What might I find in a Mexican grocery?

Cafe Society
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Whoops, my lack of culture is showing!

There’s a small Mexican grocery about 300 yards from my house. It’s been there for a couple years now, and I’ve never ventured in. I always wonder if there’s anything really awesome I’m missing out on. I don’t know a ton about authentic Mexican food…wait, I do know that Mexican Coke is made with real sugar…but they do seem to have a smoker going out in front on a regular basis. I assume this is for carnitas, but as I said, I really don’t have a clue. I look at the Mexican section of the reg’lar grocery story, and don’t ever really see anything I feel like I need to have.

Not being one who likes to put myself in situations where I’m clueless, I haven’t ventured in to poke around.

Do I need to check it out?

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You will find:

A better selection of dried chilies than your grocery store. Unusual canned goods. With luck, excellent tortillas made locally. Apple and tamarind soda. Strange chocolate that makes excellent cocoa. Tamale wrappers.

I’ve been to an unassuming Mexican grocery store in the next county that has four tiny tables in the back, and they serve the most amazing and authentic Mexican food. So maybe that.

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Mexicans.

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Yes. They probably have some really good salsa and quacamole. Some good Mexican sausage like chorizo. Some good flavored meats like carne or pollo asada. They might have fresh made tortillas which are a million times better than the store bought kind.

I can’t think of much else at the moment. But here is southern California Mexican food is everywhere and is considered normal everyday food so there’s probably a lot more stuff that I don’t consider Mexican but as just normal.

I’d definitely check it out just to see what they might have.

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Real sugar soft drinks.

Cans of fruit nectar type drinks.

Chorizo

Candles with Jesus or the Blessed Virgin on them

Candy with chili powder as one of the ingredients

Menudo (not the singing group made up of perpetually 15 yr old boys)

Canned veggies that don’t grow around here.

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Beat me to it. :stuck_out_tongue:

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But it does answer the question of what happens to former members of the boy band, when they get too old. :wink:

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Jumping beans!

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Budweiser with tomato juice.

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Chihuahua and queso fresco cheese, good melty and crumbly kinds.

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Just. GO. !!! :smiley:

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I live and shop in a Mexican neighborhood. Main things I find at my grocery:

A large selection of chile peppers, both fresh and dried. In the fresh section, off the top of my head: serrano, poblano, jalapeno, habanero, anaheim, cascabel, banana pepper, peron (aka rocoto). In the dried: ancho, pasilla, guajillo, morita, chipotle, habanero, pequin, arbol, japanese.

The fruit and vegetable selection may be different. For example, at my store you will find fresh tomatillos, guava, various mangos, prickly pear paddles (nopales), prickly pear fruit (tuna and xoconostles), a selection of different types of plantains and bananas, fresh garbanzo beans, sometimes fresh fava beans, chirimoya, chayote, etc. Lots of different root vegetables including name, malanga, yuca, boniato, yautia, etc. The herb selection will definitely include cilantro, but often also epazote, maybe culantro, fresh chamomile, hoja santa (although not around my parts) and things like that.

The meat section may feature parts of the animal you’re not familiar with. There are often various types of tripe on sale. Skirt steak (both inner and outer) is usually a featured cut (outer skirt is generally preferred). You may have goat on sale. You may even find a goat or pig head on sale, depending on the time of year and how “hardcore” your Mexican grocery is.

Also, the butcher section may have homemade chorizo (sometimes both red and green varieties) and pre-marinaded meats of all kinds for grilling or roasting.

The dried herb section will usually be a bit different than your standard US herbs. Annatto seeds, Mexican oregano (quite different than regular oregano–they’re not even in the same plant family), dried hoja santa, dried shrimp (both pulverized and whole), etc.

You should be able to find masa (a hominy dough) or masa harina (flour made from hominy) that is used for making corn tortillas and tamales. Also, as said above, your tortilla selection should hopefully be better than at a regular grocery. My store doesn’t make their own tortillas, but they get deliveries from several different tortillerias in the vicinity, so when you buy them, they’re still warm in their wax paper.

If the grocery also contains a bakery, then you will find all manner of delicious Mexican sweets and some of my favorite rolls in the world: the telera and bolillo.

And that’s just off the top of my head, but your grocery may be different. Why don’t you just venture in and check it out?

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Because I’m not one who is always comfortable immersing myself in unfamiliar situations :smiley:

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Reusable canvas bags with vibrant color schemes.

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The “smoker” out front is probably for charring the skins of fresh (usually green) chiles so that they are easy to peel. Carnitas aren’t smoked IME. :slight_smile:

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Well holy crap, why didn’t anyone say so in the first place?!?! I’m there!

Nah, I’ll go in and look around soon. I Just wanted a little info before I did. I don’t know what to do with many of those new foods. Except tortillas, I know some things to do with those.

Maybe I should find a couple authentic type recipes, so that I have a list of things I need to look for…

Ah, a little more research on my part would support that observation :slight_smile: See? Toldya I needed to do a little homework first!

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This is a cookbook that I own, and it is an excellent primer for newbies to Mexican cuisine. Try the Pollo Aguascalientes, it’s delicious!

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The disks of chocolate with cinnamon: eat them right out of the package. They’re good.

If you make any recipes with canned or dried beans, you’ll probably find a better selection of those at the Mexican market than you will at a supermarket.

If you like salsa, you will find a better selection of salsas at the Mexican market. You don’t need an authentic Mexican recipe to know what to do with salsa.

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About ten years ago I was thinking of moving to a town where the only nearby grocery store was Hispanic. I had cats at the time, and did not see any cat stuff: food, litter, etc. My high-school Spanish did not cover this, so I tried to ask the clerk using the universal language of mime. I pretended I was a cat, I squatted, I buried with my paws, I scooped.

They asked me to leave.

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Moved MPSIMS --> Cafe Society.