(lively salsa music)
- This is the definition of a meat sauna.
This is an ultimate fiesta in here.
It's just a party in the middle of the morning,
a meat party.
All the action, the energy in here.
The meat love is out of control.
(lively salsa music)
Good morning, I hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens.
I am in Oaxaca City and Oaxaca is known
for having some of the best,
one of the ultimate food cultures in all of Mexico,
so I'm thrilled to be here.
We're gonna walk around today,
we're gonna go visit some local markets.
We're gonna eat some amazing Oaxacan food,
we're gonna visit some attractions.
We have one full day in Oaxaca City.
We're gonna make the most of it
and I'm gonna share it all with you
in this video right now.
(speaking foreign language)
A cup of hot chocolate, mixes it up twirling that stick.
Oh man, this is a frothy, bubbly cup
of fresh hot chocolate, Oaxacan-style.
Oh, wow.
(speaking foreign language)
We decided to try a Tamal de Mole,
and it's steamed in a corn husk.
There's the masa and then you can see the Mole underneath.
Okay, let's try this.
Oh, oh it's so hot!
I love how that's just stuffed,
it's just packed, it's just oozing with Mole.
And you can taste the dried chilies in there.
You can taste a little bit of a chocolatey flavor
and then it's all wrapped up within that corn meal.
I need a sip of hot chocolate after that.
Oh, we are off to an amazing start.
That was just my first bite
and my first beverage of the day in Oaxaca,
and it was fantastic.
Oh, and that's making me excited.
We need the bunny hat.
(people chattering)
Oh that hits the spot in the morning.
That's wonderful.
- Mark, Micah wants this hat.
- Micah.
(upbeat music)
It's 8:00 a.m. right now
and we're starting off this morning
at Mercado Abastos, which is the biggest,
it's the largest market in Oaxaca City.
It's absolutely gigantic.
You can find everything here from fresh vegetables
and seafood, oh, lots and lots of seafood, to fruit.
Anything, (speaking foreign language).
Also, we're gonna also find a lot of pre-cooked food here
that we're gonna eat for breakfast.
If you need a new pair of underwear,
if you need a pet, if you need fruits and vegetables,
this is the market to come to.
Oh, we're coming to the food section right now.
(speaking foreign language)
(lively salsa music)
Some of the stalls are still opening
because I think they open around eight or nine,
this whole entire market,
but this stall back here is just absolutely packed.
It's called Comedor Lupita.
I'm not even totally sure what they serve yet,
but there are a lot of people here.
You know it's gonna be delicious,
so we're gonna stop here to eat whatever they serve.
(speaking foreign language)
Shrimp soup or fish soup?
(people chattering)
They put a ball of masa in the,
what is that called, a flattener,
and then they flatten it into a tortilla
and then the tortillas go
onto the comal,
which is a hot stone, and then they just bubble up.
So we got fresh tortillas here,
we got the Caldo de Pescado, which is with fish,
a fish soup, and then Caldo de Camaron,
which is the shrimp soup.
For the Caldo de Pescado, it comes with a whole fish,
just overflowing over the bowl.
I'm just gonna taste that broth first,
before I add some seasoning.
(people chattering)
Mm, it's a little bit tomato-y.
You can taste some herb in there.
And you do taste the full effect of the fish,
that's a little bit fishy.
I'm gonna squeeze in some lime.
(people chattering)
And they also have some onion and peppers and cilantro,
which is all communal, which you can add to your soup.
I'm gonna add a bunch of onions and peppers and cilantro.
Oh yeah, this is gonna be amazing.
And then also some cilantro.
(dishes clattering)
Okay, and then for this bite, I gotta go into the fish.
Oh yeah, I'm not sure what type of fish this is,
but it's a whole fish in here.
Look at all that meat on the side.
Oh wow, that's hot.
(people chattering)
Mm, oh the fish is awesome!
Mm, it's really like silky in texture.
Actually the broth tastes a little bit seafood-y,
but the fish is very like pure, very clean,
not fishy tasting at all.
I can't wait to try one of these fresh tortillas,
and I think the easiest thing to do, is to just roll it up
and you kinda eat it like bread on the side.
(people chattering)
Mm, mm-hmm, the tortilla's a little bit on the drier side.
You can taste the fresh corn.
Actually it only tastes like pure corn,
maybe just with water in it.
It's good, it doesn't taste like oily whatsoever at all.
Okay, one more addition to the soup
that I didn't know they even had on the table is this salsa.
I gotta add some.
(dishes clattering)
(people chattering)
- [Man] This is what made you want to come, right?
- Yeah, this market?
No, I had no clue where to come here.
We were just gonna walk around and see whatever looks busy.
(speaking foreign language)
Oh, oh that salsa is nice.
A little bit sour, and green chilies, which are,
I think they're roasted.
You can taste a smoky flavor to them.
Mm, this is a very soothing,
very warming dish to eat in the morning.
I'm loving it.
Next I'm moving over for the Camaron, which is the shrimp.
Squeeze in a little more lime.
Okay, take a look at this.
This is the same soup base,
but full of big shrimp with the head on, full shrimp.
So, I'll actually just take this guy with my fingers,
pluck off that head.
(lively salsa music)
Yeah, that's a good fresh shrimp,
then we follow with some of the soup.
Mm, yeah, this is a wonderful dish.
Taste that with a tortilla.
Both of the soups are excellent,
just depending if you want, and they taste the same,
it just depends if you want shrimp or if you want fish.
I like them both.
Probably I like the fish better,
it's a little more meaty.
Mm, mm, (speaking foreign language).
- [Woman] Ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha.
- One more thing that I had to try is their coffee,
because of how they serve it.
They serve it with a spoon, they serve it in a clay cup.
You can smell the coffee in there
and then you can also really smell chocolate in there.
It's okay to pick this up, right?
(lively salsa music)
- [Woman] Oh.
- Ah!
It's very light.
It's not like a strong coffee,
it's a very, very light coffee,
almost like you're just drinking water,
hot water with a little bit of coffee flavor
and then a little bit of a chocolate flavor,
but I mean, you can't think of it like an espresso,
or like a strong coffee.
And what's also cool is that you can see your reflection
in this bowl of coffee.
If you look down you could use it like a mirror.
Can you see my face down there?
This is a massive clay cup of coffee.
I'm gonna be peeing like crazy in about an hour.
This was a great place.
They're really friendly,
very popular local place for breakfast,
and yeah, that just hit the spot.
It's, you know, it's like very warm and soothing,
it's comforting.
That's what you need in the morning.
(people chattering)
(lively salsa music)
Okay, and I am loving the produce here.
There are so many different types of chilies, lots of fruit.
The passion fruit is gorgeous.
There are mangoes.
There are berries.
There's a lot of interesting and unique herbs
and vegetables here, and especially things
that look like they're kind of wild-foraged vegetables.
Yeah, this is a great market.
(people chattering)
(upbeat music)
One of the things that I notice just walking
around the market,
especially the vegetable and fruit section,
is that they have a lot of both tropical fruits
and vegetables, as well as more like dried,
arid-climate fruits and vegetables.
So it's a huge mix of such a diversity
of fruits and vegetables, and that's why, I mean,
that's part of what makes Oaxacan cuisine so diverse.
(upbeat music)
This is my kind of a market.
There's an entire lane that's just garlic.
There's so much garlic.
There's just an abundance of everything actually
in this market.
(speaking foreign language)
We're just completely lost within this network,
within this labyrinth of a market,
but we could see the smoke pouring out of this stall,
and we knew it was a place we needed to stop
for our next thing to eat.
(people chattering)
(tortillas sizzling)
She works so fast but you can tell she loves what she does.
I can't wait.
I can't wait to try it.
And those salsas just look insane,
in huge mortars, stone mortars.
(speaking foreign language)
(people chattering)
(speaking foreign language)
In order to make our Memelas, what she does is,
she first pounds the masa, she pounds the masa,
then it grills over the hot metal plate,
which is sitting over charcoal.
And we got the one with meat,
so she takes a really thin strip of meat,
she puts it into a little grill.
She sticks it underneath the hot plate,
which is where the coals are burning.
So that roasts until it looks like charred, fully charred
then she adds on something called asiento,
which is, she explained to us, is sort of like,
I think it's a lard, a pork lard.
Spreads that on, then she adds some of the salsa
from this giant salsa stone bowl, stone mortar.
And then after that, she sprinkles on some queso,
which is cheese and then finally we got
that piece of meat all on top.
It's so hot, it's so fresh.
Okay Carlos, you ready?
- [Carlos] Ready, let's do it.
- Yeah, these are so juicy,
they're just dripping with salsa.
(upbeat music)
Oh.
Mm, oh that is insane.
Carlos.
- Mm-hmm.
(speaking foreign language)
- Mm, good.
- It's so good.
You can really taste that salsa in there,
which is like very smoky, a little bit spicy.
(speaking foreign language)
That's just outstanding.
Definitely my favorite part
of that entire Memela is that salsa.
The complexity of flavor in that salsa will blow your mind.
(people chattering)
Whoa, I'm so happy right now.
Wow, that was absolutely phenomenal.
So flavorful, I absolutely loved it,
and she's so friendly, she's so nice, she's so caring.
Oh man, what a wonderful lady.
I have no idea how I can explain where this stall is.
It's somewhere within the thick of the market.
You just gotta walk around
but you will find little gems like that without a doubt.
What a market.
This is a place you have to visit
when you're in Oaxaca City.
This is the type of market I could literally just hang out
for the entire day, just explore, walk around,
see new things, and eat!
But we have a lot more to do today,
so we gotta move on and we're gonna head
to the center of the city now.
(car horns honking)
The weather is actually perfect today,
and it's actually not that far
to El Zocalo,
which is the (speaking foreign language),
so we're just walking over there,
and we're about to reach the old town.
(tapping)
(people chattering)
(speaking foreign language)
(tapping)
We cannot make it very far in Oaxaca
without finding more food.
The food here is so good!
So she has this giant pot
of slow-bubbling pork and pig parts, which is Carnitas
and then they're just braising in their juices.
Right as we were walking past,
she pulled out the bubbling heart,
and Carlos and I decided that we needed
to have a quick taco before we continue on.
We cannot make it far!
She chopped up the heart then she added it into the tortilla
and then she added some guacamole, some cilantro,
and maybe a little bit of salsa.
Or maybe that's some green salsa as well.
(people chattering)
Oh man.
Mm, oh that's delicious.
Heart is so tender.
It's not even iron-y at all,
and then that guacamole in there.
There's a little bit of salsa
and the cilantro comes in nicely.
Oh man!
That heart is so tender, it's not even like,
you know heart can sometimes be a little crumbly and dry?
That is so moist.
(speaking foreign language)
Wow, that was superb.
It's so (chuckling),
that was one of those impulse food purchases
that there was just absolutely no way we were gonna pass by
on the sidewalk without tasting that.
We had to.
Okay, we're on our way to El Zocalo now.
Oh, there's just so much food.
Okay, we can't stop,
we can't stop, we gotta keep on moving.
But I want to so, I wanna stop so badly.
(laughing)
There's so much good food, it's endless.
(upbeat music)
(people yelling)
We're almost to the center but we came into a,
it's a huge protest.
Many of them are doctors and nurses.
I think protesting some kind of a health issue,
but we're gonna just kinda walk along with them
to the center there
and then visit the main plaza of Oaxaca City.
(people yelling)
It looks like the entire city of Oaxaca has gathered
in the center there and it's so busy that we don't even,
I think we're gonna avoid it right now.
Maybe we'll have a chance to come back later today,
but instead we're gonna go eat some more
at another market which is a very, very well-known market,
especially for their grilled meat.
This is the place I was looking forward,
have been looking forward to coming for years!
(upbeat music)
Welcome to Mercado 20 de Noviembre,
which is also known as the Grilled Meat Alley of Oaxaca.
There's so much meat here!
You choose your meat, they grill it for you fresh.
Oh, this is the place for meat lovers, that's for sure.
(lively salsa music)
(speaking foreign language)
(lively salsa videos)
(speaking foreign language)
(lively salsa music)
(speaking foreign language)
- Enchilada.
- [Mark] Enchilada, ah.
(lively salsa music)
There's about 40 or 50 or maybe more stalls,
all with an assortment of different meat
and I think they all pretty much have the same things.
There's beefsteak, there's pork steak,
there's longanisa, the sausages,
there are some other things.
Finally, you just gotta choose one of the stalls.
We went with a very friendly lady.
She offered us the whole mixed plate,
so we got the mixed plate.
What they do is they weigh it all out, and I loved,
my favorite part of the entire process was
how she takes the meat and she just kinda lightly tosses it
onto the grill, chucks it onto the grill.
It lands perfectly onto the grill,
then they grill everything up in a cloud of smoke
over just flaming hot charcoal.
This entire alley is a meat paradise.
This is the definition of a meat sauna.
(people chattering)
(speaking foreign language)
Yes, yes, (speaking foreign language).
(meat sizzling)
(people chattering)
(speaking foreign language)
We're taking our tray of meat down the alley.
Oh man, it's just filled with meat smoke all over the place.
And we're going to the vegetable section I think.
It's a little confusing and hectic in here and I love it!
(people chattering)
We got a table at the back of the market now,
and they serve you just the entire tray.
It's an entire basket of meat with the tortillas.
Oh, we got some salsas to go with it
and we got some red paper to eat off.
The meat aromas within this hall will just,
your mouth will immediately start to water.
Okay, I'm gonna try a piece of that beef first.
(lively salsa music)
Oh wow.
Oh that's insane.
Oh, it's salty.
It's tender but you feel the texture of the meat,
the stringiness of that meat.
You can taste how it's been grilled
over such a hot charcoal fire.
It has such a smokiness to it.
And with that saltiness,
that produces such an incredible meat tsunami.
(lively salsa music)
Wow.
That's absolutely stunning.
I love those roasted vegetables to go with the meat.
(people chattering)
Oh, I love the roasted peppers, too.
This is an ultimate fiesta in here.
It's just a party in the middle of the morning,
a meat party.
All the action, the energy in here.
The meat love is out of control.
Okay, next up this is a marinated pork
that she said it's in a chili marinade.
(lively salsa music)
I love that marinade.
It's a little bit on the dry-ish, like roasted side.
You can taste the dried chilies in there.
You can taste it's already sour, maybe from lime juice.
(lively salsa music)
Next up, I'm gonna try the longanisa,
which is the sausage that she grilled.
When she was grilling that,
you could just see the flames shooting up
because of all that juicy fattiness coming out
as it was grilling.
Okay, I'm gonna put the longanisa
into a little piece of tortilla,
add some of that salsa, it's like a Pico de Gallo salsa
with tomatoes and chilies and onions.
(people chattering)
Wow.
Mm-hmm, it's just meat after meat of deliciousness.
(lively salsa music)
That sausage is so smoky.
(people chattering)
Those onions are so sweet.
- [Carlos] That's like a bar.
(laughing)
Mark, there's one more left on there.
(laughing)
(speaking foreign language)
- Oh wow, oh that's delicious.
That's so smoky.
It's a little bit chewy,
but that releases so much juicy flavor.
Yeah, I love intestines, intestines are awesome.
(people chattering)
We are now walking out into,
oh, the market sort of opens up once you get out
of Meat Alley, and they have a lot more food.
Oh, this place is amazing!
There's still so much amazing food to eat at the market,
but we're getting kind of full, so we're gonna take a break.
We're gonna walk around,
we're gonna go back to the main plaza
and to a couple of churches and then after that,
hopefully we'll eat some more.
We've only been walking around for half the day so far
and already this Mexican food tour of Oaxaca,
the city has been outstanding.
I love this city, people are friendly,
the food is incredible, the culture.
It's such a food-based culture.
(upbeat music)
(Micah blows raspberry)
- [Woman] Micah (chuckling).
- We walked back over to El Zocalo
which is the main public square plaza of Oaxaca City
and today, yeah, it's still bustling from the protest,
but things have quieted down a little bit.
People are wandering off
but even if there's not a protest here,
it's still a bustling public space in Oaxaca.
It's just an overall very pleasant area.
(upbeat music)
We're walking up the walking street towards the mountains.
You can see all the mountains in the background
and we are walking towards Santo Domingo.
(upbeat music)
This entire Plaza Santo Domingo,
it's an incredibly beautiful part of Oaxaca.
You can come here just to relax,
sit on the walls of the plaza.
The church, the architecture is gorgeous.
It's calm, they have the whole Oaxaca sign here.
You can take your photos.
But it's a beautiful place.
This is a great place to spend some time,
when you are full after eating a lot of food,
and take a little break before your next meal,
when you're in Oaxaca.
We're walking out of old town
and we're on our way to go eat at,
it's a restaurant that serves a very famous Oaxacan dish.
Okay, you'll see what it is.
(car motor humming)
This is the spot and I think they just opened.
(speaking foreign language)
Oh yeah, it's really quiet right now,
but I think it will really get packed in tonight,
but we're gonna have other plans tonight,
so we're here as soon as they open, which I'm okay with.
(upbeat music)
Tlayudas are one of the ultimate snack foods in Oaxaca.
Put on a thin layer of beans, and then after that,
she adds on some cabbage and then,
the famous Oaxacan cheese,
which is like a mozzarella string cheese,
and she really strips it into thin strips
but puts a lot of cheese on the inside.
Then it goes over the hot coals and so it grills.
But you can smell like that very fast,
kinda almost burning aroma to it,
but they keep flipping it so that it doesn't burn,
but that cheese starts to melt and all mingle together.
And then you can order it
with your variety of different meats,
which then they also grill over the really hot fire.
And then they put it all together on a plate.
So we got some fresh tlayudas to try right now.
(upbeat music)
I think they're all the same on the inside
but then they just come with different meats on the top.
This one is the marinated pork.
But yeah, you can see these are pretty huge
and they're folded up.
It comes with some garnishes.
There are some salsas and some onions on the side as well.
That's pretty heavy!
You can really smell the burnt, like roasted flavor of this
'cause they keep it on such a hot fire
but they just keep flipping it.
We gotta take a look inside.
Oh yeah.
Look at all of that.
Oh, there's so much cheese!
That's like a giant mouth opening full of cheese.
(upbeat music)
That cheese is so elastic-y, and then,
it does have an amazing like roasted, fire aroma to it.
You can taste the crunchy cabbage in there.
The beans sort of give it some creamy richness,
and then, yeah, that's just delicious.
Okay, and let me add on some of the salsas
and a squeeze of lime, and also you gotta have some
of those onions on here, with some,
they kinda look like pickled onions.
Okay, let me pick this whole thing up again.
- [Man] Getting heavy.
- [Woman] Yeah.
- Mm, oh, mm-hmm.
Oh, that really enhances it.
The guacamole, the squeeze of lime
to make it sour, the onions.
I think that's the touch it needed for me,
because it was lacking that like sour, acidic touch to it.
Some of this garnish.
I don't know what this is.
Mm, slightly onion-y but without the,
like a grassy-tasting onion.
I think this is the same meat
that we just ate an entire platter of.
Oh, yes it is.
We got three different types,
but really they're all exactly the same.
The only thing that's different is the topping of meat.
So it kinda doesn't really matter which version you get.
I like how the cheese,
I mean, the cheese is not too salty.
They use a lot of cheese,
so you think it's gonna be really rich and really salty,
but actually the cheese is kinda light.
Not too salty, it has a nice rubbery elasticity to it.
(people chattering)
From here, we're gonna jump in a taxi.
It's a little ride away.
We're gonna go to a place called Monte Alban.
(upbeat music)
(child vocalizing)
There it is.
This site, Monte Alban, is on the 20 pesos Mexican note.
It's at the top of the mountain.
It overlooks the valley and you can see all of Oaxaca.
It was a pretty nice drive to get here.
And I was just reading
that it is the largest, pre-Hispanic city
in the Oaxaca region.
Something else that's very fascinating about this site is
that it's the first urban, planned city.
So actually where they took time
to plan the entire city out and the different buildings.
I don't know, everything is planned.
This is the first urban planned city in the Americas.
So it says this is the main plaza,
and it dates back to around 500 to 800 AD,
and it's a 40-meter wide stairway.
Okay, I'm climbing up.
(footsteps clicking)
Whoo!
(upbeat music)
It's 5:00 p.m., that's when they close.
I wasn't really sure what to expect when we came here,
but it was well worth a visit.
And what I like is that you're able
to climb up some of the ruins,
get the view of the whole city.
That was great!
(people chattering)
We're on our way back to Centro now.
(lively music playing)
You just gotta love the quality of those speakers.
That music.
We made it back to El Zocalo, which is the center,
and it's perfect.
It's in the evening,
this is the time when people are out and about,
when they're hanging out, when they're walking around.
And we came here actually last night just to walk around.
I wasn't filming but we stumbled into this stall
where they're making Elotes.
And Elotes, it's corn with lots of toppings.
It's one of the most common street food snacks
and you'll find it all over.
Like, in the evening, it's all over the place.
You'll find it everywhere, but this guy,
he has the longest line of any Elotes cart
in the entire city.
And then we asked some of the people standing
in line last night why,
and they said it's because of his style.
(upbeat music)
(speaking foreign language)
All the best things.
(speaking foreign language)
Had a lot of things.
(upbeat music)
(speaking foreign language)
I would make a guess to say
that he probably has the most skill in the entire world
at seasoning a cob of corn.
He just flies!
Is Micah allowed to taste it?
- [Woman] No.
- Sorry, Micah, you can't taste this
'cause there's lots of different chili sauces on it
and a lot of mayonnaise so I think Micah will just have
to watch this one.
But it looks beautiful.
It's just covered in so many things,
this has to be the fanciest corn on the cob
I've ever had in my life.
(people chattering)
Mm!
Oh, it's young corn,
so it's really soft and tender and juicy.
Full of mayonnaise.
There's so much mayonnaise on it.
Then you got the cheese which is really finely shredded.
You've got all those different chilies,
which are kinda salty.
The lime juice on there comes in really nicely,
and then, you know, just those mix of chilies.
(upbeat music)
That's so good.
And you'll see, like, so many people walking around,
eating this at this time.
Another thing that I just love about him is
how, you know, he sells something that's so common,
that's so typical, yet he does it with such style.
He takes such pride in what he does,
and I fully respect that,
and I'm fully willing to wait in line
'cause he takes such pride in what he does.
(upbeat music)
I think I got a little mayonnaise on my nose.
It's been a very long day, but there's one more thing
that we have to eat to make this day complete in Oaxaca.
We are back at Mercado 20 de Noviembre
for one last plate of food.
On the opposite side of the market from the meat hall,
you'll find, it's kind of a big food court area
where you'll find all sorts of local Oaxacan food.
This is a great environment
and actually a lot of the stalls are starting to close
because they're mostly, I think,
they're most popular at lunch.
But you can come here to get your plates of Mole,
Oaxacan-style,
and we're gonna try a couple different ones right now.
Starting off with is Mole negro.
Oh (speaking foreign language).
And this is one of the ultimate dishes of Oaxaca.
It's, yeah it's probably one,
I mean, it's a dish you absolutely cannot miss.
They're famous for Mole here
and it's an exquisite blend of spices.
I know there's nuts in the sauce.
I think with the Mole negro there's also some chocolate.
That aroma is insane, you can smell those red chilies.
Such a dark, rich, like chocolatey-looking sauce.
(people chattering)
Mm!
It has a little bit of a sweetness to it.
So then you can taste the rich, smoky, like blackened,
slight bitter-y flavor to it.
You can taste all those chilies in there.
The nuttiness of it.
It's such a complexity of flavor.
(upbeat music)
Mm-hmm, a great way to end the day.
Carlos and I are splitting the Mole negro and the Mole rojo,
so this is the red Mole version,
which I don't think it includes chocolate,
or some of the other spices.
It's a totally, actually totally different blend
of spices and mixture.
Mix that with some of the rice.
(upbeat music)
Mm!
Mm, that's like totally different.
It's more on the saltier, without being sweet at all.
I really like it.
It's almost like a curry sauce.
We've come to the end of the day.
I'm running on my last steam
but I have a little bit more energy now
after that Mole, that final plate.
Oh, that was delicious.
I like both versions actually, were fantastic.
We only had one full day in Oaxaca City,
so we wanted to make the most of it.
I think it was an amazing success.
I'm very, very happy and that was some amazing food.
And I'll leave all the information of what we did
and the things we ate in the description box below
so you can check all that out.
And I wanna say a huge thank you for watching this video.
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Good night from Oaxaca.
Thanks again for watching
and I will see you on the next video.