Mercado de Jamaica, the big flower market in Mexico City sells fruits and vegetables as well as flowers, although vendors of these are far outnumbered by flower stalls. But to reach the flowers you have to walk down a corridor past all the fruit stands.
Sellers here seem to have more space than those in, for example, San Miguel's San Juan de Dios market. The Jamaica displays are larger, the foods offered are more varied.
I post so often about mercados that something has to be out of the ordinary to inspire me to write again. And Mercado de Jamaica is different: the attractiveness of the displays and the quality of the produce is superior to any I have seen elsewhere in Mexico, reminiscent of that in Barcelona's Mercado la Boqueria.
Look how big, beautiful, juicy, and perfectly ripe these fruits are. Not a single green, overripe, bruised or spoiled one in the lot. Soriana (a Mexican supermarket chain) could learn much from these sellers.
SInce Mercado de Jamaica sells flowers for use as gifts, it's natural that fruit vendors package gift arrangements as well.
Exquisitely prepared candied fruits catch my eye. Peaches, pears, figs, tunas (prickly pear fruits)—each sugary specimen looks perfect.
This candied fruit looks nothing like the crudely hacked stuff in our local mercados or supermarkets. Check out these calabazates—candied miniature pumpkins—each in its own little dish.
As in other Mexican mercados, the selection is larger than in U. S. supermarkets. Unfamiliar fruits and vegetables are abundant. An example, the yellow-orange tecojotes are an apple-like fruit that appears seasonally. I see them used to flavor poncha, a fruity drink served warm during the Christmas holidays. I wonder what other ways they're used.
The tecojotes are priced at 15 pesos per kilo, about 50¢ a pound. The apples in the background are priced the same—50¢ a pound. They are imported Washington State apples identical in quality to those sold for $2 per pound in Los Angeles. That says something about distribution and margins in the U. S. food distribution system ¿No?
The sign stuck in the pile of strawberries says "Who gives you more?" I wouldn't be surprised if they were imports from California—Watsonville or Oxnard. They look like the flavorless, case-hardened variety, bred to have a shelf life of four weeks. But at 70¢ a pound maybe they're a good deal anyway. A few fish genes spliced into strawberry DNA never hurt anybody. Who gives you more?
Which of these things is different? A solitary egg vendor squeezes in between two fruit stands. Consistent with Mercado de Jamaica standards, his display is arresting.
But the eggs along with the pineapples and melons, high as their quality may be, are nevertheless products of agribusiness. The pineapples—from Hawaii, the melons—from California's Imperial Valley maybe, the eggs—from Bocacho, a huge Mexican producer. The tecojotes may have been locally grown, but they're bucking the trend.
Mercado de Jamaica offers produce as good or better than what you can buy in Draeger's swanky market in Menlo Park, CA. And it does so at less than a quarter of Draeger's prices. The mercado's produce is the best of the best: that is, the best that agribusiness can produce. The appearance is gorgeous: the flavor and healthfulness may be something else.
I'm currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. I've always preferred food that is locally grown using organic methods, but I never really appreciated how big corporations have hijacked our food system, how good nutrition and palatability have been sacrificed for appearance, transportability, and shelf life.
I think I'll continue buying my food at tiny Via Organica or Natura. The selection is limited to what's in season locally and it doesn't always look as pretty as the stuff in Mercado de Jamaica. But it's always healthy and flavorful.
You have a great eye with a camera - for an old guy ;)
Posted by: sparks | 11/26/2009 at 06:13 PM