Excursão ao Mercado Central de Oaxaca

Betsy is fabulous! We were lucky enough to be the only people on the tour and just had the best time. I love the feminist focus to the tour, Betsy has the best attitude. We ate and learned SO much!

Really wonderful experience with our guide Dani. We enjoyed every minute and learned so much from her. I’m sorry I ate any breakfast because there was a lot of food. It was a culinary and cultural adventure.

We met with Betsy for a tour of this market, and we were so happy that we had a guide. We would never have found the gems for eating or the reason why she supports the various vendors without Betsy. We had so many different dishes that we ended up sharing and wish we had from the start. Tlayudas, quesadillas with flor de la calabaza, two kinds of mole, pulque, atole, and others. Too many to remember. She offers another tour of 3 markets which would have been great also. It’s nice to support female owned businesses, and we highly recommend this tour or one of her others. The tours of the markets are perfect for your first day in Oaxaca.

Overall, our food tour guide— Daniela— was professional, spoke good English, and considerate of our requests. We started the immersive food tour at Centro de Abastos market which covered tasting samples of pulque and tepache (fermented drinks to coat one’s stomach before the various market tastings; Oaxacan pan de cazuela with hot coffee: grilled quesadilla with stringy cheese and zucchini flowers; grilled memela with lard, frijoles, and cheese; empanada with yellow mole, chicken, and cilantro; grilled lamb barbacoa soup with sides; chico zapote fruit and sugar cane stalks; passion fruit drink; and a chocolate sampling at Mayordomo. Daniela then took us to Benito Juarez market to have a few more food samplings there: Tejate drink; beef barbacoa snack with sides; and nieve (icy sweet). Throughout the Oaxacan food tour, we made some stops so that we could also purchase souvenirs. I wanted to visit Doña Vale who is famous for her memelas and smoky salsa and Daniela navigated us to her stall at Centro de Abastos market. Very good tour.

From beginning to end we were the only reservation after another couple had canceled so it was our own private tour by our extremely knowledgeable Luis. We ate and drank various food & drink each of which represented different cultures and customs. You need to pace yourself though as there is a lot of wonderful and very tasty food to try. Sometimes we shared to ease the volume but oh so good! Plus the market offers sights & smells that overwhelm the senses in a very good way! There is also the opportunity to shop and purchase local made wares, pan(bread) & delicious Oaxaca cheese! We ended with delicious homemade ice cream. Specifically made by hand in metal tins, surrounded by ice & salt. This food tour is worthy of your time!

Luis was a wonderful guide and we had such a great time sharing food, learning about the Abostos market and the amazing food from Oaxaca. Highly recommend!