The Deal With...Food

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A few weeks ago, I did a post on money and how much things cost here. And it's taken me a while to get back to my promised post on food!

It took us some time to get our bearings straight in regards to getting groceries. First of all, we don't have a vehicle (or a license yet), so we either have to walk, take the micro, or a taxi. And we have a couple of options for shopping.

We have a market that is close by, Los Pozos, that is a large 4 story warehouse building with everything and anything you can imagine (no perishables inside). And on the outside streets, for blocks and blocks around are little vendors that have set up shop in the inside of a garage door, and will sell you everything from diapers, to mops, tomatoes to oil, cheese to chicken, flip flops to sugar, potatoes to bread.

Most markets are open at 4 or 5 in the morning, depending on when the vendors arrive. Apparently if you go to any market at 5 in the morning, it is packed and crazy. Why? Well, all the hired house help is out getting all the food for the day and has to be back in order to prepare breakfast by 6 or 7 in the morning. You can get the best deals for produce earlier in the morning and also the day before the new produce is scheduled to arrive. I paid 2Bs (about 14 cents) for a watermelon, only because I bought it at 8:30 a.m. and it was on Monday, the day before the fresh stuff comes in.

For the most part, when we head to the market, we take a cloth shopping bag and walk the 7 blocks to the market. There we just wander on the sidewalks, past all the little tiendas on one side, and past all the sellers of produce that have set up on the outside edge of the sidewalk. It's pretty crowded and you need to make sure that you keep a close hand on your money.

If you see something you want, you ask how much it is for a kilo or for a certain number and then the vendor will tell you. If the price is right, you buy, they put your flour, sugar, eggs, milk bags (remember those from the 70's?), etc. into a plastic bag, you give them your money, and then you keep shopping. If you aren't happy with the price, you just walk around and see if anyone else is selling it for less.

The whole market thing can be quite time consuming. In the last 2 weeks, I've discovered two bigger markets as compared to Los Pozos. Nueva Feria is the best place for household stuff, electronics, shoes etc. (all is new). Cumavi is the place to go for used things (the market is really a bunch of stalls covered in tarps in the middle of a field. And the place I went this week with my Spanish teacher, Shirley, was Mercado Abasto, where all the produce trucks from the countryside bring in the freshest produce. That place is huge and kind of crazy, but it has the cheapest and best produce in the city. And thankfully the micro that goes by our house, goes right to that market. However, I probably would take a taxi home with all my stuff, it's just a bit easier that way.

When we get home from the market, all the produce needs to be soaked in an iodine and/or bleach solution. That's to kill any of the bacteria etc. that might be on them. You soak everything in large bowls for about 20 minutes, and then you rinse them with clean water. Then we put stuff in the fridge or in the wire basket.

To get bread, I walk 3 blocks to the bread shop and buy fresh little sweet, or cheezy, or salty buns. You have to get there between 2:30 when the bread is just out of the oven, and 4:30 when everything is gone because people come to buy for supper. Today, Carl went at 5:00, not expecting much, but managed to bring home 8 or so buns for supper.

So we buy all our produce, most everything like oil, vinegar, diapers, flip flops, electronic stuff, household stuff at the market. I haven't quite gotten brave enough to buy raw meat hanging on the hooks on the open air. I feel a bit better buying that in the supermarket.

Then there's the supermarket. One is 6 blocks away, and again, we have to walk and take our cloth shopping bag. That's where I buy our meat, cheese, processed stuff like crackers or jello. I'm sure I could find everything in the market besides the meat and cheese, but sometimes if I happen to be at the supermarket, I'd rather just pick that stuff up. The prices are more expensive considering it is more convenient.

We also purchase a few things from local people here. We get some of our milk and eggs from Felipe, who is a national worker and has a farm. Nati makes peanut buttter, so we buy hers and there's a lady at the bible study whose neighbour makes tortillas. Talk about buying local!

The first few weeks here, it was quite frustrating. It was difficult to find the basic things we needed for cooking. To add to that, we don't have a vehicle and don't have the luxury of shopping to stock up. We have to head to the market at least every 5 days. And when you aren't sure where you are going (because the market is many blocks long and many blocks wide) it's hard to continue to wander around looking for that last thing on your shopping list. Plus, language for me has been a bit of a hindrance, so that adds extra time trying to communicate!

But on the most part, we are getting used to the whole buying experience here. I feel confident enough to venture out on my own and buy whatever we need (I haven't gotten brave enough to take a child with me though). And if anything, we are given opportunities to buy local, to exchange money with the person that grew my food, even if it does take longer, the buying experience certainly isn't dull here!