Sep

What’s in the World’s Largest Food Museum?

by Eva Boynton on September 21, 2016

A woman selling chocolate at Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

Oaxacan chocolate rivals Swiss and Belgian chocolate in flavor, in uses (mole, hot chocolate,
sweet and savory dishes), and in cultural heritage.
© Sam Anaya A.

Chocolate, Pineapples, and Cultural Heritage—All at Mexico’s Central de Abasto

“Zoooooom!” A cart stacked with mangos tumbles by me, almost taking my right foot along for the ride. Fortunately, Isabel Ramillo, who sells chocolate from Oaxaca, grabs my shoulder to pull me out of the way.

As I regain my composure, my nose catches a whiff of meats, flowers, and spices for Mexican mole sauce. My ears ring with the sounds of “¡Buen precio!”, whistles, and hundreds of shuffling feet.

I’m in Mexico City at the Central de Abasto (“Supply Center”), the world’s largest wholesale market. But, considering the people, produce, and regions of Mexico represented here, to my eye it is more like a bustling food museum.

Pineapples stacked with their juice in front at Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Eva Boynton)

At this “museum,” the exhibits are interactive—buy and sell, sell and buy.
© Eva Boynton

Within the mountains of tomatoes, baskets of chile de árbol (tree chile), bags of nopal (a type of cactus), and shelves of pineapple, there are also links to Mexico’s cultural heritage. You may be surprised at what you find.

Metropolis Within a Metropolis

The Central de Abasto has everything typical of a big city: banks, kitchen supplies, laundry, convenience stores, electronics and restaurants—not to mention Mexico’s greatest show of produce, fish, flowers, seafood, milks, and meats.

Foods attract the eye in museum-like exhibits, carefully arranged for beauty and stability.

Carrots stacked in a criss-cross pattern at the Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Eva Boynton)

A carrot weaving?
© Eva Boynton

The market is a hive of activity with somewhere between 300,000–450,000 daily visitors, more than see Rome or Madrid in a day! Consider its impact:

30 thousand tons of food are sold here on a daily basis.
The market provides 80% of the food consumption for over 20 million Mexicans.
About 10,000 loaders, known as diableros, operate carts that carry goods to the vendors’ stands. They are among the market’s 70,000 employees.
Warehouses in the market complex cover 328 hectares (810 acres).
Fifteen halls, totaling 11 kilometers in length, hold 100 warehouse sections each—all filled to the brim.

In fact, the market is so big that freeway-like signs direct customers to the halls, each of which specializes in one type of food or goods. In just the produce area, about 2,000 vendors sell fruits and vegetables.

Inside a hall packed with people at Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

In the middle of the hustle and bustle!
© Sam Anaya A.

Cultural Roots

The concept of a large central market in the area that became Mexico City goes back six hundred years to the Aztec market known as Tlanechicoloya. Throughout Mexico’s cultural history, foods and goods have continued to change hands in central markets.

In the 20th century, when Mexico City expanded around the downtown La Merced market to the point that traffic congestion impeded market operations, the government decided to open a new central supply center.

In 1982, it inaugurated the Central de Abasto in Iztapalapa, an outlying district in the eastern part of Mexico City. Over time, the Central de Abasto became its own metropolis. Today, it is not only the most important food supply and distribution site for Mexico City but also for the entire country.

Two vendors holding a papaya in front a stack of papayas wrapped in newspapers at the Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

Papayas travel from Oaxaca to the Central de Abasto to be sold by Enrique and Eric Mandujano. They are wrapped in newspaper to keep their color and avoid oxidation.
© Sam Anaya A.

The produce from the country travels first through the Central de Abasto and on to homes, taco stands, neighborhood mini-markets in Mexico City and even to outlets in Mexico’s different states.

A Taste of Cultural Heritage

Mexico is a country of diverse cultures and regions, all represented at the Central de Abasto by vendors offering products unique to their regions.

If the market is a food “museum” offering a collection of cultural heritage, then the foods are the cultural artifacts in the collection. These are foods that have fed indigenous and Mexican populations across centuries. They offer you nourishment and something more—a taste of cultural heritage. Tastes like these:

1. The Pitahaya

Known as dragon fruit, pitahaya or pitaya (pee-TAH-yah) comes in an exotic pink with a delicious surprise center. As a member of the cactus family, it grows in the northern desert regions of Mexico.

Every July, a pitahaya festival is celebrated in Miraflores, Baja California. A gathering contest kicks it off and is followed by traditional dance, music, and food dishes, many of which showcase pitahaya as an ingredient. The festival began thousands of years ago with the Pericúes, Guaycuras and Cochimíes, indigenous peoples who celebrated the juicy fruit in cactus “forests.”

A girl holding a pitahaya fruit cut in half at the Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

Pitahaya comes with a sweet chia seed-like gelatin center.
Add some yogurt for a tasty combination!
© Sam Anaya A.

2. Magnificent Mole Sauce

Coming from the Nahuatl word molli that means “sauce” or “mixture,” mole (MO-lay) is used as a base for soup, poured over different kinds of meats, or used as a sauce for enchiladas. It can include a complex arrangement of 20 ingredients, including chiles, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and sometimes cacao.

Bags filled with different spices at Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image© Eva Boynton)

A rainbow of mole and other spice powders
© Eva Boynton

The flavors and styles of mole vary with the region in Mexico where it is prepared: moles come sweet, spicy, red, yellow, brown, and in a variety of names. Mole poblano, named the “national dish of Mexico,” is associated with either the state of Puebla or Oaxaca. The origin of the famous dish is a mystery told in several legends.

3. Huitlacoche

Huitlacoche (wheat-lah-CO-chay) is a fungus that grows on corn kernels, a delicacy inherited from the Aztec who added it to soups, crepes, quesadillas and tamales. Though its name translates from Nahuatl as “raven’s excrement,” it makes a tasty dish when you slap it together with onion, garlic, and salt.

Huitlacoche fungus at the market, an artifact of cultural heritage at Central de Abasto (image © Eva Boynton).

Huitlacoche is also known as corn smut or Mexican truffle.
©Eva Boynton

In Chiapas, people connect huitlacoche to family, history, and life in Mexico. When families searched for the fungus in corn fields, they spent quality time together. While they walked through the fields, elders passed down stories and families built a relationship to their land and crops.

Oh, I See

The experience of the Central de Abasto is like that of a grand museum. You leave happily exhausted from looking hard at the details of the past and present.

What I took away from the market was not only some tasty cultural artifacts but also a new understanding of Mexico’s culinary cultural heritage. The Central de Abasto transforms from a food market to an epicenter of national inheritance: the gifts of the land incorporated into cultural practices.

Mexico City is the city with the most museums in the world — 128 in all. It is a city that proudly preserves its cultural heritage. Let’s put one more museum on the list—the Central de Abasto!

A table with produce bought at the Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

A display of cultural souvenirs
© Sam Anaya A.

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Eva Boynton 6 Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Mexico

Sep

World Photography: The Art of the Neighborhood

by Meredith Mullins on September 12, 2016

Man from Dublin street photography series by Eamonn Doyle. (Image © Eamonn Doyle.)

Untitled, from the i series
© Eamonn Doyle/Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

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Eamonn Doyle’s Dublin Streets

Sometimes the sets and characters of a neighborhood become just a background track for daily life. The peripherals fade from view. Familiar details lose their luster. People pass unseen.

The act of creating through a camera lens can bring a neighborhood back into focus.

That’s exactly what happened when Irish photographer Eamonn Doyle took camera in hand after a 20-year hiatus.

He rediscovered his home turf—capturing the urban landscape of North Dublin within a half-mile radius of his house, often finding his subjects within just 10 meters of his front door.

He stripped scenes to their essence and brought himself—and those who spend time with his photographs—inside the pulse of Parnell and O’Connell streets.

Panel of Eamonn Doyle's exhibit at Rencontres d'Arles, a revelation for world photography. (Image © Meredith Mullins/Exhibit photographs © Eamonn Doyle.)

A reverence for the Parnell Street elders
© Meredith Mullins/Exhibit Photographs © Eamonn Doyle

The result was a trilogy of books (i, ON, and End.) and an exhibit at this year’s Rencontres d’Arles that takes hold of the viewer in an unshakeable way.

No Manifestos

Eamonn Doyle at the Rencontres d'Arles, making a difference in world photography. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Eamonn Doyle at the Rencontres d’Arles
© Meredith Mullins

Presenting one of the best shows of the festival, Doyle lands with force on the stage of world photography.

He makes no claims about his images. He doesn’t like labels. The photographs could be called landscapes of the city, fleeting portraits, or a unique form of street photography as seen through only his eyes.

He has no manifesto or intellectual philosophy. He just makes pictures—pictures of passing strangers on their individual journeys.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

The i Series: The Respected Elders

The i series features the local elders—those characters who have worn a familiar path in the neighborhood streets.

Doyle is drawn to solitary figures. He takes this isolation further by working to eliminate what he calls the “visual noise of the streets.” He shoots on Monday mornings, after the street cleaners have removed trash and grime and captures his subjects in the simplest graphics of a setting.

“I shot from above, mostly, and tried to flatten the figures into the pavements and roads,” Eamonn said of the i series. As a result, the subjects often seem weighed down, as if being looked at by the burden of life itself.

Woman with red gloves from Eamonn Doyle's i series, a revelation for world photography. (Image © Eamonn Doyle.)

Untitled, from the i series
© Eamonn Doyle/Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

Their faces are usually turned away, affirming their anonymity—their status as strangers. However, what is not shown is important.

As Eamonn explains, “I want the viewer to look elsewhere, to find cues other than the obvious ones, to look harder and, if need be, to infer the missing faces.”

The viewer must act . . . must notice these usually unnoticed souls—the textures, colors, and style of their clothes; their few cherished possessions; their pace, posture, and gestures—their journey.

Strangers on a Dublin street, from Eamonn Doyle's ON series, a revelation for world photography. (Image © Eamonn Doyle.)

Untitled, from the ON series
© Eamonn Doyle/Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

The ON Series: The Changing Cityscape

The second segment of the trilogy shows a neighborhood changing dramatically in mood and tense. We, as viewers, enter a raw and vibrant present.

Where the elders were flattened into the scene, the ON subjects leap from the photographs in strong black-and-white, low-angled power.

Here, we see the strangers’ faces, movement, energy, and the context of their lives.

Black man from low angle, from Eamonn Doyle's ON series, a revelation for world photography. (Image © Eamonn Doyle.)

Untitled, from the ON series
© Eamonn Doyle/Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

The neighborhood is dynamic, exploding in a multicultural mix of activity. Immigrants from West Africa, China, and Eastern Europe clash with the sharp edges and angles of the city.

And we begin to understand the text that fueled Doyle’s theme for this series.

You must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.
—Samuel Beckett, The Unnameable

The End. Series: The Loop of Life

In the third segment of the trilogy, we see the neighborhood in bits and pieces—a mosaic of lines, forms, textures, and inhabitants—that we somehow know are destined to have impact on each other.

Diptych from Eamonn Doyle's End. series, a revelation for world photography. (Image © Eamonn Doyle.)

Untitled, from the End. series
© Eamonn Doyle/Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

This series is not just a collaboration with fragments of life. It is an artistic collaboration, with Doyle providing the photographic vision, Niall Sweeney providing design and illustration, and David Donohoe replacing the usual city sounds with a haunting, looping electronic track.

Eamonn Doyle exhibit at Rencontres d'Arles, a revelation for world photography. (Image © Meredith Mullins/Exhibit photographs © Eamonn Doyle.)

Strangers in a strange Dublinland
© Meredith Mullins/Exhibit Photographs © Eamonn Doyle

Immersed in the Neighborhood at Rencontres d’Arles

End., as well as i and ON, came together this year in the dramatic installation at the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival in southern France—a revelation for world photography.

For me, the “Oh, I See” moment came as soon as I entered the darkened Espace Van Gogh.

Here, Doyle, Sweeney, and Donohoe have recreated Doyle’s North Dublin neighborhood pulsing with life—an integration of past, present, and future that made the theme of passing time clear on so many different levels.

Visitor at Eamonn Doyle's exhibit at Rencontres d'Arles, a revelation for world photography. (Image © Meredith Mullins. Photographs © Eamonn Doyle.)

Stepping into Dublin streets at the Rencontres d’Arles
© Meredith Mullins/Exhibit Photographs © Eamonn Doyle

The design of the installation transported me to the streets, but I was not as hurried as the photographic subjects. I paused and let the city find its rhythm, much as Doyle must have—picking out the most interesting characters and studying them as they passed by unaware that anyone is watching.

Windows to the streets of Dublin
© Meredith Mullins/Exhibit Photographs © Eamonn Doyle

The physicality and scale of the panels lent themselves to the energy of a city, and the well-placed “windows” in the grids allowed a view beyond that first glimpse of life.

When a connection was made, the eyes of the strangers on the walls were penetrating, following me whichever way I walked.

The whole experience was mesmerizing.

Woman in scarf in Eamonn Doyle's exhibit at the Rencontres d'Arles, a revelation for world photography. (Photo © Meredith Mullins/Exhibit Photo © Eamonn Doyle.)

The eyes of this Dublin stranger follow you long after you leave.
© Meredith Mullins/Exhibit Photograph © Eamonn Doyle

Most of all, I was inspired to reconnect with my own neighborhood—to slow down and take a closer look at the fleeting human drama that is always present—and to say, with the rest of the world, “I’ll go on.”

Visit Eamonn Doyle’s Exhibit in the Espace Van Gogh at the Rencontres d’Arles in Arles, France, until September 25. Find more of Doyle’s work on his website and at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London.

Find more information on the Rencontres d’Arles here.

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Meredith Mullins 4 Comments

Ireland/The World's Photography

Sep

So Far, So Fab, Sofia!

by Joyce McGreevy on September 6, 2016

Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church is one of the most popular sights in Sofia, Bulgaria. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Russian-inspired and relatively new (1924), Alexander Nevsky Memorial
Church has become the most recognized landmark in Sofia.
© Joyce McGreevy

Wanderlust Leads to Sofia

If you visit Sofia, Bulgaria, prepare for the inevitable response.

“Bulgaria? Bul-GAR-ia? Where IS Bulgaria, exactly?”

The only European country never to change its name, Bulgaria is in the Southeastern European peninsula known as the Balkans.

Balkan means “a chain of wooded mountains,” and Bulgaria epitomizes this. One-third forested and teeming in biodiversity, Bulgaria borders the Black Sea to the east, Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south.

“Why Bulgaria?” This could take a while, given the rich culture, thoughtful people, affordable prices, fabulous food, excellent public transportation, and natural wonders.

Seven Rila Lakes in Rila Mountain, south of Sofia, inspire wanderlust to visit Bulgaria. Image by Filip Stoyanov

South of Sofia, Rila’s glacial lakes mirror the sky 6,000-8,000 feet above sea level.
“Seven Rila Lakes in Rila Mountain” by Filip Stoyanov is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Collage of Cultures

Start with mind-blowing history. Bulgaria is a collage of ancient cultures: Greek, Roman, Slav, Bulgar and, above all, Thracian. Orpheus the musician was Thracian. So was Spartacus the warrior.

In 342 A.D., when Sofia was called Serdica, Alexander the Great’s father loved it so much that he declared, “Serdica is my Rome.” By the 1200s, the Bulgarian Empire was the dominant power in Balkan Europe.

Then came conquest by the Ottoman Empire, re-emergence as an independent state, and the post-WWII years under Soviet Communism.

Ancient ruins amid a modern cityscape are one more reason people with wanderlust visit Sofia, Bulgaria. Image © Joyce McGreevy

A single view encompasses ancient Roman ruins, Byzantine churches,
Ottoman mosques, and signs of post-Communist commerce.
© Joyce McGreevy

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and so did the Eastern Bloc. Westerners may be surprised to learn that the transition to parliamentary democracy was far from celebratory. Shortages, crime, and uncertainty hurt living standards until the mid-2000s.

Bulgaria’s admission to the European Union in 2007 and ongoing reforms have been welcomed. If the performance of some post-Soviet governments have proved unsatisfactory, today’s Bulgarians are free to protest.

One urbanite installed on his balcony a giant sculpture of a hand pointing a certain finger toward the National Assembly. That’s a universe away from when the mildest political joke could lead to arrest, or worse.

Party House, the former Communist Headquarters in Sofia, Bulgaria are now scenic details for tourists with wanderlust. Image © Joyce McGreevy

The imposing former Communist HQ, now an archive, brought new meaning to “Party House.”
After 1989, the giant red star was removed by helicopter and replaced with the Bulgarian flag.
© Joyce McGreevy

Likewise, the post-1989 diaspora, which saw 1 million Bulgarians emigrate, has slowed. Bulgarians who travel abroad (565,000 in 2015) now have more reasons than ever to return.

College is free, the tech industry is thriving, and creative small businesses are on the rise. According to Eurostat, unemployment in Bulgaria is steadily decreasing, from 9.8 to 7.4 percent in the last year.

Ancient and Eternally New

Remember this if wanderlust inspires you to visit Sofia, Bulgaria: Cities are works in progress. Initial views from the airport taxi are dismaying—peeling stucco, exclamatory graffiti, the skeletons of Communist-built apartment blocks.

But here, too, are signs of restoration, renewal, and reinvention.

Vibrant murals and leafy green public gardens. Dazzling Orthodox church interiors, honey-colored mosques, and Art Nouveau synagogues. Street music and courtyard cafés. Grape arbors and roses encasing wrought-iron balconies. Markets where tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes.

Murals created by locals will delight you if wanderlust leads you to visit Sofia, Bulgaria. Image © Joyce McGreevy

It’s like hearing the melody line within a layered jazz composition. Once you perceive Sofia’s beauty, it surges to the forefront.

Sofia disproves the notion that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

It sets crumbling sidewalks at your feet and raises golden domes over your head. It begins interactions with solemn expressions, then breaks into smiles. It sends dishes out of kitchens slowly, the better to create unforgettable feasts. It surrounds you in a maze of streets, then makes it a pleasure to wander.

Ulitsa Karnigradska is one of the charming streets that inspires wanderlust to visit Sofia, Bulgaria. Image © Joyce McGreevy

In Bulgaria, even brusqueness isn’t always what it seems. On a rural day-trip I asked about buses back to Sofia. Suddenly, station personnel barked commands and practically carried me onboard. Sheesh.

Turns out the last bus of the day was about to depart and they were making sure I didn’t get stranded. It became one more reason to say Mnogo blagodarya, “Thank you so much!”

Perhaps the best way to be in Bulgaria is to find your “aylak.” That’s a Turkish word Bulgarians use as slang for going with the flow.

At Zoya on Aksakov Street, people with wanderlust to visit Sofia, Bulgaria find organic, vegan, and gluten-free fare. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Beyond “Fascinating Facts”

Travel blogs about Bulgaria are replete with “fascinating facts”: Bulgarians nod for no and shake heads for yes. Sofia has an actual yellow brick road. “OMG, Bulgarians play the bagpipes!”

Go beyond factoids and learn from locals. Sofia’s walking tours are among the world’s best and cover everything from arts and culture, traditional and contemporary dining, nature hikes, and even a candid history of Communism. (The latter stops at a leading North American coffee chain.)

Fun and sociable, the tours are also in-depth. Most are free. Tipping is good manners, but you won’t be pressured.

The benefits go beyond photo ops. Consider the perspective of Martin Zashev, whose nonprofit association has welcomed visitors to Bulgaria from more than 125 countries: “We believe in a world to know, to understand, and to improve. When people know each other—their cultural and historical backgrounds—they understand each other. And when you understand each other, you don’t fight.”

Martin Zashev, a guide for Free Sofia Tour shares a wealth of knowledge with all who visit Sofia, Bulgaria. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Personable guides like Martin Zashev of Free Sofia Tour and Hristina Bareva of Balkan Bites (below)
offer insights that you won’t find in any guidebook.
both images © Joyce McGreevy

Sofia Moments

Many who visit Sofia consider it a stopover to Black Sea beach resorts. That’s a pity. Stay a while, and along with architectural treasures, you’ll experience moments that become great memories.

Summer evenings when the air smells of rose oil and grilled red peppers. Filling a bottle with cold, refreshing water from an ornate fountain. Seeing the full moon illuminate Mount Vitosha.

My Sofia moment happened at a café near my Airbnb apartment. When I bused my own table the counterman looked surprised. Had I committed a gaffe?

“You’re becoming Bulgarian,” he said. Then smiled.

I’ll take that over a beach selfie any day. Oh, I see: When you visit Sofia, Bulgaria, wanderlust leads to lingering.

Flowers on a balcony delight those whose wanderlust inspires them to visit Sofia, Bulgaria. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Explore Free Sofia Tour and Balkan Bites.

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Joyce McGreevy 15 Comments

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