February 05, 2014
by Stephen Jan in Oaxaca, Mexico
I’ve heard that when it comes to Mole, Oaxaca is the place to be. Armed with Martha’s language skills, we marched into the Market near the main square in search of the best mole the place had to offer. Earlier in the day, we had asked locals about the best place to find mole, thinking we’d get a resuatent recommendation. To our suprise, we were recommended to check out the market. They told us th ebest market can be found there, not in restuarnat.s Fair enough, we went in looking for it.
We spent 2 hours walking around the market asking each vendeor who sold Mole about this mystical sauce that was oh so hard to make:
- There are 7 varieties of Mole. Mole Negro is most popular
- Two classifications of mole are: Industrial and Home Made.
- There are two varieties they are sold in: pwder, and paste
- Mole takes 3 days to make.
Walking around the market, i kept getting the feeling that most people I was talking to were merchants who didn’t really know much about Mole. Many vendors had this dispassionate look in there eyes as we asked questions about this supposedly fastastical substance that they sold.
Eventually, osmeone let on that a good percentage og the mole at this market was of this one brand called J—-. They told us that there is a factory right here in town not too far away.
We were expecting to see some big factory with some sort of aseemblt line of mole machines, much like and industrial food stuff operation would look. Instead, we found a bus station. Behind the bus station was a humongous tent market. In the market, we found everything that the first market had to offer, plus more. This was the “real market”.
Where the first market was calm pleasant and organized, this market was more bustling charotic and full of life. prices are much lower and sellers open to bargain.
We discovered this factory, and it turned out it was just a pacjageing center. We weren’t able to talk down the price of the mole, but it was less expensive than the other market. The workers clearly felt like they owed something to us and gave us a water bottle.
We knew that spending only a day in Oaxaca wouldn’t be enough to sample all the foods that the city had to offer. But we did out best to spend the day sampling Mole, Chololate, and mysterious street food. It’s time like these that I wish I had 4 mouths and 5 stomaches. I discovered that there are 7 main types of mole, the most popular being Negro Mole.