Markets & Grocers – Page 22

Coimbra: Breakfast at Pastelaria Palmeira and Mercado Municipal Dom Pedro V

February 7, 2014 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Coimbra, Desserts, Markets & Grocers, Portugal, Portuguese Food, Travel

After a fairly restless night of Ossos induced sleep, we woke early, veyr typical for us when on vacation. As with Lisbon, we notcied that folks wake a bit later in Coimbra. The Missus was just raring to go, so we headed off…..

We took a short stop on Praca de Maio taking time to admire the Church of Santa Cruz,which looked so peaceful and regal in the morning. As we approached we could hear a buzzing noise in the silence of the morning. Apparently, the building has electrified wires running around it to keep birds away.

A few blocks away, on Rua de Sofia, we found a little bakery that was doing a brisk business with locals.

The name of the place is Pastelaria Palmeira, so of course I had one…..

I had really gotten used to having that cup of espresso and a pastry for breakfast, that it just the right thing to do.

We enjoyed this place and actually returned the next morning before heading out of Coimbra.

Pastelaria Palmeira
Rua da Sofia 13
Coimbra, Portugal

Right up the street on Rua Olímpio Nicolau Rui Fernandes is the local Mercado – Mercado Municipal Dom Pedro V.

Much like the markets in Lisbon and Evora, business seemed slow. It seems that places like this are starting to fade away with younger folks shopping at chain supermarkets.

The place is a multi-level affair, full of little kiosks, the seafood area separated from the other stands.

As you can see, nary a customer in sight. I'm wondering if it was just a timing thing?

I'm hoping it is, since it would be very sad to see a way of life change…….

Mercado Municipal Dom Pedro V
Rua Olímpio Nicolau Rui Fernandes3000-303
Coimbra, Portugal

I did take my sweet old time here because I knew there was a steep hill in my future…..

Whole Foods- Made to Order Poke Bowl

January 30, 2014 Cathy Markets & Grocers, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog, is just that-a documentation of good, bad and ugly experiences, all eventually centering in on the central subject of food. Cathy is continuing this week of mediocrity with one of her recent experiences while Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are out and about seeking something to write about. This is a short post.

The closest Whole Foods Market is 11 miles one way from home. The Mister and I don't shop there regularly, but stop in when we are in the area and do enjoy almost everything purchased there, because we buy things we can't find elsewhere and it's an interesting place.

We especially enjoy meals at the Whole Foods in store restaurants, usually before we go shopping. (I have a few more posts about those).

One day a few weeks ago, the signage in the seafood section of the store caught my eye. "Made -To-Order Poke Bowl $7.99" salmon or tuna. I had to.

Since the sliced fish was $20/lb, I knew the portion I'd be getting would be small. No problem- a snack for when we got home. You'll notice the display fish is plain/not in a marinade…

I placed my order and the nice lady working proceeded to fill a bowl with rice from a rice cooker behind the counter. She then scooped out three scoops of the tuna (a good portion), squeezed out a marinade on top of the tuna and rice and sprinkled it all with black sesame seeds, sealed and labeled the bowl and handed it to me.

It was quite heavy (and warm; fresh rice)…since the marinade/sauce had just been placed, we decided to wait until we got home to share this bowl as a snack.

Well. The poke flavorings/marinade never really stuck to the fish and it dripped straight to the rice, so the rice was seasoned with the sweet/tangy/sesame oil flavors and good on its own. The fish didn't pick up much of any flavors at all. It was fresh and good (and pretty plentiful), but the next time we were shopping, I just bought a handful size amount of the sliced fish, brought it home and made my favorite recipe. Lesson learned.

I hope your week has been better than mediocre.

Rosca de Reyes-Traditions

January 7, 2014 Cathy Markets & Grocers, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for coming back to read mmm-yoso!!! Today, Cathy is writing a short post. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) will read it, as you are doing right now. You may or may not comment on it.

Well, it is a New Year and officially the Holidays are over. I was raised Catholic, The Mister is Lutheran and we have a few traditions which begin before Christmas Eve (when we decorate the house and tree and open cards and gifts) (that's a tradition). Another tradition that I have had since I was a child growing up in Detroit, is acquiring free advertising calendars -which are posted in just about every room as well as the garage work space in our home- from various merchants around town.

These are just five, I'll show you more in another post. The Mister and I have been under the weather and good friend and fellow blogger, caninecologne, of Pink Candles at Ridgemont High has been kind enough to pick up other calendars for me.

Another tradition, which is part of the Christian celebration of the arrival of Three Kings on the 12th Night following Christmas, January 6, (the first day of Epiphany, which celebrates the revelation that God's son is Jesus Christ) is celebrated in various ways with food.

In many countries, a King Cake is a popular food from Christmas until Epiphany. In the United States, King Cake can be acquired easily in the SouthWest areas along the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Epiphany until Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.

In Portugal, a Bolo Rei is the traditional dessert (it's sold in several Portuguese bakeries in the Point Loma part of town) and looks like a small jeweled crown, topped with glaceed fruits and nuts. It's more cake-like.

In other countries (Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Peru and Malta), a panettone is the traditional food consumed before Christmas until Epiphany. It's a sweet bread shaped like a cupola and filled with various candied fruits and raisins.

In Spain, a Tortell is the common bread, also round shaped, marzipan filled and topped with jewel colored glazed fruit, with a paper crown in the center.

In Mexico, a Rosca de Reyes, their common food, is more of an egg bread dough interspersed with citrus peel and decorated with dried and candied fruit to resemble a beautiful jeweled ring. This day is also traditionally when children in Mexico receive their Christmas gifts. Mexico also has another seasonal, religious holiday based traditional bread, which I have posted about. There's also more to this tradition, which I'll show you at the end of this post.

Since we live close to Mexico, Rosca de Reyes (Literally "Ring of Kings") are seen in many grocers and Mexican bakeries before Christmas Day. Various packaging and decorating abounds, yet it's ubiquitous.

The Roscas come in various sizes and prices.

The in store bakeries are very busy, baking many, many roscas for rapid turnover in sales.

Northgate Gonzalez Market this year advertised various flavors of Roscas and had them for sale on tables throughout the market.

I ended up with the traditional flavors.

The Northgate Gonzalez was a heavier bread topped with a variety of dried and candied fruit. Dates!The morning of the 6th, I walked into Kaelin's Mi Pueblo (my favorite East County Mexican Market for both groceries and a quick meal) and the Roscas were hot from the oven.

You can see it's a light, fluffy eggy bread with some bits of citrus peel interspersed…but the surprise interspersion:

A small plastic baby Jesus is baked in the bread. There are actually three of these trinkets in the small breads and more within the larger breads. The meaning of the hidden baby is of the Holy Family's flight from King Herod's plan to kill all male babies who could possibly be the Messiah. Tradition is that each person cuts a slice of the bread themself, symbolizing the danger the baby is encountering. The people who get the figurine in their slice are in charge of throwing a party on February 2 (Candelamas Day) and provide tamales and atole (a hot corn-based beverage) to all the guests.

Last night, The Mister and I cleared up our Christmas decorations and enjoyed some hot cocoa with our Rosca de Reyes and rearranging all those calendars. I hope all of you are enjoying the year so far.

Here is a LINK to CC's current post about her Rosca from Pancho Villa Market. There are links to her prior posts at the bottom and also a short video about the making of the Rosca.

Markets in this post: Northgate Gonzalez, Vallarta Supermarket, El Super .

U Mart Opens along with the second location of Big Joy Bakery

December 27, 2013 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers

*** Update: U Mart is now Hana Mart

I'd been wondering since July, when U Mart would be opening in the old Zion Market space. A bit over a week ago, I dropped by First Korean Market to see a sign announcing that U Mart's opening was imminent. So between meetings today I happened to pass the place and guess what?

I guess they are having a soft opening, nothing like the craziness of H Mart or Zion Market.

I had a few minutes so I decided to take a quick look.

The lay-out is pretty much the same as the old Zion, except not as crowded.

Tons of items on sale.

First Korean Market always had a couple of "local kine" items; I've never really found out why. I did notice this as I walked by.

All the usual suspects. There's a Kim Bap/Sushi area where the old prepared foods used to be.

I didn't have much time since I had to get back to the office for my next meeting…..

The rest of the space is still empty, except for this one area where the nice woman beckoned me and gave me samples…..

They were really friendly….heck I was the only customer in the place. When they gave me their business card I had to laugh…..this is the second location of Big Joy Bakery. I was told that some of the old food stands will be back, along with a couple of new one's for the Food Court. So dar, I haven't been impressed with the new Zion Market's Food Court. I hope this one will be better.

I'll try to return in the near future for a more comprehensive post.

U Mart

4611 Mercury St San Diego, CA 92111 B

Between Engineer Rd and Dagget St

Hours: Mon – Sat 9am – 9pm Sunday 9am – 8pm

Roadtrip: Alpine Village Market – Torrance

December 23, 2013 mmm-yoso German Restaurants and Food, Los Angeles County, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip

**** Sadly Alpine Village Market closed in 2023

Please pardon all the roadtrip posts. I wanted to do this one, because this place just put us in the holiday mood. We decided to head up to LA to do some shopping this past weekend, mostly food stuff. On our previous roadtrip (more posts coming up), instead of visting sites and such, we just ended up hitting various markets along the way. On this roadtrip, we hit up old favorites like the Torrance Farmer's Market, which seems to get larger everytime we visit and of course, Marukai Gardena, the motherlode with regards to Marukai's. But I had my sights set on another place that I'd only recently heard about; the Alpine Village Market, located close by in Torrance.

The Market is located in a large complex, called…duh…. Alpine Village. Along with the market, a deli, and restaurant and ummm "bierhall" (of course), there's a travel agency, driving school, clock and watch repair, along with the mother of all swap meets, which made the parking lot into an insane swarm of vehicles trying to find a parking spot. We lucked out and found a tiny spot to the left of the rather kitschy looking exterior of the market.

I was totally set on being underwhelmed, but this place exceeded my expectations. The market isn't very large but they sure pack a lot into the place.

From the bakery, with stacks of wonderful smelling bread.

And all the old school type pastries. It's a good thing I don't have a sweet tooth, otherwise I'd have gone a bit crazy here. The couple in front of me at the register bought three loaves of bread and spent almost $300 bucks on groceries. Kind of tough, since the prices seem very reasonable.

There are all sorts of candies and confections, canned and jarred products.

This is a German market, so of course a third of it would be the wine and beer section.

This was all nice, but the one section that was just packed to the gills busy was the butcher shop. The line was four to five deep. Man the place was hopping.

The collection of sausages and charcuterie was impressive……

I was told that all of this was made in house. There were sausages and cuts, I'd never heard of. There was a cold case full of various "wursts", but no one was taking stuff from there….it was all happening in front of the meat counter.

One look at the selection of head cheese and we were sold; the Missus took and number and headed into the fray.

Honestly, if this were say 99 Ranch Market and a survival of the strongest type situation, we'd truly have walked away. But this crowd, though busy and intense, also had a bit of jovial, friendly nature to it. Perhaps it was the holiday season, but as nice as the crew behind the counter were (and they were very nice), the other customers were really friendly, at least to us. I guess we kind of stood out…..

Back in the line, the Missus was having a conversation with an African-American gentleman originally from Louisiana, who seemed to know everyone….he told the Missus he came here every two weeks. He had a basket full of smoked beef bones for his dogs. The Missus decided to send me off looking for these….which is how I came across this:

Grieben Schmalz, which I had heard off but never seen in a market. When you hear the term schmalz, you tend to think of the Yiddish "schmaltz" which refers to rendered fat from fowl……grieben schmalz on the other hand is rendered pork fat….think lard, that has been flavored with onion and in many cases, though not this one, with apple. How could I resist? I grabbed five beef bones and a container of schmalz and a older woman looked at what I had in my basket, smiled, and asked me, "you like schmalz?" I tols her that I'd never tried it, but seeing it, I just couldn't resist. I was told it is fantastic on toast. I mentioned that my wife is standing in line to buy head cheese. She asked me which one we chose….I told her all of them. She laughed and said we would have a fine buffet. Apparently, her daughter brings her here every two weeks to shop; "even though I live in Orange County and there are shops there, everything is twice the price and half as good as here….."

Interesting tidbit about buying deli meats…..the counter folks ask you for quantities in "slices"……though they were ok with the Missus ordering a quarter pound….of all the head cheeses.

Thus we ended up with a basket of smoked dog bones, head cheese, some candy, flavored lard, and three containers of sauekraut, purely for comparison of course……

All our stuff came out to $35, pretty cheap I think. I'm sure we'll be back again, this time for sausages, and perhaps more Grieben Schmalz.

Alpine Village Market
833 Torrance Blvd
Torrance, CA 90502
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 10am – 7pm
Fri – Sun 9am – 7pm

So we did end up having our "Kaltes Buffet" of sorts. So remember the variety of head cheese? Well here's sampling along with what seems to be cured pork belly stuffed with forcemeat….simply called "pork belly", along with a few cheeses.

My favorites are the top two; the "Norweigan" seemed to be made of shank and shoulder, with a nice pork flavor, no vinegar, with minimal aspic to hold it together. The second one down is the "Hungarian" version, which was full of various vegetables and some pickles, with a distinctive flavor that I found pleasant. The fourth item down, the "French" version had a good amount of paprika and reminded me of capacolla with a bit of pleasant sourness to it.

As for the schmalz….well, I started by tasting some of it straight from the container on a spoon, which tasted nice, but the Missus just wasn't able to eat it that way.

So what I did was toast some baguette, smear a bit of the schamlz on it and put back into the warm toaster oven to melt.

It is "betta' den butta'"…..

While this won't make me forget about duck fat; it sure will taste good with eggs or used to make brussel sprouts…or heck, even if we do cook some coleslaw……

Roadtrip: Solvang Stop – El Rancho Market and Birkholm’s Bakery

December 22, 2013 mmm-yoso Desserts, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, Santa Barbara County

We left Hacienda Heights at 530 am, thinking that'd we'd avoid all traffic, even on a weekday….at least that's how things used to be when we lived here. I had an account in Hollywood and made a deal to come in early; leaving at about 515 so I could leave early, heck, even hit up the Zankou location in Hollywood and make it home in time! Times sure have changed….there's was a good deal of traffic at 530am on the 60 West, then on the 101. Once we got past Hollywood things got a bit better, then really cleared out until we hit Santa Barbara. Of course, it was prime time traffic by then. We'd decided on heading up this way, stopping along the drive, at places like Solvang. Right outside Solvang was our first stop…..we love markets, so dropping by El Rancho was a must…..

We loved El Rancho; good variety, the Missus got to add to Her apple collection. Prices that were reasonable, you could leave without feeling mugged. You could get local product, or if not, just to do your everyday shopping. We Also got some some organic treats for Da' Boyz….the Missus was tempted to grind Her own flour from wheat at the kiosk……

Loved the sign to the right….which was actually in the restroom!

The prepared foods section looked nice as well.

There's an attached coffee shop right outside the doors of the market where we got our "java fix". I don't drink much coffee these days so this really got me going…..

We enjoyed this as a nice little stop along the way. I thinknthey'd be great if you wanted to pick up prepared foods for a little picnic as well.

El Rancho Market
2886 Mission Dr
Solvang, CA 93463

After getting nice and "caffiened up" we headed into Solvang. We'd been to Solvang a couple of times and had never really enjoyed ourselves….too crowded, too kitschy, it just gave off that tourist trap vibe….. This time though, on a weekday morning in winter; the place seemed so charming.

It was just the perfect time for us, the half timbered structures, the quiet streets….the temperatures in the low thirties….even the locals we met were telling us how cold it was!

We enjoyed walking the streets and into the various businesses…..the folks were welcoming and relaxed.

I needed something to take back to the office, so I figured this would be the spot, right? We went to a couple of bakeries, but this one won out……

Birkholm's Bakery…..

Mainly because we were warmly welcomed….and they kept trying to give us samples! At the other places, we were basically ignored…..

The folks at work seemed to enjoy the stuff……

Birkholm's Bakery
460 Alisal Rd
Solvang, CA 93463

If we're ever back here, this is the way I'd want to do it….early morning on a weekday.

Soon enough, we'd hit our allotted time…….we needed to hit the road.

Bristol Cafe (inside Bristol Farms market) (revisit)(lunch)

December 6, 2013 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Markets & Grocers

mmm-yoso!!! Food blog. Friends share blogging time. Today, Kirk is enjoying chilly weather elsewhere. Ed (from Yuma) is enjoying chilly weather in Yuma. Cathy is chilly too and is the author of this post.

This easily could be another 'eat in the store, shop in the store' post, but I didn't take photos of our purchases or store displays (it was too crowded; day after Thanksgiving) (know that we bought by-the-pound poke, by the pound olives, a chunk of Bleu cheese, a wonderful aged rib eye steak (40% off that day), a cardoon, a coffee pot and cups gift set (also 40% off) and a fresh baked sweet from the bakery); it would be sensory overload to photograph the displays and variety of items sold here. Bristol Farms is an upscale high end grocer located in La Jolla that has a sit down cafe inside the store. I posted about a breakfast here in 2010.

There is a grab and go area, salad bar area and steam trays as well as the menu above the Cafe cash register, so you can grab, choose, pay and have a seat in the Cafe area or on the patio, and enjoy your meal.

Or you can have a seat and have a menu brought out to you, for full service.

There are Daily Specials listed on small placards on the table, and this was the Special on the day we were here- tomato soup and grilled Cheddar on sourdough ($6.99). This is no ordinary tomato soup: it was chunky with tomatoes and it was spicy -in a good way-. This is a great soup on a cool day. The fresh sourdough grilled cheese was really nice on its own and went well if you dipped it in the soup.

As our waitress brought out our waters, I asked about the soup choices (there are five or six soups a day). Cabbage soup, something I crave from childhood, would be part of this meal. It was very well seasoned, had some tomatoes and beef in it and very, very good.

One of the menu items was a cup of soup and quiche ($7.99). There were also five quiche choices and mushroom was the only word I remember hearing and ordering. This was *so* good. Really flavorful crust, fillings, custard, cheeses. Our waitress mentioned that we could purchase a whole quiche, made fresh daily in the store. I will be doing so, next visit.

A very satisfying, flavorful meal in a nice setting.

Bristol Farms 8510 Genessee Avenue 92122 (858)558-4180 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Website

CDD Tofu & Grill (Inside Zion Supermarket)

November 26, 2013 Cathy Korean Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog. This post is being written during one of the food-iest weeks of the year by Cathy. This is because the foodier guys, Kirk and Ed (from Yuma) are busy planning their magnificent Thanksgiving Day feasts.

The Mister and I try to have a bite to eat before grocery shopping and the Food Court area inside Zion marketplace (as well as the small counter in the midst of the actual market) offers quite a variety of selections.

You can see the signage advertising $2 off any combo all day as well as the Fall Special of $6.95 Tofu Soup, which we decided to share on this chilly day. We decided on a spice level of 2 (out of 5), since we knew the spicy here is very spicy.

The organic, non-GMO tofu in soup is handed to you on the tray, bubbling furiously. It comes with the raw egg, and various banchan (sides) of fried tofu, seaweed and marinated bean sprout as well as some mild kimchi. The 'Rice Lady' followed us until we found a table and had started scraping the rice out of a hot stone pot, presenting the rice in the dish you see above…

as well as the hot stone pot, with the remaining rice stuck to the sides, which she filled with warm tea- another side dish. The rice is a bit more 'toasted' in this hot pot and scraping it off and eating it with the tea is yet another great flavor combination (if you like Japanese Genmaicha-brown rice tea- you'll get that flavor from this bowl with the bit of burnt scrapings).

Here's a photo of the 'Rice Lady' leaving our table, heading to another table to deliver their hot pot of rice.

The tofu soup here is particularly good, filled with bok choy, onion and thin sliced pieces of beef (as well as the cooked egg which is not in this photo). The tofu is a perfect texture and the spice level was just enough that you can still taste the ingredients.

CDD Tofu & Grill 7655 Clairmont Mesa Blvd San Diego 92111 Inside Zion Marketplace.
Here is a link to Kirbie's visit to CDD(includes a copy of the menu), and this is a link including Jinxie's visit to CDD.

After our shared lunch, we went shopping inside Zion. You'll notice we were here on 11/11—that special day is

Pepero Day!!! Celebrated in Korea in a way similar to Valentine's Day here…exchanging Pepero cookie snacks to show affection for friends and loved ones is how to celebrate. (Pepero Day originally had the purpose of exchanging Peperos with the hopes of becoming taller and thinner…as if).

The flavors above were our purchases (although other flavors, box sizes and individual foot long Peperos as well as a collectible tin were being sold)..the green one is chocolate coated and rolled in almond, the red is chocolate dipped and rolled in peanut and the yellow (my favorite) is "nude"- a plain biscuit, filled with chocolate (or as the label states: "chocolate is contained tightly in the stick biscuit").

Happy Belated Pepero Day!

Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao and a visit to Minh Huong Market

November 8, 2013 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking, Markets & Grocers, Recipes

I finally had some time off this past weekend. It has been a busy and stressful couple of weeks and it ain't over by any stretch of the imagination. Things are starting normalize as I finally got a chance to enjoy a couple of cookbooks that arrived during that period which I hadn't had the chance to open. So during the weekend, the one I opened first was Andy Ricker's Pok Pok. I've eaten at Pok Pok in PDX a couple of times and really enjoyed the food, which really did remind me of what came out of all those wonderful street stands in Thailand.

A couple of recipes jumped out at me and I decided to start with an easy one for breakfast the next day, the Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao.

Free range ground chicken, organic eggs, and greens and peppers from our garden.

One of the main ingredients in this dish is the kaphrao…."Hot" Basil, also known as Holy Basil. So early Sundya morning I headed off to Minh Huong Market and got some Holy Basil.

The recipes are quite precise; even though I deviated to our tastes, I appreciated the gram based measurements.

I've taken to measuring things fairly well nowadays and I basically changed a couple of things to fit our tastes and what we had in our pantry. More garlic, more fish sauce, more chilies, which didn't over-power the dish at all. The long beans looked terrible so we decided not to buy any. In terms of timing; in the book, the chef cooks his eggs first and places them on the side while doing the rest of the dish, making this a basic one-wok process. I prepped and completed the stir-fry portion up to the point of adding the hot basil, then started on the eggs….I also added some coconut oil for cooking as well. Once the eggs were almost done, I put the wok back on the flame, heated and added the basil to finish.

This turned out real well though the Missus told me She prefers regular Thai Basil in this…….

Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao

12 ounces ground chicken
3 Tb Fish Sauce
2 Tb Dark Soy Sauce
3 Tsp white sugar
3 Tb grated garlic
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
6 Thai Chilies sliced
2 Red Serrano Chilies thinly sliced
3 dried chilies crumbled
2 Cups loosely packed Hot (Holy) Basil
2 Tb grapeseed oil

3 Eggs
2 Tb grapeseed oil
1 Tb coconut oil

– Combine fish sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Mix to dissolve the sugar
– Heat the wok over high heat. When the oil is smoking remove it from heat, add the garlic and stir quickly.
– When the garlic starts to brown slightly, place back on the heat and add the onions and fresh chilies. Stir until fragrant.
– Add the chicken and stir fry, breaking up the ground chicken.
– When the chicken is almost done, add the fish sauce mixture and dried chilies, and combine well
– After about 30 seconds add the dark soy sauce – 1Tb first, until the color is right.
– Stir fry until the liquid has been completely absorbed by the meat.
– Start eggs in grapeseed and coconut oil
– When eggs are almost done as desired, put wok back on heat and mix in hot basil

Serve up with Jasmine Rice…..makes about 2-3 servings

Every once in a while I'll get an email asking where to get items like Holy Basil or Cha Om.

My usual recommendation is that they check out Minh Huong Supermarket.

Even if you're not looking for anything in particular and are in the general vicinity, drop by…..

You'll see some items you won't find in your local neighborhood Chinese/Vietnamese/Korean market. On this day we saw some young women with Thanaka, the distinctive Burmese cosmetic paste applied to their faces. Something I'd never seen in San Diego.

Minh Huong Supermarket
4029 Euclid Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105

Vallarta Supermarket- Eat in the store, Shop in the store.

November 5, 2013 Cathy Markets & Grocers, What Cathy Eats!

Here you are, reading mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog, again. Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) and Cathy pretty much are the writers of various who-what-where-when-why-how posts here, which are food-centric. Today, Cathy is writing.

In case you haven't noticed, just about every grocery market has an area where you can purchase ready made foods and have a seat to eat those foods inside the store.

Vallarta Supermarket is a California Chain of 42 markets which started in Van Nuys in 1985. Only two locations are in San Diego County- this location in National City and one in Escondido. This National City location (on Euclid just North of Plaza Boulevard) used to be a Ralphs.

I'm not even going to show you the various departments. The prices here are great, the items sold here are varied, fresh and the people who work here are more than helpful (and multilingual) if you have questions. Here's a link to the page where you can put in your Zip code and see the weekly specials at the location closest to you.

It's a great market with great prices. When you walk in the door, to your left is the Produce section and to your far right is the bakery and extensive prepared foods area.

The center area is what I call the 'refrigerated section', where you can choose and pay for various custards, gelatins, ceviches and have fresh juices made to order.

Along the wall -this is the far corner- is what I call the 'heated' area.

When you find a seat in the center, you can see the ice cream section as part of the 'refrigerated' area to the right, the salsa selections in the center and again, the far wall, which is filled with steam trays of prepared foods.

Again, the refrigerated area not only sells fresh juices, sodas and the aforementioned desserts and ceviches, but also various fresh made aguas.

You can order from the steam trays and pay at this cash register, as well as the register on the side of the steam trays. It's all automated; you pay, get your number and wait for your order to be called.

Here's a medium (32 ounce) spinach-pineapple blend ($2.89) agua. You can see the plethora of egg selections available in that open refrigerator section.

Of course, there is the spit of al pastor meat waiting to be shaved off for an order…

along with too many steam trays of various stews and soups to photograph.

This is a copy of the menu- note the various fresh juice combinations in the far right bottom of the page. Having seen juices made this way is why I was confused the first time I went into Jamba Juice, (only three years ago)when I was so confused as to why they had so many out of season beverages available…nothing frozen here.

This particular heated area was most fascinating to me- because I had had a pupusa at the Escondido World Marketplace earlier that week…

This is a regular size (not small) plate under the $2.69 pupusa. I asked for the cheese (chicharron filled was also a choice). The pupusas are wrapped in plastic wrap in the steam tray. I saw the lady who was preparing my order take the pupusa out of the plastic wrap and place it onto the hot grill in the back, completely warming (and crisping) the masa based crust. She placed it over the (not Americanized-nicely, hot chili spiced) generous portion of curtido and similarly (heat wise) spicy hot pepper red salsa.

Here's a cross section of the cheese filled pupusa. You can see the flecks of green chiles and melting Mexican cheese, which was a very rich (full fat) cheese.

I also ordered the salsa verde chicharron platter ($6.99). A wonderful home made green salsa (again, spicy hot as well as heated) filled with meaty fried pork skins and accompanied by Mexican fried rice, wonderful, flavorful refried beans and four thick, fresh made, hot corn tortillas.

I noticed the "Macho Banana" ($1.50) (it was listed as "Platano Frito" on my receipt) and since I had never bought one properly prepared, I ordered it also. The lady who was crisping and re-heating the pupusa on the grill, also had pulled out the plantain to re-heat and crisp on the grill and asked me if I wanted 'cream' with the plantain. I said 'oh yes', as if I knew what she meant…sweetened condensed milk-that's what she poured in the cut portion- and it made for a perfect dessert item. The plantain is more starchy and potato-y in texture, but on its own (with the carmelization) had a slight sweetness. A piece coated in the condensed milk made it really, really perfect.

Again, the grocery store is one of our regular stops because the prices and variety and freshness is great. The Eat In area is wonderful, consistently fresh and very, very organized. Here is a link of another post about Vallarta, from fellow blogger, caninecologne; it was her first visit here, and she had a different purpose for stopping by.

Vallarta Supermarket 901 Euclid Avenue National City, CA 91950 (619) 472-1683 Open 7 days 6:30-11 website