The supernatural and the secular, the old and the new, the exotic and the mundane converge at Mercado de San Juan- a collection of food so eclectic and extraordinary as the imagery that frames it. Mercado de San Juan offers a gateway into what would be the equivalent of anthropological “Cliffs Notes” on Mexico. In less than four aisles, visitors can walk 500 years back in history and choose from  a wide array of pre-Hispanic sources of protein including  chicatana ants, grasshoppers and other insects.

Grasshoppers on display at Mercado de San Juan
Mercado de San Juan, Mexico City, Mexico
Photo credit: Brenda Storch

Walk a few aisles and a couple of  centuries forward, and discover hundreds of varieties of cheeses at “La Catalana”. Walk a few steps more and find anything from duck to wild boar, ostrich and crocodile in the meat section. Plus, the market has its own fonda, a little food bar with fresh, rustic-yet-extraordinary flavors, in case you want to stay and eat like a local.

Fonda Dish at Mercado de San Juan
Mercado de San Juan, Mexico City, Mexico
Photo credit: Brenda Storch

I have spent most of my life in Mexico City, and it was not until a recent trip home that I decided to visit Mercado de San Juan. This market has attracted shoppers for hundreds of years, and more contemporarily, celebrities, up-and-coming chefs and food enthusiasts. If you are in D.F. and close to the Centro Histórico, have a taste of Mexico in one of the aisles of Mercado de San Juan. Here, food is sustenance, food is love, food is sacred. Missing it, a sin.

“San Juan”(St. John)
Mercado de San Juan, Mexico City, Mexico
Photo credit: Brenda Storch

Address: Antiguo Mercado de San Juan Ernesto Pugibet, No.21 loc.162 Centro Historico, Mexico D.F.