[Music playing]
Quelites: the "wild greens."
Xoconostle: a sour tuna (cactus) fruit.
This is homemade. Everything she does is homemade.
[Ruth Alegria] Markets are "mercados." They're based on a pre-Hispanic market ideal
that we saw in [Spanish word].
When the conquistadores first came to Spain, they marveled at this huge marketplace that would have
30 to 40 thousand people - on a single day - trading.
When you go to the "tianguis," (tiyānquiztli), which is the Nahuatl word for "market,"
we still have... neighborhoods, where there are special outdoor markets, one day a week.
There, you can buy all your fresh fruits, vegetables, there are meats, and there are
women who come from the outlying agricultural areas of Mexico City to sell you their
freshly nixtamalized corn masa, so you can make your own tortillas. Or they'll bring you homemade tortillas.
You can get squash blossom flowers - huge bunches of flowers for a dollar.
You can get huitlacoche, the corn smut - the food of the gods.
You can have quelites - the wild greens of Mexico.
Right now, there are about three to four hundred known edible wild greens, um, that you can still find in the marketplaces.
Fresh shucked fava beans....
[Chef Roberto Santibañez] This phenomenon of seeing La Merced, with everything from everywhere - it's not new.
It's an old tradition, it's a pre-Hispanic tradition.
That's what made the big cities and that's what dictated the power, was...how many things can you get, you know.
So yeah, they come to Mexico City. You can get everything from everywhere, at all times, right?
That's what made Mexico City what - what's - today.
[Ruth Alegria] Then there's a melding of the cultures. I've been mentioning some of the foods that have been very famous in pre-hispanic times,
but when you come now, you'll find foods that have a definite European roots.
We have wonderful olive oils - not just from Baja, California - but also from Xochimilco area...
There's just so much that you can find. And that's only in the tianguises (tiyānquiztlis). There are the
"Mercados" - the market system, that the government began to improve in the 1930s and 40s...
Doing away with the outdoor markets and placing the vendors in covered marketplaces.
Some of which are huge. The best-known is La Merced. My favorite is the [Spanish word] Market, which is also the flower market.
And, of course, [Spanish word], where at times, you can hear the vendors speaking in Nahuatl, the ancient tongue of pre-hispanic Mexico.
[Music playing]
We're in Xochimilco, at the only stall that still sells Chileatole.
A Chileatole is a masa thickened - corn masa thickened - beverage. This beverage can be had at any time of the day.
As an early morning breakfast.... And it's strongly rooted in the pre-Hispanic traditions of the Atoles.
And I'm going to ask the Señora to please give us her recipe, because her recipe is always so delicious and so bright green!
Señora.... [Speaking Spanish]
Epazote, corn masa, small kerneled corn.....
[Speaking in Spanish]
Salt.... Poblano? Poblano. And she has these gorgeous wild epazote over here. Look at how big it is.
You don't see such huge epazote.
Just look at this go in. It is gorgeous.
[A little bit of lemon].
[A delicious wine]
[Speaking Spanish] Muchas Gracias.
An "Atole" is a corn masa based drink. The corn masa thickens - what is just water, corn masa - and then you put a flavoring in it.
But nowadays, you'll find Atoles that are made with strawberry, chocolate, different fruit flavors, but they are absolutely mouth puckering-ly sweet.
This harks back to the time when there was no sugar in Mexico - pre-Hispanic - before the Spaniards came, there was no refined sugar.
So the Atoles were savory.... Atoles. And this is one of the best of the Chile Atoles that there is.
[Speaking Spanish]
This lady has, what I call, "finger tamales." They're very tiny.
I love the wrapping because it's like this..... then you just pull up on it....you open it up....and hers are vegetarian.
They are bean and wild greens. This is a bean tamale..... And then she has Quelites - the wild greens.
This is the wonderful corn from Xochimilco.
[Speaking Spanish]
And you can see, this is the beautiful purple corn that you would make blue corn tortillas from. They're absolutely.... [Speaking Spanish]
See, look at the difference in the color variations, from very light blue, a little darker, and this is almost black. [Speaking Spanish]
Now I've just asked for an ear of corn on a stick - that's better than a lollipop - and she's going to put everything on it. The total.
So we do a little slathering of mayonnaise - because everything is better with a little mayo.....
And you see how well she does that - it's just very thin.
And then....little cheese....
And that's it. [Muchas Gracias]
[Speaking Spanish]
These are the cactus. Then, you can see this woman is cleaning the cactus with just a knife - she's taking off the spines.....
....And taking off most of the skin. I've just asked her for a specific size - I call them "lenguaitas," which means "tongue-sized."
[Speaking Spanish]
So, here she has them all ready. And I love cactus paddles. And they don't need to be refrigerated....
These, you can just do a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and put them on a grill. They're absolutely fabulous.
And the actual nutritional value of cactus is enormous. They found out the cactus can lower cholesterol levels and helps in the control of diabetes.
We've come up to the stand because I saw a fruit that I really enjoy - but it's not
a sweet fruit. They're called "Xoconostle." "X-O-C-O-N-O-S-T-L-E."
And you might be hearing a great deal more about Xoconostle, um, in the near future.
It's a sour tuna fruit - most cactus fruits are sweet - and the seeds are dispersed throughout the flesh.
In Xoconostle, when you cut it open, the flesh is rosy, and all of the black seeds are centered in the fruit.
What's wonderful about Xoconostle is that you can dry it, and then you can salt it,
have it chillied, or have it sweet.
But one of the best ways to utilize it, is just cut it in half, grill it and add.....take out the seeds....
....Skin it after it's been grilled, and use the flesh to flavor a Salsa.
And usually it's Chile de Arbol, tomatillos..... And you would season it with the Xoconostle. And they're absolutely fabulous as a sauce.
[Speaking Spanish]
Well, she's going to do it, so that you can take bites out of the Xoconostle. But the fruit itself is sour and bitter.
It acts as a natural tenderizer - you would use this in "Mole de Olla," which is a beef stew, as well.
It has this beautiful rosiness to it, and in the center, are the seeds.
In a normal tuna fruit - which is sweet - the seeds would be dispersed throughout the flesh. Here, they're not.
But if you could......and I'm going to lick.....it's acidy....
.....and it's wonderful to use as a meat tenderizer in a beef stew.
So this is Xoconostle - a sour tuna fruit.
And here, which we saw this morning, is huitlacoche - which is the corn fungus. It's also known as the Mexican truffle. I love looking at it from the bottom.
And you can see where the corn kernels are exploding.
And for thousands of years, it's been known.
One of the favorite uses for this is in a thickened sauce, which is just reducing it until it itself thickens up, and.... Over filet mignon.
Over fish, as well, which we had .... And as a soup.
So...but....I don't think anyone would attempt to put cheese into them, unless they did it as a garnish in a quesadilla.
It's the earthiness of this that people want to taste. So this is the huitlacoche - the corn fungus - it was known as a food of the gods.
[Speaking Spanish]
The vegetables in Xochimilco - the majority of them - are from this area. Xochimilco has been known for thousands of years as the farming area from Mexico City.
Most of these vegetables are grown in "Chinampas," which are the "floating islands." Again, pre-Hispanic, pre-Aztec, as well!
And what I love best is that, here, you can get your peas shelled and your fresh fava beans shelled.
So, I'm going to get a small container - and you can see it's an old sardine can - but that's the measure that they use.
And they're beautiful and they've just been picked as have the peas.
[End Music]