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.