
grill whoa it is super hot I'm sweating
this lady next to me is just laughing
at me because she's saying yes you are sweating real bad
ah gracias
so we've got our bunch of tasajo and cebollitas and now we've got to find some more stuff to go with
it and also a place to sit and eat
I'm just going to put my tongs back
I have no idea what I'm doing I think we've got to go and find some sauces
and maybe some avocados and tortillas would be perfect with this lot
we asked where we should eat this of some of the ladies who are hanging
around they sort of said to just come this way so
off we go
no gracias
we're just picking up some avocados to go with our meat perfecto gracias
there's a lady here selling some tortillas so they'll go perfectly with this uh cinco
muchas gracias so I got five pesos worth which gives me a bunch of tortillas so
that'll be perfect, si gracias
alright
people are just leaning up against these empty stalls and tucking in so I think we're
just going to do the same so we've got a bunch of tortillas we've got two
avocados we've got some cebollitas and we've got some tasajo so it's going to
make a fine meal I think actually the only thing missing is probably some
salsa to bind it all together
I popped up to the end of the main
hallway and there was a stand selling all sorts of accompaniments to
go with this type of meal so I got us a salsa roja which is a red salsa and
that's just going to tie everything perfectly together I reckon we came very
prepared we brought our Swiss Army knife with us so we can cut into the aguacate
or the avocados let's just this one's perfectly ripe so let's get into this
one here whoa it's like slicing through butter oh yeah look at that perfect avocado
okay now pop that knife down I'm gonna rip into one of these tortillas I think
I'm gonna go just half and then squeeze some of the aguacate on the there
all right mush that around perfect get a slice of this tasajo so it's
really thinly cut so it's been cured in salt and then obviously cooked over
that grill I'm just going to pop some of this salsa roja on so this red
salsa so it'll be made out of chilies and onion and probably some tomatoes oh yeah
it's gonna be real good okay now just roll this up it's a feast for a king
king
Wow whoa that tasajo is good it has got a beautiful salty flavour it's perfectly
seasoned because it was cured in salt and so it's very very flavoursome it was
really tender which I think is testament to my very good cooking skills and
that beautiful avocado is creamy that salsa roja adds a really sharp chilli
kick it's quite spicy ah this is real good
this atmosphere is crazy so what we're
leaning on to eat this is one of the butcher's stands but it's closed at the
moment so you can kind of just take over any perch that's available to you to eat
your food so there's people lined up all here on every closed stand eating
still grills all around us the amount of smoke in the air is crazy my eyes are
burning from this it is such an experience like I said before it is like
nothing else we've ever done anywhere in the world
I've got a little tortilla
made up and let's see how we manage with these onions I think they're going to be
a little bit underdone because they weren't on there for too long
perfect absolutely perfect not too squishy but still nice and crunchy on
the inside that adds a lot of flavour what an experience absolutely and utterly
wild