Every eating place in Mexico has a selection of condiments with which to pepper your meal. This was the largest selection we had seen (Bottom Left to Top Right: Refried pinto beans, guacamole, butter, red salsa, green salsa, spicy pickled vegetables).

Tamales -- one of my favourite dishes. We didn't see them as often in Mexico as I had hoped (we saw more quesadillas and tacos than tamales), but the El Fogon restaurant in San Cristobal treated us to a variety pack. All sorts of salty and, separately, sweet tamales. Delicious!

This dish was described literally as "Melted Cheese with Mushrooms". We had seen this on the menu a few times before, and since we liked Mexican cheese so much, we ordered it. However, we thought it would be a little more melted. It had been previously, but by the time it got to us, we broke our breadsticks trying to dig some cheese out. ;c(

In between meals, these snacks kept our tummies quiet. Green Enchiladas flavoured chips, mini spicy taco rolls called Takis, and corn chips with a chili and lime flavouring.

We got these chips and snacks at the national convenience store chain, OXXO.

Something odd you can find in the grocery store however is Ethyl Alcohol, which is labelled "not denatured" (they denature -- ie. add impurities -- to it in Canada so that people get sick if they try to drink it to get a buzz.). Hmm, it seems to be a big seller in Mexico!

Markets! Oh, how I love them! I especially love the aesthetically pleasing way that fruits and vegetables are piled atop each other in a delicately if not precariously balanced pyramid !

These funny-looking fuzzy vegetables have to be boiled before eaten.

Nopales (Cactus) -- also have to be boiled / prepared to eat.

I like the sight of coloured corn in Mexico -- we just have plain old yellow in Canada. Not as exciting as the green and yellow ones here, or the blue corn I have heard about.

In this part of the marketplace, these folks were preparing corn husk for tamales.

Here are the corn husks bleached and bundled, ready for sale.

Eric's favourite - the Loncheria (we likened it to the "Lunch-area").

Or you can just eat some of these snacks off the streets: fried pork skin and chips. It was not my first choice as a snack.

I enjoyed a cupful of this tasty corn (elotes) dish with lime juice and spices. I opted out of the mayonnaise add-on, usually a good idea when travelling. Mayonnaise is an easy product to get sick on if it is not kept refrigerated.

We also frequently went to these "food court" areas within markets. Often on the second floor of the building, you order the food at one of these kiosks and eat right there in front of the pots and pans. It doesn't get more authentic then that!

The menus offer: enchiladas (green sauce, red sauce, or mole sauce - the latter being a dark chocolate gravy sauce, very nice), stuffed chicken, steak, fried chicken, and the usual selection of drinks (coffee, tea, water, hot, chocolate, and fruit juices).

The continuing menu also offers soups/stews, stuffed peppers, meatpies, etc.