
Bubba
Mar 16, 2005, 9:40 AM
Post #10 of 42
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Re: [MG Rabon] Missing Little Things from Home
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I must say that, this thread is one of the most misleading I have ever read on Mexico Connect. I started making a list of the things Rabon and others said they couldn't find that I find regularly and with little or no effort in the greater Guadalajara area and finally stopped listing because the list became tedious. There is absolutely nothing on any of these lists that I cannot find in Guadalajara or the Chapala area usually in abundance. Nothing. Now, I admit, I live in an area with an unusually good variety of specialty food items and that, if one chooses to live in a rural or more parochial urban area of Mexico, then the variety of foodstuffs is more limited - sometimes far more limited. This is an important issue for those considering retirement in Mexico when choosing a retirement community. As someone said earlier, imported butters are widely available including the commonly found New Zealand butters. I like the strong taste of Mexican butter but my wife does not so we always have both Mexican and New Zealand butters on hand. I have also found outstanding specialty butters from Europe in gourmet stores in Guadalajara. I can buy whole turkeys fresh or smoked, whole turkey breasts and a variety of sliced turkey meats, smoked or not smoked at any time in any number of places. The same goes for hams whether American style or the wonderful Serrano hams from Spain or Prosciutto hams from Italy. We find a large selection of fine cheeses from around the world and regularly buy Roquefort, several varieties of swiss, excellent goat cheeses both Mexican and French, the very best parmesan from Italy, French soft ripening cheeses and on and on. The beef and lamb selections at Costco are unsurpassed in quality as is the outstanding arrachera and (to a lesser extent) other fine beef cuts at the Susazon chain in Guadalajara, Ajijic and other towns. Local stores carry a large variety of oriental food condiments and produce. We buy very good Chilean, Spanish and Argentine wines because they are great values for the price but we can also buy any number of wines and liquors from all over the world at numerous outlets in Guadalajara as well as the excellent Paz Liquors in San Antonio Tlayacapan. We can get either the yellow (marigold fed) chicken that we prefer or the white chicken brought into Riberas daily from Guadalajara. We consider the local yellow chicken to be superior in quality to any mass produced chickens found in the U.S. We regularly buy Best Foods Mayonnaise which is of superior quality for commercial mayonnaise and is the exact same concoction as that brand from the Western U.S. We also buy Maille (and other) Dijon mustards and Dijon style mayonnaise and find an endless variety of other mustards in our local market. Add to that French cornichons, excellent virgin olive oils from Spain, Italy, France and Greece, and an endless variety of commercial salad dressings including several types of "Ranch", great capers, canned ventresca de tuna, anchovies, etc. And, finally, for that Ceasar Salad, real honest-to-God lemons which are next to impossible to find in most of Mexico. As for , coffee; while there are about five Starbucks that just opened in Guadalajara, one needn't resort to this chain's overpriced cookie cutter products. There are numerous excellent coffee houses all over that city including my favorite, Cafe Martinique adjacent to Centro Magno which roasts and distributes its own beans. The personnel couldn't be nicer and their espresso based products are supurb. In Ajijic, the Cafe del Sureste near the plaza roasts its own Oaxaca, Chiapas and VeraCruz beans and not only do I enjoy espresso drinks there but buy their incredibly fresh whole beans for home brewing. There are a number of other very good coffee houses in the Chapala/Ajijic corridor. I am, frankly, surprised that you can't find this stuff in Acapulco. Strike that place off my list. I think we can live without Alberta beef, I know I have for 63 years so far.
(This post was edited by Bubba on Mar 16, 2005, 2:19 PM)
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