What's the food like in the markets in Yucatan: Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Merida, etc?
Denis Larsen - Casa Hamaca Guesthouse
I go to the local municipal markets for food every day here in my home in Valladolid, Yucatan. We go to a series of vendors – chicken vendors, pork vendors, and beef vendors – that you might have seen in the US 50 to 70 years ago. There is meat hanging from hooks right in front of your face. We bought chickens this morning and the chicken guy took them apart. They are all dressed and de-feathered, but the heads and feet are on and he cuts them up the way you want or will...I go to the local municipal markets for food every day here in my home in Valladolid, Yucatan. We go to a series of vendors – chicken vendors, pork vendors, and beef vendors – that you might have seen in the US 50 to 70 years ago. There is meat hanging from hooks right in front of your face. We bought chickens this morning and the chicken guy took them apart. They are all dressed and de-feathered, but the heads and feet are on and he cuts them up the way you want or will give it to you whole. All of the meat is probably no more than four hours old. It is never been in a refrigerator, and because of that, the texture and the taste are very different. If we have to put something in the refrigerator for a while, it changes both the flavor and the texture, to its detriment. The same market has an enormous variety of fruits, honey, and other things that are native to the Yucatan. They also have a bunch of items from China. That’s where we go every morning because all that food, with a very few exceptions, is grown or raised within 50 miles from here.
The second stop then is a real supermarket, but the town fathers have decided that there is going to be no big box stores in town that are going to kill local business, like a Wal-Mart has done to certain places. So they have allowed three national supermarkets to come in to town but on a very small footprint. There are many things you can’t get because of that. The nearest big store for shopping is in Tulum, which is an hour and ten minutes away. There you can find almost anything because there are lots of restaurants in and around that area that they help supply, so they have got a wide selection of things.
There are two fish stores in town. Almost all fish that comes in here is frozen, even though we’re only a little over an hour away from the coast. I’m not quite sure why that is. Fish is not a big part of the local diet, except during Lent. The octopus season is just starting now.
We buy the local food as much as possible – local meat and produce. We go to the supermarket for the things we can’t find in the market like boxed milk, some of the cheeses we can’t find there, sweet rolls, and things like that.
In Cancun you can buy anything. It is like going to Miami or someplace like that in terms of the variety of stores and the kinds of things you can find. In Cancun and Merida, Walmart is one of the players. Walmart Corporation is actually the biggest employer in Mexico. Some of the stores here are almost a full block square. There are also a half a dozen big supermarket chains. There are also a Costco and a Sam’s Club both in Cancun and Merida. Every six weeks or so, we go to Merida, usually to buy things that makes sense buying from Costco.
(Martha Stewart visiting markets in Merida, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted October 1, 2015
Doug Willey - Doug Willey, Independent Real Estate Consultant
The food in the markets of the Yucatan usually takes people a little getting used to, and some people will never get used to it. When you go to the mercado, which is the public market, where the locals go, the chickens and pork legs are hanging hooks. Depending on the size of the mercado you’d go to, there could be a hog head hanging on a hook. None of these mercados are air-conditioned. So if it’s 90 degrees Fahrenheit that day and...
The food in the markets of the Yucatan usually takes people a little getting used to, and some people will never get used to it. When you go to the mercado, which is the public market, where the locals go, the chickens and pork legs are hanging hooks. Depending on the size of the mercado you’d go to, there could be a hog head hanging on a hook. None of these mercados are air-conditioned. So if it’s 90 degrees Fahrenheit that day and you go to the mercado, the chicken, pork, and beef are all hanging on hooks and it’s hot outside. Some people wouldn’t think about buying anything there. They buy all their meats from Sam’s Club or a similar grocery store chain, where everything is like what it was back in the US where everything is refrigerated and wrapped. I have personally bought food from the mercado and never had a problem. When I go to the mercado, I arrive at around 7 AM when it’s still cold and everything is just being brought out.
I came here to the Yucatan by myself. When I decided I was coming to Mexico, my wife said, “You’ve lost your mind.” So we made an agreement that I would come here by myself to see what it’s all about and see if I could survive. When I first arrived in Mexico, I lived in Playa del Carmen (an extremely popular expat location in the state of Quintana Roo in the Riviera Maya). The old apartment that I rented is located far from 5th Avenue, which is where the American-style stores and malls are located. My old apartment was situated where the locals live, which is probably eight blocks from the tourist area. I would go to the little tienda, which is a little store that’s about 6 feet wide and 8 feet deep and has basic foods for sale. I went to the tienda and got someone, who could teach me a couple of Spanish words so I could tell them what I wanted.
I would say, “Jamon (ham),” so I could buy sliced ham and make a sandwich. The storekeeper opened her little refrigerator and started pulling out pieces and she asked, “cuando? (how many?)”, to ask me how many pieces I was buying. And I said, “No.” I had to explain to her that I wanted the whole pack of the sliced ham. So she reached in and grabbed a whole pack and opened it.
Then I told her that I needed queso, which is cheese. Again, she opened the cheese and started pulling out pieces. I told her, “No, I need a whole pack of cheese.” So she got me the pack. Then I said I need pan, which is bread. She again started reaching for bread and pulled out pieces. And again, I said, “No, I want the whole loaf of bread.”
Once I left there and got home and fixed my sandwich, I got myself thinking that this is a really great idea. If you are down on your luck that day and maybe you didn’t make any money and you’ve only got 12 pesos in your pocket, you could go to the little tienda and get two slices of ham, two slices of bread, one slice of cheese, and two cigarettes. So you had lunch that day, you had smoke afterwards, and that’s good!
(Cheese in a little store, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted December 29, 2015