Sunday was the last day of B’s Week in Oaxaca and he had some last-minute shopping to do. Family back home had requested a stack of tlayudas (also spelled, clayudas), the 12″ diameter handmade and dried tortillas, and quesillo, Oaxacan string cheese. The closest mercado to B’s hotel was Mercado de la Merced. It’s one of the best in Oaxaca city — selling fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and dried chiles, healing herbs and incense, meats and poultry, breads and cheeses, baskets and oil cloth, housing juice bars and small restaurants (like the well-known Fonda Florecita), and more — almost everything one could ever need. These mercados make shopping social and fun — way more enjoyable than impersonal supermarkets and shopping malls.
After purchasing the requested items and wandering up and down the maze of aisles, we returned to B’s hotel to off-load the cheese (hotel’s refrigerator) and tlayudas (spread out on the bed to dry). Our appetites having been stimulated, we walked across the city to the off-the-beaten-path location of Criollo, the year-old creation of Chef Enrique Olvera (Pujol in Mexico City, Cosme in New York), Chef Luis Arellano (originally from the Cañana region of Oaxaca), and architect Javier Sánchez.
It was a good thing we were famished, as the 7-course tasting menu was more than enough. However, each plate brought such deliciousness, we happily continued on. And, the setting? While on an extremely busy street, once one steps inside this modern take on the traditional colonial courtyard, a sense of peace takes over. Sated, we wandered to their orchard at the back of the restaurant, where we were warmly greeted and offered a cup of poleo tea brewed in the outdoor kitchen set in the orchard. Our hostess explained this kitchen allows for the traditional preparation of some of the menu items. In addition, she pointed to another building that she explained was going to be a culinary bed and breakfast.
By the time we left Criollo, it was late afternoon. Before B returned to his hotel and I to my apartment, we marveled at what a full, delicious, and delightful six days it had been.
Just a note: A week isn’t nearly enough time to experience all that Oaxaca city and surrounding villages have to offer. We never made it to the Sunday market in Tlacolula de Matamoros, Hierve el Agua, Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (CASA), the alebrije pueblos of San Martín Tilcajete and San Antonio Arrazola, San Bartolo Coyotepec for their black pottery and Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca (State Museum of Folk Art (MEAPO), Santa María Atzompa for green pottery and the archaeological site, the Pueblos Mancomunados of the Sierra Norte, and then there are the mezcal palenques in the valley of Oaxaca. I guess B will just have to come back!
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