Retire Early
Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age
of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this
financially independent lifestyle, they invite you
to take advantage of their wisdom and experience. |
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Oaxaca
Central Market
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli
Currency Exchange
Oaxaca is
one of our favorite
Colonial
Cities in Mexico
to visit. It's lively, has wonderful architecture,
a good
restaurant selection, live music,
ancient ruins
and this amazing central market.

Fresh meats, handmade
sausages and head cheese
Oaxaca's market is full of
vendors with very fresh offerings. Here you see freshly cut meats, head cheese,
sausages of different styles, and even barbacoa. Barbacoa, simply put, is like a
pot roast style of preparation.
This manner of cooking is
originally from the Arawak peoples of the Caribbean. Usually they put whole
sheep or goats over an open fire and slow-cooked them. More traditionally, a
hole was dug in the ground where the meat was placed and covered with maguey
leaves until it was tender.
Needless to say, it's
absolutely delicious.

Oaxaca cheese, local
chocolate, different moles and a wide selection of mezcales
The market is divided into
sections and some of them overlap.
Along with the balls of
Oaxaca string-cheese in front here, you will find the locally made chocolate and tubs of
different moles.
Behind these vendors are
rows and rows of bottles of
mezcal, for which
Oaxaca is famous.
Notice in the middle right
of the photo are one-of-a-kind artistic bottles of mezcal.

Oaxaca cheese and fresh
day cheese in baskets
Oaxaca cheese is a string
cheese celebrated around Mexico, and it is very similar in taste to Mozzarella.
The process was first brought to Mexico by the Dominican friars who settled here
from Italy. Since there was no buffalo milk available, cow's milk was used.
This cheese is also known
as quesillo and melts beautifully for quesadillas.
In the baskets on the left
is what is called "day cheese" in Mexico. Made daily, it is crumbly, moist,
mild in flavor and
is usually added to the top of chiliquiles or sometimes salads.

Fresh chickens for sale
I have shared photos with my girlfriends of
whole chickens like these for sale in foreign markets and they have been aghast.
Never in their lives have they seen the head
and feet of a chicken attached to the body. Most likely their experience is of
pre-cut chicken breasts or thighs wrapped in saran and stacked in Styrofoam
trays in the poultry section.
I grew up with my immigrant Grandparents on
both sides cooking like they did in "the old country" in Europe. Nothing of the
animal was wasted, and huge stock pots on the stove with chicken feet sticking
out was a normal sight for me.
I'm really happy about this upbringing and it
gave me a respect for food.

Baskets of seasoned
fried chapulines
Chapulines is another word
for crickets.
Indigenous cultures have
eaten insects for centuries.
Nutritious beyond the
imagination, crickets contain niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, iron, phosphorous,
and calcium. Crickets also provide a complete food protein because they
naturally contain the right balance of essential and non-essential amino acids.
While we are not big on
insect cuisine (and have seen plenty of this in
Asia), we have
eaten chapulines.
Here you see various trays
with crickets prepared with lime and salt, chili pepper and salt, without spices
and also ground.

A close up of these critters
In our experience, these
guys are very rich, and only eating a few will be satisfying. We have had them
added to the tops of salads at very posh restaurants like Camino Real Convent
Restaurant in Oaxaca.
By the way, Oaxaca is known
for it's cuisine.

Our
friend, Dale, excited to try a
fried cricket!
Chapulines are a very
common and affordable food source all throughout
Mexico,
Central and
South
America.

Thinly sliced meat for
the grill
This thinly sliced meat is
called cecina and inside the Central Market
is an area known
for cooking on the open fire.
One stops buy, purchases
their meat selection and then after it's been cooked on the grill, the waitstaff bring it to your table.
This is not to be missed.

Cow tripe, cecina, and sausages ready for
the grill
This a better view of a section of this asada
- or grilling area.
Pricing is per kilo. Two hundred pesos at
this time runs about $10USD.

Having breakfast in the
central market
Here we are in the Central
Market at a meetup with other RetireEarlyLifestyle friends, all wearing our
RetireEarlyLifestyle hats!!
We're discussing the
menu and getting ready to order a late breakfast, early lunch.
The sign of the restaurant
says "Traditional Food, The Little Grandmother, Proud tradition that
perseveres."

Chicken Mole
Oaxaca, like Puebla, is famous for their
moles.
This was my early lunch chicken mole.
Delish!

Famous Oaxacan Tlayuda
Another dish that Oaxaca is known for is the
Tlayuda.
It's a large, thin, crunchy, partially fried
or toasted tortilla covered with a spread of refried beans, some pork lard,
lettuce or cabbage, avocado, meat (usually shredded chicken, beef tenderloin or
pork), Oaxaca cheese, and salsa.
Depending on the neighborhood, sometimes the
Tlayuda is formed into a stuffed crispy triangle.
Essentially, one gets some very good flavor
with a bit of crunch!

Extensive list of ice
creams offered
Ice creams in
Mexico can be very unique and flavorful.
Here is a selection of corn
ice cream, mescal, toasted milk, cheese and caramel. Notice the "Tuna" listing.
It's not what you think!
In our first experience
with "Tuna" ice cream, we were taken aback thinking it would be canned tuna
fish, ice cream style. But actually "tuna" is the name of the Nopale Cactus
fruit which can be red or green, and very sweet.
Have you ever had a Nopale
Fruit Margarita?
Then you get the idea.

Baskets of dried
beans, corn and chile peppers
Mexico has a wide variety of peppers, corn
and beans too. There
are fiery peppers, smoky peppers, and peppers that give sauces body and a
mysterious flavor.
Corn can be a multi-colored variety, a style similar to hominy, a sweet corn
and a starchy, staple-style corn that is often roasted on an open flame.
And beans... well they run the gamut!
For more stories and photos of Oaxaca,
CLICK HERE
For more stories and photos of Mexico,
CLICK HERE
For more on
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Retire
Early Lifestyle appeals to a different
kind of person – the person who prizes their
independence, values their time, and who doesn’t
want to mindlessly follow the crowd.
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