- This is the definition of a meat sauna.

This is an ultimate fiesta in here.

It's just a party in the middle of the morning,

a meat party.

All the action, the energy in here.

The meat love is out of control.

(lively salsa music)

Good morning, I hope you're having an amazing day.

It's Mark Wiens.

I am in Oaxaca City and Oaxaca is known

for having some of the best,

one of the ultimate food cultures in all of Mexico,

so I'm thrilled to be here.

We're gonna walk around today,

we're gonna go visit some local markets.

We're gonna eat some amazing Oaxacan food,

we're gonna visit some attractions.

We have one full day in Oaxaca City.

We're gonna make the most of it

and I'm gonna share it all with you

in this video right now.

(speaking foreign language)

A cup of hot chocolate, mixes it up twirling that stick.

Oh man, this is a frothy, bubbly cup

of fresh hot chocolate, Oaxacan-style.

Oh, wow.

(speaking foreign language)

We decided to try a Tamal de Mole,

and it's steamed in a corn husk.

There's the masa and then you can see the Mole underneath.

Okay, let's try this.

Oh, oh it's so hot!

I love how that's just stuffed,

it's just packed, it's just oozing with Mole.

And you can taste the dried chilies in there.

You can taste a little bit of a chocolatey flavor

and then it's all wrapped up within that corn meal.

I need a sip of hot chocolate after that.

Oh, we are off to an amazing start.

That was just my first bite

and my first beverage of the day in Oaxaca,

and it was fantastic.

Oh, and that's making me excited.

We need the bunny hat.

(people chattering)

Oh that hits the spot in the morning.

That's wonderful.

- Mark, Micah wants this hat.

- Micah.

(upbeat music)

It's 8:00 a.m. right now

and we're starting off this morning

at Mercado Abastos, which is the biggest,

it's the largest market in Oaxaca City.

It's absolutely gigantic.

You can find everything here from fresh vegetables

and seafood, oh, lots and lots of seafood, to fruit.

Anything, (speaking foreign language).

Also, we're gonna also find a lot of pre-cooked food here

that we're gonna eat for breakfast.

If you need a new pair of underwear,

if you need a pet, if you need fruits and vegetables,

this is the market to come to.

Oh, we're coming to the food section right now.

(speaking foreign language)

(lively salsa music)

Some of the stalls are still opening

because I think they open around eight or nine,

this whole entire market,

but this stall back here is just absolutely packed.

It's called Comedor Lupita.

I'm not even totally sure what they serve yet,

but there are a lot of people here.

You know it's gonna be delicious,

so we're gonna stop here to eat whatever they serve.

(speaking foreign language)

Shrimp soup or fish soup?

Shrimp soup or fish soup?

(people chattering)

They put a ball of masa in the,

what is that called, a flattener,

and then they flatten it into a tortilla

and then the tortillas go

onto the comal,

which is a hot stone, and then they just bubble up.

So we got fresh tortillas here,

we got the Caldo de Pescado, which is with fish,

a fish soup, and then Caldo de Camaron,

which is the shrimp soup.

For the Caldo de Pescado, it comes with a whole fish,

just overflowing over the bowl.

I'm just gonna taste that broth first,

before I add some seasoning.

(people chattering)

Mm, it's a little bit tomato-y.

You can taste some herb in there.

And you do taste the full effect of the fish,

that's a little bit fishy.

I'm gonna squeeze in some lime.

(people chattering)

And they also have some onion and peppers and cilantro,

which is all communal, which you can add to your soup.

I'm gonna add a bunch of onions and peppers and cilantro.

Oh yeah, this is gonna be amazing.

And then also some cilantro.

(dishes clattering)

Okay, and then for this bite, I gotta go into the fish.

Oh yeah, I'm not sure what type of fish this is,

but it's a whole fish in here.

Look at all that meat on the side.

Oh wow, that's hot.

(people chattering)

Mm, oh the fish is awesome!

Mm, it's really like silky in texture.

Actually the broth tastes a little bit seafood-y,

but the fish is very like pure, very clean,

not fishy tasting at all.

I can't wait to try one of these fresh tortillas,

and I think the easiest thing to do, is to just roll it up

and you kinda eat it like bread on the side.

(people chattering)

Mm, mm-hmm, the tortilla's a little bit on the drier side.

You can taste the fresh corn.

Actually it only tastes like pure corn,

maybe just with water in it.

It's good, it doesn't taste like oily whatsoever at all.

Okay, one more addition to the soup

that I didn't know they even had on the table is this salsa.

I gotta add some.

(dishes clattering)

(people chattering)

- [Man] This is what made you want to come, right?

- Yeah, this market?

No, I had no clue where to come here.

We were just gonna walk around and see whatever looks busy.

(speaking foreign language)

Oh, oh that salsa is nice.

A little bit sour, and green chilies, which are,

I think they're roasted.

You can taste a smoky flavor to them.

Mm, this is a very soothing,

very warming dish to eat in the morning.

I'm loving it.

Next I'm moving over for the Camaron, which is the shrimp.

Squeeze in a little more lime.

Okay, take a look at this.

This is the same soup base,

but full of big shrimp with the head on, full shrimp.

So, I'll actually just take this guy with my fingers,

pluck off that head.

(lively salsa music)

Yeah, that's a good fresh shrimp,

then we follow with some of the soup.

Mm, yeah, this is a wonderful dish.

Taste that with a tortilla.

Both of the soups are excellent,

just depending if you want, and they taste the same,

it just depends if you want shrimp or if you want fish.

I like them both.

Probably I like the fish better,

it's a little more meaty.

Mm, mm, (speaking foreign language).

- [Woman] Ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha.

- One more thing that I had to try is their coffee,

because of how they serve it.

They serve it with a spoon, they serve it in a clay cup.

You can smell the coffee in there

and then you can also really smell chocolate in there.

It's okay to pick this up, right?

(lively salsa music)

- [Woman] Oh.

- Ah!

It's very light.

It's not like a strong coffee,

it's a very, very light coffee,

almost like you're just drinking water,

hot water with a little bit of coffee flavor

and then a little bit of a chocolate flavor,

but I mean, you can't think of it like an espresso,

or like a strong coffee.

And what's also cool is that you can see your reflection

in this bowl of coffee.

If you look down you could use it like a mirror.

Can you see my face down there?

This is a massive clay cup of coffee.

I'm gonna be peeing like crazy in about an hour.

This was a great place.

They're really friendly,

very popular local place for breakfast,

and yeah, that just hit the spot.

It's, you know, it's like very warm and soothing,

it's comforting.

That's what you need in the morning.

(people chattering)

(lively salsa music)

Okay, and I am loving the produce here.

There are so many different types of chilies, lots of fruit.

The passion fruit is gorgeous.

There are mangoes.

There are berries.

There's a lot of interesting and unique herbs

and vegetables here, and especially things

that look like they're kind of wild-foraged vegetables.

Yeah, this is a great market.

(people chattering)

(upbeat music)

One of the things that I notice just walking

around the market,

especially the vegetable and fruit section,

is that they have a lot of both tropical fruits

and vegetables, as well as more like dried,

arid-climate fruits and vegetables.

So it's a huge mix of such a diversity

of fruits and vegetables, and that's why, I mean,

that's part of what makes Oaxacan cuisine so diverse.

(upbeat music)

This is my kind of a market.

There's an entire lane that's just garlic.

There's so much garlic.

There's just an abundance of everything actually

in this market.

(speaking foreign language)

We're just completely lost within this network,

within this labyrinth of a market,

but we could see the smoke pouring out of this stall,

and we knew it was a place we needed to stop

for our next thing to eat.

(people chattering)

(tortillas sizzling)

She works so fast but you can tell she loves what she does.

I can't wait.

I can't wait to try it.

And those salsas just look insane,

in huge mortars, stone mortars.

(speaking foreign language)

(people chattering)

(speaking foreign language)

In order to make our Memelas, what she does is,

she first pounds the masa, she pounds the masa,

then it grills over the hot metal plate,

which is sitting over charcoal.

And we got the one with meat,

so she takes a really thin strip of meat,

she puts it into a little grill.

She sticks it underneath the hot plate,

which is where the coals are burning.

So that roasts until it looks like charred, fully charred

then she adds on something called asiento,

which is, she explained to us, is sort of like,

I think it's a lard, a pork lard.

Spreads that on, then she adds some of the salsa

from this giant salsa stone bowl, stone mortar.

And then after that, she sprinkles on some queso,

which is cheese and then finally we got

that piece of meat all on top.

It's so hot, it's so fresh.