Local Foods Class -- Part 2 of 3

My last post left off with our class walking to the Mercado 10 de Agosto (otherwise known as Diez de Agosto marketplace).  It was about a fifteen minute walk "up" into town.  This mercado is located just off of Calle Larga (take a left on Calle Larga after you walk up the long, steep ramp).

The potatoes, meat, and fruits are on the first floor; and the vegetables and medicinal flowers are on the second floor.

When you first go inside, you'll see the potatoes (chaucha, cholla, milloco, among others).  The potatoes in the Andes are very starchy so you need to pick the right kind for the type of cooking you're doing.  The chaucha is best for making mashed potatoes, and the cholla pequena make good potato salad because they don't fall apart during the cooking process. 

Price List

Other tubers include cassava/yuca (yucca), oca (yam), camote (sweet potato), and mashua.

Next it's onto the fruit -- and there is so much to choose from.  You'll see fresas (strawberries), moras (blackberries), guineos (bananas), pina (pineapple), pitahaya (dragon fruit), babaco (a type of papaya), uvilla (gooseberry), sandia (watermelon), cherimoya (Mark Twain's favorite fruit), granadilla (passion fruit), tomate de arbol (tree tomato), and guayaba (guava), among others.

Note:  Branden did say that the best apples to make applesauce with are the small ones from Paute (manzanas del Paute).

Moras (blackberries)

Sandias (watermelons) and
Babacos (mountain papaya)

Fresas (strawberries)

Price List

Then it's onto the meat section, where you'll see large cuts of beef and whole chickens.  No pictures here so as to not offend the vegetarians.

Here are pictures of the aesthetics of the building itself:

Escalator

Stairs

Stained Glass Ceiling

Next, it's onto the second floor to the vegetables.  Again, there is so much quantity, it's amazing.  You'll see cebollas (onions), tomates (tomatoes), calabacin (zucchini), coliflor (cauliflower), brocoli (broccoli), calabazas (pumpkins), zanahorias (carrots), and maiz (corn), among other veggies.

Col (cabbage)

Tomate de arbol (tree tomatoes).  They're actually
fruits and make delicious juice.

The onions (cebollas) are already peeled for you!

Price List for the veggies

Zucchini (huge)!

Beautiful

The carrots (zanahorias) are short and fat,
but still very good.

An indigenous woman shelling the corn

Another woman grinding the corn, to make
cornmeal for empanadas, tamales, and humitas.

Now, it's onto the area where they sell the chocolate and the spices:

Also the eggs:

These eggs were beautiful (of course naturally colored)

Lastly, we saw the medicinal plants and flowers.  They were beautiful also:

I had a tea made from these flowers, and it was delicious. 
(You boil the flowers in water, strain, then add sugar and lime juice.)

Now that we know where to buy the groceries, our next class will be to learn how to cook them in delicious recipes.  Not sure when that class will be, but should be soon.