To Market... to Merida!

Running a little cooking school for tourists in Mexico has many challenges, to be sure... especially when you are catering to a collection of astute, curious travelers who are expecting - and deserve - a high quality experience. (read: a big bang for your buck!) That's good because it keeps us sharp. Also, on the plus side it means we need to source out certain special markets once in awhile, for the unique and authentic wares we offer in our little shop. Like the ones in Merida. So today's the day to visit the capitol of the Yucatan - a beautiful historic colonial city - to explore some of the specialty shops where we find the Molcajetes, Lime Squeezers and Tortilla presses.

The molcajete (derived from the Náhuatl molcaxitl from molli - seasoning or sauce - and caxitl - box) is the Mexican Spanish name for a traditional stone mortar-and-pestle, and is of pre-historic ancestry. It is a tool that was being used in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago. No Mexican kitchen today is complete without one. The one we use at the school has an indentation on the lip where the stone has been worn away by so many years of grinding spices and salsas. It belonged to Claudia's grandmother, and being the baby of the family, Claudia was the lucky one it was passed on to. Claudia also recently found a unique artisan's version in Mexico City that incorporated a beautiful hand carved wooden exterior. We didn't stock molcajetes in our shop originally, thinking that travelers would steer clear of them -- they are stone and are pretty darn heavy. But when we tried a couple of them, a few weeks ago, they flew off the shelves. Hence the need to get back to the Markets of Merida.