What's on your grocery receipt, what did you pay and what you are making with it?

[Packratona!]

Shopping today; a Latin supermarket:

5 pounds red potatoes, $1.50
4 dozen medium eggs, $.68 each
One papaya, .68/lb.
One bunch yellow bananas, .33 a pound
Guava nectar, 4 bottles, .50 each
Salad tomatoes, .68 lb.
One box salt, .50
Yellow onions, .38 lb.
Green plantains, $ 10/$1.00

Shopping today, Asian store:

Bag fresh bean sprouts, $.99/lb.
Nappa Cabbage, two heads, .79/lb.
Two Daikon radishes, .79/lb.

Recipes I am planning to make this week and next, using some of the ingredients:
Mangu (an awesome Dominican recipe) with the plantains; I already have the other ingredients to make this recipe (red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, and red onions)
Moo shi turkey with the bean sprouts, Nappa cabbage, and eggs. Again, I already have the other ingredients (dried lily buds, dried mushrooms, bamboo shoots, Hoisin sauce, wine, green onions, soy sauce) except for frozen ground turkey which I will buy at Aldis tomorrow)
Pickled eggs (an Amish recipe); I use juice from pickled fresh beets (I made this week), and pickling mix. Delicious for snacking!
I make "flavored water" with the guava nectar. I just add a small amount of it to a glass of ice water. So refreshing on a hot summer day, and not much sugar if you just use it as a flavoring. Costs maybe .15 a glass that way. Kind of a luxury that I don't usually indulge in, I usually just drink mint ice tea which is cheaper at a few cents a glass, but hey, we have to live it up sometimes right?

I have sprouted my own beans in the past, and some people eat papaya seeds.

[razz]

Well, double the prices of most of your shopping list and you will have my prices. Bananas are 57 cents/lb though.

[Packratona!]

Well, double the prices of most of your shopping list and you will have my prices. Bananas are 57 cents/lb though.

I was pretty shocked at the grocery prices when I went to the Northern part of the U.S. recently.

[pinkytoe]

Since we are moving, I am mostly "shopping" in my pantry and fridge. It is fun to figure out how to use the last bits of this and that. I am only buying fresh things like eggs and produce as needed. At .50 cents a piece, we have been buying lots of avocados. Produce prices are amazing here due to proximity to Mexico I guess combined with demand for organic. Some corn tortillas, beans, cheese, eggs, spinach, garlic, onions and I can be quite happy. Splurging on local jarred salsa as I have packed most of my kitchen stuff.

[Packratona!]

Since we are moving, I am mostly "shopping" in my pantry and fridge. It is fun to figure out how to use the last bits of this and that. I am only buying fresh things like eggs and produce as needed. At .50 cents a piece, we have been buying lots of avocados. Produce prices are amazing here due to proximity to Mexico I guess combined with demand for organic. Some corn tortillas, beans, cheese, eggs, spinach, garlic, onions and I can be quite happy. Splurging on local jarred salsa as I have packed most of my kitchen stuff.

Yes, our location is close to Mexico also and since it is a port city, easy access to several other countries that grow cheap produce. I am able to eat very healthy and varied delicious food on average for under $1 a pound; our food bills are so low it is amazing.

[Tammy]

I shop often at the food city or ranch market stores in Phx. About half the price of Safeway. Probably cause white people think it's for the Mexicans so they don't go there - so Safeway can charge more. At any rate, I just bought about 6-7 full plastic bags of food (no toiletries or other bulky things - all food and mostly fresh stuff) for $48.

[Packratona!]

I shop often at the food city or ranch market stores in Phx. About half the price of Safeway. Probably cause white people think it's for the Mexicans so they don't go there - so Safeway can charge more. At any rate, I just bought about 6-7 full plastic bags of food (no toiletries or other bulky things - all food and mostly fresh stuff) for $48.

I hear 'ya. I shop where the Jamaicans, Haitians and Latin Americans shop. If I see something I have no idea how to cook, I ask fellow shoppers and they are happy to tell me how they cook it. I also get a chance to learn a few words of Patois while I am at it. It is such a fun place to shop! Though sometimes there is a bit of friction between different groups due to different definitions of the how word "polite" is applied. For instance, the whole concept of taking turns and standing in lines... it is kind of amusing and I try to be a peacemaker. You have to be comfortable in tight crowds of other ethnicities; I took a white friend and she freaked out; almost had a breakdown, poor thing!

[Teacher Terry]

It is similar to if you go to Chinatown in San Fran versus Japantown. The first is loud, pushy, rude, don't wait in lines. The 2nd is quiet. orderly, polite, etc. I love Japantown.

[Packratona!]

It is similar to if you go to Chinatown in San Fran versus Japantown. The first is loud, pushy, rude, don't wait in lines. The 2nd is quiet. orderly, polite, etc. I love Japantown.

Each has it's own beauty...just have to learn to view things through a different lens depending on which place you are in or who you are talking to.

[Teacher Terry]

chinatown actually makes me nervous-like I want to jump out off my skin. I had the same experience in Mexico and never went back. It's just me.

[Tammy]

Tijuana was a little anxiety producing for me. But all the Mexican parts of Phoenix feel fine. I don't think it's the culture - the grocery store culture actually feels nicer than the "white" stores. I think it's just the unknowns of a border city like Tijuana when it comes to public safety. I feel almost as anxious on the US side of those border areas.

[Packratona!]

Tijuana was a little anxiety producing for me. But all the Mexican parts of Phoenix feel fine. I don't think it's the culture - the grocery store culture actually feels nicer than the "white" stores. I think it's just the unknowns of a border city like Tijuana when it comes to public safety. I feel almost as anxious on the US side of those border areas.

Frontier towns have always been that way. Everyone, not just the border patrol, feels like they have to be "on guard". It's always a bit messy, chaotic, and yes, dangerous when you have some combination of two or more cultures, languages, political and/or religious ideologies, etc. each trying to protect their own side and/or invade the other side of the imaginary lines drawn on a map by some military after a war.