Adventures into Mexican Markets, Part 2: Mercado Central

This week I visited one of my favorite places in Acapulco, the mercado central or the Central Market. It's a huge multi-block marketplace with a huge market filled building at it's center point.  The market really extends for a long while beyond that building, making it one of the most traffic filled areas of the city.  It has something for everyone from: clothes, shoes, toys, produce, cheese, milk, lard, hot food, health food....the list goes on.  If you find yourself in need of pretty much anything while in Acapulco, it can be acquired from the central market with even limited spanish skills. 

(map)

The central market is located deep downtown Acapulco, in what is referred to by many as old town.  The first time I went was by bus with my friend, which is a cheap and easy way to go. This was before Acabus, the new fascist public transportation system.  Despite Acabus's efforts to eradicate the ghetto bus, they still exist.  Acabus goes to the central market too, but for an authentic mexican experience try and find a ghetto bus that says C.Rio on the windshield(it says the same on the Acabus banner).  A friend explained that the bus used to go to the popular movie theater across the street, Cine Rio, which I'm pretty sure isn't open anymore.  It's the best way to get to the produce section of the market by bus or taxi.  Any driver worth a damn will be able to take you there.  Driving isn't advised, as parking is an utter impossibility. You continue until a sears goes by on the left and on the right all you see is market stands with clothes.  

The main reason many in the city go to the central market is for the enormous produce selection.  The streets outside the main building are lined from end to end with vendors of all sorts of produce; fruits, vegetables, dry goods and nuts. The produce is generally a half to a third of the price of the supermarket, which makes a huge difference in many of the cooking businesses you see around the city every day.  Making a daily trip to the market cuts costs of food dramatically while increasing quality,  which shows in the quality of the majority of food vendors here.  Things like tomatoes are on average 11 pesos a kilo at the market, wheras they are currently over 23 pesos a kilo in the store.  Potatoes can be gotten for 7 a kilo wheras they are generally 17 and up to 25 pesos a kilo in the store.  In terms of vegetables, anything can be acquired, although there isn't much diversity in certain items that you'd experience elsewhere.  There are only a handful of potato and tomato varieties for the most part here, for example. 

One of my favorite things about the market is the enormous selection of high quality cheap fruit.  It's fun to just look at some of the crazy things that exist here, like jackfruit and star-apples.  Pretty much all of the things most people recognize can be found here, although things like plums and apples are generally pretty high priced, 35-45 pesos a kilo. There are many different kinds of banana and all are sold at the market.  At certain times of the year, you get fresh strawberries for 10 pesos a bag, which included a half kilo.  If you ever make it there, you'll notice these small little yellow fruit being sold in bags, those are nanches and are all but a mexican delicacy.  My house has a huge nanches tree growing up against it.  The fruit are extremely starchy and have a strange but somewhat interesting taste.  My dogs and most mexicans love them, for me they'll have to be an acquired taste.  

All over, on stands and on foot, you'll find spices and other dry goods.  There's a guy at the market that sells hand ground curry powder and hand ground garbanzo bean flour and other things of that nature.  People walk around with displays of spices hanging from their arms.  There are periodically large stands with sacs or bins that sell everything from whole corn to dog food. The prices of these stands are generally only a little below the prices of the store, but they are generally fresher and higher quality than anything you find in stores. You also find some things you don't always find in stores, like piloncillo, unrefined sugar.    

Roaming the streets of the market are the convenience stores of the market, so to speak.  These are the guys with the carts with big tubs filled with horchata and other types of drinks, generally between 10-20 pesos depending on size.  There are people with rolling candy stores, selling gummies by the bag, for about 10 pesos.  I've met a guy from Mexico city that goes there every sunday, walking the streets with a wheelbarrow full of jars of honey and pollen that he collected himself from his own hives.  Common are the sight of men with items ranging from sponges to garlic hanging from them for sale, offering common items you may have missed elsewhere.  Women carry around baskets of doughnuts to sell, some of them tiny.  

The market has a million little stands that cater to one niche or another.  There's stands for: clothes, baking, to go boxes, cups, scrapbooking stuff, gardening, tools, health food.  If there's anything specific you're looking for in Acapulco, chances are there's a shop that contains it somewhere deep in the market.  I'm lucky to have a friend that frequents the market, as he knows where most things are.  He's local so he's able to ask if he doesn't, which makes things go very smoothly at the mercado central. Above is the picture of the aquarium supply store, that happens to sell bunnies and chinchillas too. 

If you're a meat eater, the best place to acquire your meats in terms of both price and quality is at the market.  There's a certain area, shown in the picture above, that has a high concentration of meat vendors.  For the most part, you'll find pork, chicken, beef and all sorts of seafood.  If you know where to look you can occasionally find raw goat, but that's pretty rare.  The prices of meat vary greatly depending on the cut and type. I've bought cheap roaster cuts of pork for 55 pesos, the most I've heard a cut costing is 100 pesos for thinly sliced meat.  I'm sure there are more expensive one, but I can't think of it offhand.  Lard is made several places throughout the market by hand, sold in bottles.  Pork rinds, or chiccharon, is sold all over, at prices starting from 5 pesos for a small bag. 

Chickens from the market are extremely fresh and high quality.  My friend says he's had to wait for his chickens to cool before cutting them, because they're still hot from having the feathers boiled off of them after they are killed.  The chickens from the market are honestly free range for the most part, and you can tell the difference in meat texture.  Chicken from walmart, most likely factory farmed, shrinks dramatically in size when cooked. Chicken from the market remains the same size and has completely different texture. Something to note, all meat at the market is for the most part sold in plastic bags. 

One thing the market is not lacking is restaurants.  There's food of all kinds available, from whole chickens to tamales.  John said he hadn't had good spicy hot food in Acapulco, it was at the central market that our friend proved him wrong.  The food was so hot I couldn't eat it, and he barely could.   In the same building where the aquarium supply place is you'll find the most delicious goat tacos.  They are cooked barbacoa style, which is essentially a barbeque featuring an underground stove which almost acts like a smoker of sorts.  

The menu was worth taking a picture of, as it reflects some of the mexican food culture.  The different prices are accompanied with spanish phrases, loosely translating to "You eat a little, you eat regular, you eat good, you eat really good, giant taco".  You order based on how hungry you are. Meals are generally an event for Mexicans, often taking several hours.  It's common in mexican culture to eat very slowly, sometimes taking an hour to consume a meal.  Our fast eating American tendencies drive our mexican friends crazy.

The tacos arrive in the form of meat on a plate.  If you order a bigger size, you get a bigger plate.  They also bring giant fresh corn tortillas and replace and salsas that are low on the table.  The meat is tender and spiced, but mild in terms of heat.  The salsas are of varying heat levels, which is how to make these tacos hot.  I generally eat them plain, maybe with a little salt or dipped in consome, the broth they serve you with.  The giant taco is just a giant tortilla filled with goat meat.  John and our english friend ordered those, and according to them they were delicious. 

All in all the market is a useful labyrinth worth exploring in Acapulco.  If you have enough time and know enough spanish, you can find anything you need without too much difficulty.  To explore the whole thing and absorb everything would take days, and it's something I intend to do in the future.  There's amazing produce, decent quality products for cheap prices and delicious food and drinks to enjoy.  There's literally something for everyone and in many ways is a great representation of mexican culture, as food is one of the most important things here.