To the San Juan market (Ernesto Pugibet) you go with the desire to broaden your palate with flavors that challenge the ordinary. You can spend half an hour sampling cheeses and charcuterie, discovering rambutan or over ten varieties of Japanese mushrooms. As you wander through its aisles, you’ll find more oddities like scorpions dipped in chocolate or spiders fried with chili pepper, because insects and game meats uphold its reputation as the city’s most exotic market. While you may not need armadillo, crocodile or iguana meat, the experience is enriched by the possibility of delving into the unusual. Besides, here even the quesadillas have chicatana ant sauce or some other similar delicacy. With its roots deep in pre-Hispanic times, this market is a living space, a meeting point for cultures, flavors and people; a warm embrace of the city’s rich diversity.