Saturday Morning Grocery Shopping

The mercado opens at 8 am. It takes less than an hour to walk to the mercado, buy my fruits and vegetable and walk home.

I don't buy the chickens or the bread or anything else that's sold at the mercado, but I buy all my fruits and vegetables from one stall.

I have a crush on the merchant who operates the stall, he's handsome, helps me pick out my fruits and vegetables and understands my Spanish. He's a fine fellow.

It's fun going to buy my fruits and vegetables because when I leave my apartment I never know what I'm going to buy, and sometimes I ask what something is, buy it, try it, and most of the time like it. The photo is this week's supply. It cost me 80 pesos ($6.52 Canadian)

You have probably never tried sapote - it's the brown awful looking fruits you see in the photo. I've had black sapote last week, but this week he has brown sapote. The brown is sweeter, but doesn't have the interesting texture of the black. The black sapote is like eating pudding that nature made. It's a tropical fruit that doesn't ship well, so I doubt it would be available in the north.

The cactus like fruit is called Chayote. It is classified as a fruit, but replaces potatoes at a meal. It's boiled, peeled, sliced and fried with onions and cheese.
In the north of Mexico I could shop at either Al Super or Soriana. Here in Oaxaca I can shop at either Soriana or Chedraui. There isn't a Walmart, but there is a Sam's Club. I don't shop there. Mostly I go to the Chedraui, it doesn't have as many North American products, but I don't care about that. It is cheaper.

I never shop at Chedraui in the evening, it's insane. It wouldn't be so bad if the people who run the store didn't fill the busy aisles with boxes of stuff making it impossible for two carts to pass each other.

There are none of the small baskets that other supermarkets have, so no matter how little I'm purchasing if I can't carry it in my arms I need to negotiate a big cart down aisles piled with boxes of stuff. And then, when I've made my purchases, I have difficulty placing them on the conveyor belt because the fools who manage the store put more stuff where my cart ought to be.

The plastic bags they put the groceries in fall apart and I need double bags. To save plastic trees or something, I use cloth bags. Most of the time I have no trouble taking my bag into the store. Today the security guy tried to tell me I couldn't take my bag into the store. I told him I could. All he needed to do was tag it.

My grocery bill, and as you can see from the photo, includes wine and chocolate bars, came to $178.91 ($14.58 Canadian) It's a good wine. I've blogged about it previously.

Next stop - a marvelous french bakery - but they wouldn't let me take a photo.

All my jeans are falling apart. I bought three pair from my friend Ruth, who operates the boutique in front of the property where I live. In total, all three cost $735 pesos ($60 Canadian dollars)

After shopping I went to the Zocalo for breakfast. I ate my favorite, Ranchero huevos, a large glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee. It's an expensive restaurant so breakfast cost around $5 Canadian. Then I went to the museum that was once the governor's palace. It's always free. Has many temporary exhibits and many permanent ones.