MARKET DAY IN ZIHUATANEJO

Not THE market day in Zihuatanejo, but OUR market day in Zihuatanejo.

I'm not even sure if they have a MARKET DAY here or not -- the really big, once a week deal. Haven't checked.

Even though it is a bit of a hike - as I've mentioned - to the center of Zihuatanejo we decided to walk it today anyway. We foolishly thought that the partial cloud this morning would mean cooler temps. HA! We may not have had the bright sun but we had humidity that can't be beat. By the time we got to the market - and really until we got home and into the ocean, the three of us had a thick film of sweat covering us. 

As we do - we walked Playa La Ropa to the far end where we then headed UP.

Just as we got to the beach we found these. The fellow standing beside them stores his equipment here at the RV Park, so we asked him what they were. He told us it was a yellow fin which we took to be tuna. Funny - Contessa wrote about these same fish - on the same day! Turns out they are called Torro - you can read all about this fish in her blog post Wild Wednesday Part 2.

Since I am showing you those fish I figured I'd show you this one that washed up on the beach here a few nights ago. Odd - right? Does anyone know what it is?

Once we got down to the main area of Zihuatanejo, not far from the market, we were waved at by a fellow sitting in a restaurant with his friend. We hesitated at first, not sure who he was, until the fellow reminded me that we had spoken on the beach. Yesterday, he had taken a few pictures of Cassia and I  - he had asked permission mentioning that he was a painter. As he walked away after taking the picture, I thought to myself - darn - I should have gotten his info. Wouldn't it be nice to see how the painting turned out.

So, imagine our surprise when we ran into him now on a side street in Zihua. We sat and chatted a bit with a coffee and an orange juice. I now had the opportunity to give him our email address.

Then, on to the market.

I'm always amazed at the amount of produce available at the Mexican markets.

And the quality.

I took a close up of the eggs sitting on the side of the street - to further emphasize the no refrigeration thing. Tonight I am wishing that I had taken a picture from further back. This stack of eggs went back as far as I could see and stood about 6 feet tall! A LOT of eggs.

Inside the market we passed this 'coffee shop'. We are stocked up so didn't need to stop - but good to know for future reference - or for any of you - that there is a place to buy GOOD coffee in Zihua.

And a FLASHBACK!

Not a lot that you can't buy at these markets. Derek and I keep eyeing the enamel bowls.

I know, I know, I do this ALL the time! Hey - what's a market day post without a cow carcass shot!

As I said two posts ago - we buy our meat at the grocery store. Although - really - I don't think we need to. Maybe ONE day we'll throw caution to the wind and purchase our meat from the markets - maybe.

Everybody is selling something. This bucket was standing alone beside a car. My guess is that the owner went fishing overnight/this morning and is now selling his bounty. Yes - the crabs were fresh - as in - still moving.

Have I mentioned that we are OFF chicken right now! Any wonder?

As we passed this HUGE shoe store I remembered that I had promised to show one sometime. Shoes are big in Mexico - LOTS of shoe stores. Patzcuaro had the most to date but this one was no shrinking violet.

I pulled this one out of the archives - from the mall in Mazatlan. AND the ladies wear these on all the cobblestone and uneven sidewalks.

While in the market we ran into a couple we know from our end of the beach. They had two good pieces of info. The first was where to buy our veggies - which was actually a store about four blocks from the market. Much better prices than the market they told us. The second, was a tip for a good restaurant - Dona Licha. The Painter had also mentioned this restaurant so figured we should check it out.

Hmmm - sure a lot of signs telling people what they CAN'T do. A bit on the sterile side for us... 

Cassia had the orange juice - and me? The carrot and orange juice.

In the end, it was ok - not bad, not great. And only more affordable in relation to the beach restaurants not in relation to the interior of Mexico. Later, as we found the food stand section of the market I wished that we had just eaten there instead.

WoW! ME! Shopping for our fruit and veggies - we did well - bananas, potatoes, onions, red peppers, mandarina, grapefruit, pineapple, passiflora, prickley pear cactus buds, limes and cilantro - a HUGE bag for $72.60 pesos. I had to laugh - again - when I asked for $5 pesos of cilantro. As she was doing that I was helping Derek to bring the rest of the produce to the counter. When I looked up - there was a HUGE bundle of cilantro. I laughed, the lady laughed. Ok - so maybe $2 pesos worth. 

As we made our way back to the main market we stopped and bought the watermelon, strawberries and avocados. We are VERY stocked up now.

Another - you just have to laugh moments. This guy talked us into buying watermelon from him. A HUGE piece. THEN he proceeded to try to talk Derek into buying real estate - cheap! When that didn't work he tried to talk us into going INTO the real estate business with him. I kept walking leaving Derek stranded with him for a good five minutes.

Not long after we looked for the bus - we were DONE. All very hot and very done with looking around and slugging our produce.

$13 pesos back to Playa La Ropa. It REALLY made me wonder why we walked in!

When we got back to the van the first thing we did was go swimming in the ocean to cool down.

Then we dug into some of our fruit. Have you seen - or eaten one of these before? I hadn't since 1994 when I traveled through Mexico - not something I forgot though. They are passiflora - or granada china. The vendors call it passion fruit but I read from this link that they aren't passion fruit at all, although they are related.

Here's Cassia displaying the inside - little seeds covered with ummm - a slimy substance. But don't let that description throw you off - they are very sweet and refreshing.

Visitors to the park today showed up in this little number! 

Remember last summer and my Sunday Cooks! Ahhhh - such sweet memories of lots of cooking and baking. Sadly, I haven't kept up with my promise to myself to continue cooking up some great meals on the road. I've kept Derek and Cassia fed, but let's just say the menu has been anything but inspiring. 

I got a bit of inspiration today. Mark left a comment on Tuesdays post with a recipe for the thin steaks that I mentioned we buy at the grocery store. It involves marinating the steaks in lime and Tajin. Today, we bought some Tajin! I realized that years ago we had bought some, but not really knowing what to do with it, it mades it's way to the back of the cupboard and eventually into the garbage. 

We were having pork tonight - but I thought - hey - let's use the lime and Tajin now - and so we did.

I first marinated the pork pieces in lime. Just prior to placing them onto the Weber I rolled them in Tajin.

Tajin - chiles, salt and lime.

I also decided to use our few day old bolillo for garlic bread. We LOVE bolillos - but sadly they do not last very long - two days tops. BUT they make great garlic bread loafs and the perfect size for the three of us.

 I first slice the bolillo, then mix garlic, butter, olive oil and garlic salt.

 I spread the garlic mixture between each slice, wrap in tin foil and place on the grill with the meat.

FINALLY, a really good dinner coming out of Caballito's kitchen!

So - now we've been to yet another central market. Zihuatanejo's market was .... ok ..... we have definitely been spoiled with Market Day in Patzcuaro which may be the best of this trip - we'll see if any can beat it. Although they sell the same products, we find that each village/town/city market is different - kinda like sunsets. The same but different. The Zihuatanejo market is a little haphazard. It appears to have outgrown it's building and now spills out into the streets in several directions. This does seem to happen with most of the markets, but for some reason it has caused the Zihua market area to be chaotic and difficult to navigate.

*** We booked in for one more week here at El Manglar! The place has definitely grown on us and we are enjoying our little back corner spot. We'll be heading out next Thursday though - the Wood Clan restlessness is already starting to show....

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: Since we picked up some prickly pear cactus buds from the market - Derek googled them for me to see what we do with them now that we have them. Simply Recipes shows how to cut and prepare ppc. We have three - I'll add them to an upcoming post to see how it works out for us.

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