Almost every town we have visited in Mexico has a market. The Mazatlan market is open 7 days a week and is packed just about everything you could want. There are vendors selling everything from tooth paste and toilet paper along with fresh meats, complete with the whole steer or hog hanging form a meat hook. The Mazatlan market was designed by Eiffel, of the Paris Eiffel Tower fame, so it's quite the grand and historical structure. The smaller Mexican towns all seem to have their version of the grand market and while some are not so "grand" the truth remains that they are the place to go for the freshest fruits and meats in town. The market in San Blas is quite nice with two different fruiterias (fruit and veggie shops), three carnecerias (butcher), five diner style restaurants serving up some of the best authentic Mexican food in town and the lowest prices, two general dry goods tiendas, and two pollo shops (chicken shops).
In my trip to the San Blas market yesterday I purchased 1.5kilos of port tenderloin for $84 pesos ($6.4US) along with 1kilo of ground pork for $50 pesos ($3.80US). The pork tenderloin is some of the best I've tasted and the ground pork will be made into homemade Italian sausage. When I ordered the kilo of puerko molida, the butcher cut chunks of lean meat off the handing pig and ground it on the spot for me. I actually had to ask him to include a little more fat for flavoring.
In addition to the markets, towns typically have a weekly traveling flee market. The flee market in San Blas is on Saturday and in addition to all the typical flee market items like clothes, tools, and yard sale type items, the flee markets have the local farmers selling their produce. Taco stands of all types are mixed in with snack foods and in Topolobampo, there is even a butcher cutting off pieces of the steer with his portable band-saw.
In many ways, the Mexican markets and street markets look very similar to what we have seen in Italy in terms of local fresh produce, meats, and cheeses with the main difference being the inclusion of taco stands and Spanish replacing Italian and panini.
The bag of oranges in the above photo was purchased for about $3 and they supply us with fresh squeezed orange juice every morning. The tomatoes were $0.20 and the four hass avocados were $0.70.
Photo showing the street vendors with the Market building on the right. Smartly the Fish vendors are kept outside!
Inside the Market building