Sunday, April 22, 2012
Lunch at Mercado Hidalgo - Tacos Fitos and Carnitas El Jerezano
Having worked up an appetite exploring Tijuana's Mercado Hidalgo, we headed outside to the North corner, where there were a number of places selling tacos de birria de res - tacos made with stewed beef.
We stopped at Tacos Fitos, which I had read about on the Masa Assasin blog.
We tried both the birria de res taco and the taco campechano (shown on the left, below), which was made with a combination of birria and tripe.
Here is a closer shot of the birria taco:
Both tacos were fantastic. Super flavorful.
After wandering around the market some more, we stopped at one of restaurants in the interior - Carnitas El Jerezano:
The carnitas was just ok, but the place was comfortable, the staff was friendly and the freshly made corn tortillas were great
Tacos Fitos and Carnitas El Jerezano were but two of many dining options in and around Mercado Hidalgo. Rest assured that if you come to visit the market, you will not go hungry.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
A Day Trip to Tijuana's Mercado Hidalgo
A couple of Sundays ago, we had some friends visiting and we decided to take them down to Tijuana for the day. Within minutes of walking across the border, we had grabbed a cab and arrived at Mercado Hidalgo, Tijuana's central market.
Here is a map of the market's location - as you can see, it is not far from the border crossing:
View Mercado Hidalgo in a larger map
Taking up a whole city block, the market vendors are arranged around the edge, with the center being a large parking lot.
There was plenty of fruit on offer:
as well as sweets:
and of course, lots of chiles:
and mole pastes:
There was even a little cooking store:
and a few vendors selling Mexican cheese varieties:
Quite a few places had this purple corn for sale. I'd never seen it before, and don't know what it is typically used in:
There was a glass case that contained the largest amount of chicharrón I'd ever seen in one place:
Next to it was this interesting mass that was labelled "Chicharrón Prensado":
This was the first time I've encountered "pressed" chicharrón and I'm definitely curious to learn more about it.
We didn't do much real shopping on this trip - only buying some piloncillo (sugar cone) and tamarind - but the vendors and other shoppers were friendly and relaxed. It made for a very nice day trip.