The Mercado Benito Juárez, directly south of the zócalo, is Oaxaca's main covered market: a dense grid of stalls selling everything from vegetables and flowers to mezcal, mole pastes, Oaxacan cheese (quesillo), chocolate, and traditional crafts. The food section near the centre is one of the best and cheapest places to eat in the city — look for the comedores (small kitchen stalls) serving memelas, estofado, and the seven moles over rice at breakfast and lunch prices that restaurants charge three times as much for.
The adjacent 20 de Noviembre market is even better for grilled meats: stalls in the section called the Pasillo de Humo (Smoke Corridor) grill chorizos, tasajo (dried beef), and cecina (cured pork) over charcoal, and you can buy them by the kilo with tortillas from the women patting them out at tables nearby. Both markets open early and wind down by mid-afternoon.