Sunglasses anyone?
This morning I met my friend Paul at the Chuburna tianguis, in a neighborhood here in Mérida. I call it a tianguis but I didn’t actually hear anyone refer to it in Spanish so they may call it something else.
Tianguis is a word from central Mexico and it basically means a flea market or farmer’s market, usually held once or twice a week. This one is every Sunday.
Paul goes every week and I went one other time with him and a lot of other people. This time I met him there and it was just the 2 of us. We had more time to look at everything, eat, and chat with the vendors.
Last time I bought a canna and it has done really well. This time I got another canna, a kerpis palm and a small sansevieria. Afterwards we went by Paul’s house and he gave me a couple of large clumps of another sansevieria, very tall and shaped like a pencil. I scored!
Noni
Oh, and I got talked into buying a couple of Noni too. Noni, the new wonder fruit with all kinds of health claims attached.
The trees grow here, Paul says they are beautiful trees. The lady selling the noni was really charming and I spent so much time looking at them and handling them and asking about them that I felt I had to buy a couple.
She says they will be ripe in 3 or 4 days and I should put them in the blender and then mix them with pineapple or orange juice. Paul says they smell really bad when they are ripe. She said they don’t taste like they smell and that the smell goes away when you mix them with other juice. We will see.
There were not a lot of vendors but there was a lot of variety. Flowers, plants, fruit, antiques, previously owned clothing, new tacky clothing, something for everyone.
Flower Seller
Antiques
Plants and fruit
When we got tired we went over into the regular market for food. Most of the stands sold traditional Yucatecan food or fruit juice blends.
All traditional Yucatecan food
A new one for me were Polcanes, so that’s what we had. They were good but they are basically masa with beans inside, fried in lard, with shredded cabbage on top. Good and filling and cheap but not too healthy.
Polcanes
Market food court
I spent the rest of the day planting and enjoying that Sunday feel. A friend who sells at the tianguis came by with exactly the brass mail slot I want for the front door, I’d asked him if he had one and he said he’d look. He rode over on his bike and delivered it, it’s perfect.
I was told that the word “Tianguis” means “awnings.”
You got me to look it up, that’s good. I show it as Mexican Spanish for street market but it makes perfect sense that it would come from a word that meant awning as the stalls are usually covered with temp awnings.
def. tianguis
I heard the word a lot in Jalisco but haven’t seen or heard it here. That doesn’t mean it isn’t used though since I haven’t heard any other word for a street market either. Mercado isn’t quite the same thing, perhaps someone more knowledgeable will kick in here. Theresa? Kathe? Cristina?
“Tianguis” is the word used in the Diario de Yucatan for the temporary markets, so presumably it’s in fairly common use here in Yucatan. I use it occasionally, and no one has ever given me a blank stare….
By the way — I see you’ve changed format…I had to make an extra click to enter this comment. Whine. (Joking, Jonna).
Heh! all that clicking is exhausting.
Damn! I forgot a title again. I seem to have a hard time remembering to put a title, a category and tags. All new stuff for me, I never used them on the old blog.
I have been reading your blog for so long that I feel like I know you, Mimi and family! I lived in Playa for 3 1/2 years and have been in Chelem for the past year and half, we are always a half step away from each other! This looks like a great place to go! I have never heard of it. I love the flowers and food! You are going to have to tell me exactly how to get there. Remember I am just a beach gal, not used to the big city! Really love your blog!
I think tianguis is just the right word…I have not heard of one that more specifically describes a temporary market…interestingly, here in Chetumal the used car lots also call themselves tianguis and they are not temporary…
Re: the Noni….I think the Noni was what the Acai Berry is currently…someone’s good marketing of a product that promises a lot more than what it delivers…sort of a modern equivalent of a ‘snake oil’ product. I have lots of the Noni bushes growing at my house and they do have beautiful foliage…no critter seems to be particularly interested in eating the fruit, however. I have tasted the fruit and it is sort of nasty tasting. Everyone assures me that you just need to mix it with OJ or something that tastes good….my philosophy is ‘Why ruin a good glad of orange juice?’
Tianguis comes from the Nahuatl word *tianquiztl* that means market.
It doesn’t mean awnings, although I love the idea.
Cristina
Glad the experts showed up, tianguis it is and I love knowing it comes from the Nahuatl Cristina.
Teresa, glad you commented. I love your blog and need to add you to the blog roll. I hope you are feeling better but it sounds like you are being well pampered at home. My directions to the Chuburna tianguis would be from the wrong direction for you and I don’t know the street names. I’ll see if I can get the names another time but for now, going north (towards the beach) on Tecnológico go to the 2nd light past CostCo and turn left. Turn left again at the first light. You will see the market down a few blocks on your right. There is a regular market there all the time but the tianguis is next to it near the sports field and is only on Sunday morning.
I grew up calling the flea market, el rastro. Which I learned is the name of a big flea market in Spain. So I am no help. I don’t do as well with Mexican Spanish as some other people do. The word that I know for awning is toldo.
regards,
Theresa
ah, la guapa Cubana, you are still an expert to me. I love your gravatar.
I should go back for accuracy sake and change the name of the palm I got from Kentia to Kerpis, I probably heard the guy wrong. It has changed my plan for where to put it though, the Kerpis (Adonidia merrillii) does not do low light well and I planned to put it in the hallway. So, if this post reappears in your RSS reader, it’s because I’ve gone back to fix it.
Thank you! just what I need to read right now…