Descriptions of goods sold in the marketplace of Tlatelolco give us the best idea of what kind of quick bites to eat were available to residents of Tenochtitlan. Our level of granular detail about street life in Tenochtitlan may not be sufficient for us to know whether the city had the same ubiquity of street food seen today, but we can definitely say that prepared foods were readily available with a quick walk or canoe trip to the market.

Diaz del Castillo gives a rambling inventory of the various goods available in the market, but he does specifically mention "the women who sold cooked food, dough and tripe." Sweets are alluded to when he references "those who sold honey and honey paste and other dainties like nut paste." Finally, he also writes of "others who sell some small cakes made from a sort of ooze which they get out of the great lake," which would be tecuitatl, pressed and dried cakes of spirulina algae. Diaz del Castillo describes it as having "a flavour something like cheese," while the Spanish friar Motolinia mentions it having a pleasant saltiness.

Despairing that he could not recount all the goods of the market, for fear the such an edeavour would never end, Diaz del Castillo only gives us a quick glimpse into the array of items available. In Sahagun's General History of the Things of New Spain, however, we get a more encyclopedic listing of some of the foodstuffs up for sale. Large sections of Book 10 are set aside for listing out the various types of merchants and types of things they sell, everything from beans to needles.

The section on the "tortilla seller" is particularly detailed, in part because the tlaxcalnamacac would also sell tamales as well. At the very least she is mentioned as selling "meat tamales, turkey pasties, plain tamales, barbecued tamales, those cooked in an olla." Not content to stop there though, the text describes a dizzying array of tamales:

grains of maize with chili, tamales with chili, burning within; fish tamales, fish with grains of maize, frog tamales, frog with grains of maize, axolotl with grains of maize, axolotl tamales, tadpoles with grains of maize, mushrooms with grains of maize, tuna cactus with grains of maize, rabbit tamales, rabbit with grains of maize, gopher tamales... narrow tamales, fruit tamales, cooked bean tamales; cooked beans with grains of maize, cracked beans with grains of maize... wide tamales, pointed tamales, white tamales, fast foods, roll-shaped tamales, tamales with beans forming a seashell on top, with grains of maize thrown in; crumbled, pounded tamales; spotted tamales, pointed tamales, white fruit tamales, red fruit tamales, turkey egg tamales; turkey eggs with grains of maize; tamales of tender maize, tamales of green maize, adobe-shaped tamales, braised ones; unleavened tamales, honey tamales, beeswax tamales, tamales with grains of maize, gourd tamales, crumbled tamales, maize flower tamales.

A similar list is given for the available items paired with tortillas, in addition to a plethora of sauces made from various chilis as well as beans, tomatoes, sorrel, mushrooms, and avocados.

In general, it seems clear that sellers of foodstuff would offer both bulk unprocessed items and a selection of prepared goods. So the fruit seller might also have roasted squash on hand alongside the raw gourds. She might also be selling toasted maize, squash seeds, or chia fried and sweetened with honey. Similarly, the fish seller might be offering up "fish wrapped in maize husks and cooked in an olla," while the meat seller might have a selection of "jerked meat, oven-cooked, baked, dried meat; roasted, cooked in an olla."

There was also the "seller of fine chocolate" who was distinct from those who simply sold cacao beans. She was specifically a vendor who sold prepared chocolate drinks, grinding, whisking, and pouring out cups of chocolate flavored with chili, vanilla, honey, or various flowers. A more plebeian option would be to visit the atole seller who might also flavor that drink with honey or chili, or perhaps fruit or chia.

So even if we cannot definitely say there was a taco cart on every street corner, we can absolutely say that the market functioned as a sort of food court for the people of Tenochtitlan.

How would those goods be paid for? I mean, what was used as money in pre-conquest Teotihuacán?