Mexican Market Eating

San Juan De Dios Market
Mexican Cuisine
Juarez 1, San Juan de Dios
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Ph: 01 33 3614 2042

Before coming to Guadalajara, Mexico to visit my friends, I received a lot of tips on where to go and what to do and where to eat. One of those tips were to check out the biggest indoor market in Guadalajara and one of the largest in Mexico called the Mercado de San Juan de Dios. This market sells anything and everything. Fresh produce, shoes, crafts, Mexican dishes, clothing, DVDs, imported goods and knock-offs, electronics, jewelry, candy... name it, they have it. Surely, I made sure to visit this famous market and came armed with a friend who's a local and my unused and unpracticed haggling skills.

The Mercado de San Juan de Dios greeted us with numerous stalls of local fruits and many shoppers hopping from one stall to another having a taste of the vendor's fresh picks of the day. I couldn't resist taking a slice from a vendor selling juicy ripe papayas sprinkled with lime juice and chilli powder. The fruit was indeed fresh and delicious but if you add the tart taste of the lime juice and the kick of the chilli powder, the papaya will tease your tongue with the added extra flavours. There was such a variety of local Mexican delicacies that will definitely spark your interest for a taste but heading to the market's second floor will even make your tummies grumble.

The second floor of Mercado San Juan de Dios was studded with small restaurants and food stalls serving tacos, tortas, quesadillas... I would think they pretty much served all the Mexican dishes known to man. One of the friends that I visited mentioned for me to try the pozole soup made with pork and white corn. I was cruising the second floor and reading the menus of the small restaurants as the servers tried to lure me in, I noticed the pozole soup being served almost everywhere. My friend who accompanied me to the market wasn't exactly excited that I was planning to try the pozole since we all heard horror stories of tourists having to sit on the porcelain throne more often than they wanted after eating in Mexico. Hoping that my Filipino (but actually now Canadian) stomach of steel won't let me down, I sat down at one of the restaurants and ordered the pozole.

The pozole was served in humble dinnerware with tostadas, lime and chillies. I love condiments so I took joy in squeezing the lime wedge and crushing some chillies into my soup and once this was done, I took a spoonful for a taste and it was delicious. The pork meat was tender and tasty, the white corn kernels had a harder texture and had a distinct taste that was different from your regular yellow corn and the soup was flavourful thanks to all the Mexican spices that was tossed into the broth. The tostada was well-suited with the pozole and even gave this dish a nice crunch. I have to say eating the pozole at the San Juan de Dios Market was a nice experience and fortunately, my stomach was able to handle it because there were definitely no regrets there only fond memories of the bustling market and satisfying pozole taste.