SHOPPING ON THE ROAD

One of the hardest habits to break while shopping for an RV is impulse buying. You go into the market to buy two items, come out with two bags full and then wonder where to put all the stuff. The solution to this problem is to make a menu and then shop for what is needed to fill it. Also, avoid the specials or else you might wind up hauling around six quarts of pickles Unless you plan to camp for two weeks at a camp which is really out in the boonies, a two or three day supply is usually all that one needs to have on hand at any time. When I am traveling, I usually try to combine my afternoon rest stop with a trip to the grocery store where I buy what I need for that night plus the following morning.

When most people set about buying groceries for a trip south of the border, they tend to load up with everything which they might possibly ever need and a lot which they never would. Mexico is not a vast wasteland into which one must carry everything needed, but in some ways, very well equipped to serve the needs of their people.

No matter how small a village might be, one will usually find a Conosupo located there. While these stores are operated by a local merchant, they are sponsored and supported by the Mexican government. Conosupos are opened in places which would normally have so little business that they could not support a privately owned store. Since they are forced to carry a rather limited stock of supplies, it is not unusual to buy something in a Conosupo one day and not be able to find it there a few days later [just like Wal-Mart]. I've never been able to figure out how or when a certain item will be in stock in these stores. You have to more or less catch when catch can when shopping at Conosupos.

Whether it is in a tiny Conosupo, a public market or in the huge CCC or Astra stores found in the larger cities, shopping for food on the local economy is one of the cultural and social events that everyone should experience. Most first-time travelers south of the border usually find that they have brought a lot of things only to find that they could have saved a considerable amount of money by shopping for them on the local economy.

Actually, what to take and what to expect to buy while south of the border can be broken down into two categories: convenience foods and the basics Convenience foods such as prepared mixes, specialty foods and kits are hard to come by in any but the largest of stores or those which cater mostly to the tourist. Even if they do have such items in stock, they will probably have been imported from the states and will be rather expensive. This includes such things as cake mixes, frozen dinners and Macaroni and Cheese Dinners. In fact, anything which has been imported from the states will cost about twice as much there as what it would sell for here at home.

A very good selection of canned fruits and vegetables are available under Mexican labels and names at much lower prices than one would expect to pay here at home. One does not need to be able to speak Spanish to know that the can marked "Ejotes" contains green beans. Green beans will be pictured on the label. This is true for just about everything in the way of foods as it is not uncommon to find a Mexican housewife who cannot read the labels and has to rely on the pictures.

The real bargain in food is fresh produce. You will seldom find anything which costs more than about ten cents per pound and it is usually fresh and of good quality. This is to be expected because much of the fresh produce found in your local super market comes from Mexico.

Most of the prices will be shown in Pesos per Kilo. A Kilo (Kilogram) is about two pounds and depending on the current exchange rate, you will have to do a certain amount of mental calculation in order to arrive at price in cents per pound. A pocket calculator is a handy thing to have along when shopping. Fresh food is one of the things which is not subject to the l5% VAT (Value Added Tax) in Mexico.

In the big stores which go under the name of Astra, you will probably get the feeling that the PA system will come on at any moment and say, "Attention K-Mart Shoppers…" There is a good reason for this because Astra is the Latin American division of K-Mart operates under much the same system.

Public markets can be found in many of the medium to large cities and offer the buyer products and services at prices which are somewhat lower than can be found in regular stores. They are divided up into a number of small booths where people usually sell only a few individual items. Some of these booths operate on a continuing basis while others are rented for only two or three days. Many times one will find the same item or product being sold in more than one booth. When this is the case, the prices are usually the same for all of them and are firmly established.

The final place to buy things is at the door of your RV. Peddlers will come by, selling Just about everything. One doesn't have to be around an RV park very long before he learns that the shrimp man comes by every day at four, the vegetable man comes on Wednesday and the fruit man comes on Monday and Friday.

One of the main things to remember when you head for the mercado is to take along your own shopping bag. Only the largest stores furnish anything in which to carry your purchases. Also, as you enter a market, it is customary to check the bag at the door (deposito la bolsa). Many stores have a shelf by the door for the bags and when entering those which do not, simply hand it to the checker and they will place it under the counter for use when you leave.

MOO, OINK AND CLUCK

A trip to the meat market is an experience which you will never forget. There is an old saying that the way to become a confirmed vegetarian is to visit the fresh meat department in a public market. Along with the more recognizable pieces of meat will be animal parts which most people have never seen. Very little in the way of animal protein is wasted in Mexico. If you see something which you do not recognize, it's probably better that you never know what it really is.

In the meat display cases in the larger stores, one will see various cuts of beef in styrofoam trays and wrapped in plastic, much like here in the states. The only problem is the fact that they do not cut the beef in the way that we do here in the states. While the names may be the same, the cut is totally different. Also, the beef in Mexico tends to be much tougher and with little or no marbling of fat. Actually, Mexican beef is much more healthful to eat than what comes from our commercial feed yards. If you like big, Juicy T-Bone steaks to sizzle over the grill, better take some frozen ones with you. Mexican beef is especially good when cooked slowly, such as in stews, soups and barbecued.

EGGS

You will probably be surprised to find that most stores do not refrigerate fresh eggs and that those on display look really awful. This is because they have never been washed which enables them to be kept at room temperature for several weeks without spoiling. Since the eggs have never been cleaned, they should not be allowed to come in contact with fresh vegetables or other foods. It is a good idea to carry a few empty egg cartons along with you on your trip to Baja. To check eggs to see whether they are good or not, put them In fresh water. Good eggs will sink to the bottom and those which float should be thrown away. Don't use salt water as all eggs will float in sea water.

A TRIP TO THE PANADERIA

You haven't really experienced Mexico until you discover bollelos. In Mexican bakeries, they make their own version of French bread in rolls which are about the same size and shape as a large sweet potato. These are called Bollelos. They usually come hot out of the oven at 6:30 AM and at 3:00 PM. There is a saying that the reason for siesta is to give the bollelos time to rise. There is almost always a line of people waiting to buy hot bollelos as they come out of the oven. Fresh bollelos smell and taste so good that people tend buy more than they need, but there are ways of using the surplus.

While all panaderias have the basics in the way of baked goods, each one seems to have some specialty in the way of sweets. Often they make it only once a week and there will always be a crowd waiting for it to come out of the oven.

If you can manage to be there on the right day to catch their specialty, you will be pleasantly rewarded.

SPLISH-SPLASH

Seafood is plentiful and very inexpensive in cities along the coast and usually very fresh. Let your nose do the walking when buying seafood in Mexico or anywhere else. All fish markets have a strong "fishy" smell, so you will have to sniff the particular piece of fish that you intend to buy. Fresh fish has almost no odor. If seafood is not fresh or else has not been stored properly, it will have a strong odor and should not be eaten.

BOOZE

If your tastes run toward some label brand of Scotch or Rye, then you'd better bring your own with you. After import fees and the l5~ VAT, a bottle of Cutty Sark will set you back nearly fifty bucks. On the other hand, local products are some of the biggest bargains to be found. Tequila runs about two bucks a bottle and a very good local brandy will cost about the same.

AT YOUR DOOR

In RV parks which are located some distance from a market, various food merchants will come by, usually on a twice-weekly basis. They will be known as the vegetable man, the fish man or the fruit man. It is not unusual for their produce to be somewhat fresher than what one will find in the local stores. The reason for this is that they can get more money directly from the customer than if they sell it wholesale to the market.

There is usually a continuous flow of peddlers who make their way through RV parks; selling blankets, wood carvings, dolls, and just about everything else which is picked up by tourists. You can bargain with these people and almost always be able to buy at a lower than the first price asked. They know that they will have to come down on their price, so they start high enough to allow for some bickering. In fact, they have a name for people who buy at their first asking price, it is Bobo, which means goose or fool.

These camper to camper peddlers have a most amazing grapevine. If you ask one of them for something which he does not have, you can almost bet that someone will come along a short time later with that exact object.

While we were camped at Old Keno on the west coast of the mainland, several peddlers would come by each day, selling ironwood carvings. My wife wanted to find a special carving to give to a friend of hers who was a cat lover. She asked each of the peddlers if they had a carving of a cat but none of them did. She finally gave up on the idea and forgot about it.

A few days later, a peddler whom we had never seen before came into the park and headed right for our rig. He showed us his carvings of marlin, quail, mountain lions and roadrunners. When it seemed that he had shown us everything that he had and he was about ready to leave, he pulled one last one from his bag. He unwrapped the carving and handed it to my wife. It was a rather bad carving of a cat. Obviously, the man had far more experience in carving fish and birds than he did in carving cats.

Since the man had gone to so much trouble to carve a cat for her, we figured that the least that we could do was to buy it from him, even if it did not match the quality of his other carvings.

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