If you've wandered through the streets of a small town in Mexico, you've probably seen women wearing aprons like those in the photo above. Often they're heading to the mercado to pick up whatever they're going to cook that day.
The display in the photo isn't in Mexico, however, but in a Mexican outpost in East Los Angeles, El Mercado.
Cobblestone streets and brightly painted buildings may be missing, but this busy marketplace is crammed with Mexican cookware, boots and sombreros, groceries, a panadería, typical clothing and places to eat.
At Sonia's Artesanías on the second floor, you can get typical sweets from Mexico. I bought the candied limes stuffed with coconut that you see in the center and rompemuelas, brown candies that contain bits of coconut.
Their name means tooth breaker, and if you try to bite them apart, you'll wind up in the dentist's chair. The candies are formed in rows of mounds in a large square. To break up the square, I had to use a Chinese cleaver, a hammer and a heavy pestle.
Here are more of Sonia's candies, including the dark gray discs called queso de tuna. These soft sweet cakes are made from cactus fruit.
Sonia's also has big tubs of mole paste in whatever style you want to cook--red, green, poblano and more.
I asked the girl in the mole photo where to eat, and she sent me to La Nueva Fuente (above). It's the best place on the second floor, she said.
The menu above shows some of the dishes they serve.
I chose the tlacoyo, an oval masa cake stuffed with black beans and topped with spicy green salsa, cheese, onion and cilantro. Simple street food, very traditional, and very tasty.
La Nueva Fuente displays its drinks in the same big glass jars you would see in markets in Mexico. The one on the left is a blend of frozen strawberries, milk, sugar, vanilla and ice. This sounds rich, but it was light and refreshing. My waitress had made it herself.
Agua de limón (limeade) is in the center. Agua de melón (cantaloupe) is on the right.
The third floor is where you eat and listen to mariachis. During the afternoon when I went up there, this area was dark and almost uninhabited. All the action was downstairs, a lot of it at La Nueva Fuente, which was packed at lunch time.
El Mercado, 3425 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90063. (323) 268-3451.
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