Mexico's largest food market.

It's easy to get lost when visiting La Merced Market. No matter how good your Spanish is, you should hire a tour guide to take you around. They not only know the way but can also point out which shops are worth trying.

Just inside the main entrance of the market are several food stalls. Pictured is an unnamed stall that's only here a few days a week. However, they all offer the best tlacoyos (oval-shaped Mexican snacks).

There are dozens of bustling stalls lining the main food section. This is where market workers and shoppers gather to eat caldo de gallina (a chicken stew, best enjoyed with a raw egg), tacos topped with french fries, pancita (a stew made from beef tripe), and a rich pork posole soup.

At the meat section of the market, you can buy una vaca entera (a whole cow) for a few thousand pesos. The butchers also demonstrate their meat-cutting skills in front of their stalls. If you want to buy smaller quantities, you can also choose steaks or cuts of meat that have just been cut by the butcher.

If you enjoy eating the head of a cow, stop by one of the tacos de cabeza vendors (tacos with meat taken from the animal's head).

In a dark, incredibly quiet corner of the market, past nopales (people who don't want to be photographed), you'll find specialty stalls selling crispy fried insects like crickets, grasshoppers, ants, larvae, and aquatic creatures resembling these tiny crayfish.

Chicken intestines, once cleaned, processed, and cooked, may look like worms. However, they taste like the richest and most delicious piece of chicken you've ever eaten.

You can spend hours (even days or weeks) making mole sauce (a traditional Mexican sauce). For a quicker option, you can visit mole sauce vendors at the market, where flavorful pastes are sold by the kilogram.

Just outside the market are the sweets vendors. Many stalls attract customers with blocks of fruit-flavored candy stacked like bricks. Their sticky, sweet surfaces attract bees and flies.

Although the market is largely dedicated to selling food-related products, the open-air market also offers a wide variety of items such as calendars, decorations, and cheap sneakers made in China.

Near the end of the main food street, past the butchers on the right side from the entrance, is a taco stand. They sell everything from carnitas to tortillas. Diners will hear the sizzling sound of the pork and beef mixture. You should buy a beefsteak taco to enjoy this delicious Mexican specialty.