Monday, December 22, 2014

Lunes? ¡Tianguis!



This morning's visit to the street market yielded these various and sundry pleasures.

A huge pile of strawberries.  They look better than they are at this time of year.  Too early.  But I bought some anyway.  Churn them up into a smoothie.  In about two weeks they'll be a lot sweeter.  But they smelled so good I couldn't resist.


Green beans (delicious; we had some for dinner), white chayote, eggplant, yellow bells, cauliflower.  The only thing slightly exotic is the eggplant but we're finding more often here.


On the frutas end of things we have cantaloupes, limes, apples, mandarinas, kumquats, and watermelons.  I think it's too early for watermelons, and he didn't have any of these cut so I could look at the flesh.  But soon the little sweet ones will be on the back of some truck for sale at a ridiculous price.


A selection of pan dulces from a bakery a block way.  I tasted the brownie-looking pastry on the right and it was quite good, not too sweet, like a kind of fruit cake.   It's a variety of capirotada, usually so sweet I can't eat it.  It's usually available only during Lent, but this might be a Christmas variety.  Most of the pastries all taste alike, even though there are many different varieties; dry, sweet, lard-y.  But pretty!


This is the display of one of four or five DVD sellers in the market.  These movies are all pirated, frequently recorded on someone's iPhone or videocam, then burned onto a CD and sold in the markets.  The covers are downloaded, printed and slapped on a CD box.  I've seen some; terrible.  Sometimes you can hear the audience reaacting, applauding, laughing, etc.  They sell for  maybe 15 pesos ($1.00) and are hugely popular.

Here is where you can buy your makeup!  They have all sorts of things; lipstick, eye shadow, pencils, powders, rouge, blush, foundation, brushes to apply it all, nail polish, files, buffers.  It's all laid out in perfect rows, grouped together by categories.  There is nothing haphazard about this display.  It's neat and orderly and very up-to-date.  If you want something like hand cream or, in fact, nail polish remover, you'll have to walk down to the end of the line of stalls to the place that sells that sort of thing, along with shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, Kleenex®, etc.  Every stall has its specialty.


1 comment:

Liz said...

Just loved this vicarious walk through the ever-popular Monday Tianguis! I have such fond memories of that weekly adventure... Mouthwatering photos!

Also, loved seeing your festive lights again. What a treat!

Merry Christmas, Susan!