The Dish on Mexico City's Markets

Juárez, who is developing a new generation of artisanal Mexican cheesemakers by giving classes at a local creamery, cuts me a hunk of Mexican goat cheese. My tongue lingers on a creamy, salty morsel that tastes more like a first-class brie than the goat cheese I'm used to.

"The French, the Swiss -- this is just as good," he crows, and he's not far off.

Warmed by Juárez's charm and by the heat of the pozole, you would have thought we'd had enough. But there was more eating to do.

We head for the chic Roma neighborhood and its Medellin market, an airy, light-filled space so named because it specializes in Colombian and other regional fare, along with the Mexican classics. We race past the Peruvian Inca Cola and the Colombian empanadas, then settle in at La Morenita Ostionera, a favorite that has grown in the past five years from a mere stand to a full-fledged restaurant with waiter service and more than a dozen tables.

La Morenita has its own version of a quesadilla, but it's nothing like the one at La Merced or like any quesadilla we'd get in the States. We select a shark-meat quesadilla. It arrives in a deep-fried shell. The mild meat is chopped, sauteed simply in a fish broth with grilled onions and garnished with chopped tomatoes and white onion chunks. One other thing: It has no cheese. Go figure. We throw in shrimp seviche for good measure.

I'm tucking into my second quesadilla when something whizzes just past my ear. I look up and see a man with a 100-pound side of beef slung over his shoulders. I realize that the thing whizzing past me was a cow's hoof.

"Well, we are in a market," Nick says, shrugging.

We're both champion eaters, but finally it appears we've reached our limit. We rise and head for the door, but an ice cream man catches my eye. He stuffs a scoop of rum-raisin ice cream, creamier than anything I've ever had in Mexico, and sweet, made in the style of his native Cuba. I am transported to Havana, one of my favorite cities.

I down it in minutes and think back on our day. We've eaten grilled quesadillas and fried quesadillas, tacos, pozole, seviche and ice cream, not to mention all Juárez's cheese samples. And it cost a grand total of $22 for both of us. I once paid that much for a single vodka tonic in Miami. I consider our culinary marathon, and I feel, suddenly, like a professional urban dweller . . . and very, very full.