Bananas to Banana Bread and Other Produce Tragedies

One of the things I love about Mexico is the produce. Almost anywhere we go there are wonderful local markets where all sorts of produce can be purchased for a fraction of the price we pay in the good ole USA. In some of the more remote areas, as well as on the Baja, the fruits and veggies can sometimes be a bit tattered but most of the time everything is fresh from the farm, beautiful to look at and wonderfully ready to eat. When I go to the market it is only with a great deal of restraint that I can keep from returning to the boat with enough vegetables to feed the 4^th infantry division. The down side (and, yes, there is one) is that all these lovely fresh things have been picked and delivered directly from the farm…and because this is a tropical climate…they must be eaten quickly or they will soon become fish fodder.

Bananas are a prime example. We love bananas for breakfast and they are always available and cheap. There are several different varieties to choose from, my favorite being the little ones that are just the right size for 2 good bites and are sweeter then the regular ones. Unfortunately, no matter how green they are when I purchase them, we just can’t seem to eat them fast enough and within a few days I am making banana bread…again.

Of course, not everything we are used to in American supermarkets is available here, but by the same token, many items we can easily get here are only found in high dollar boutique groceries back home. For example, one can almost always get asparagus in any local Safeway but here, not so much. If you run across it, the price is usually pretty high. On the other hand, bins and bins of beautiful tomatoes, crisp green beans and ready-to-eat avocados are everywhere. One of the things I have found here that are quite good are tiny little guavas (about the size of a key lime) called Guayaba. These are very sweet and yummy. I particularly like the Guayaba juice.

There is no real local market here in La Cruz so we do our grocery shopping at the Mega (like a Safeway), at the Costco in Puerto Vallarta (that would be the major provisioning run when you are low on everything) or, as a last resort, at the Wal Mart. Having recently been to both Mega and Costco, here are some of the produce prices I’ve encountered:

Tomatoes - 64¢ per lb – Mega

Green Beans - 7¢ per lb – Mega

White Potatoes – 48¢ per lb – Mega

Bananas – 54¢ per lb – Mega

Zucchini – 51¢ per lb – Mega

Green Bell Peppers – 15¢ per lb – Mega

Red Bell Peppers – 13¢ per lb – Mega

Green Onions – 2¢ per lb – Mega (these are much larger than the Green Onions you get in the States and are commonly grilled)

Asparagus - $3.37 per lb/Mega - $2 per lb/Costco (bought it at Costco!)

3-Pk package of Romaine lettuce - $23(pesos) or $1.92 (U.S. dollars) per pkg at Mega

I had to do a bit of math to arrive at the actual dollar amount because everything is measured in kilograms here. It takes a bit of getting used to. A kilogram is 2.2 pounds so when the price is listed as 13 pesos/kg it is actually about 5 cents per lb (at an average exchange rate of 12 pesos per dollar). This is for the benefit of my readers back home. Those of us who live here for months at a time don’t even bother with the conversion anymore. We just think in pesos.

Occasionally (actually, a bit more often than occasionally) I run across things that I have no idea what they are or what to do with them. Such was the case with Chayote. Turns out it is a type of squash that you can stir fry or add to salads, etc. It doesn’t really have much flavor so one experiment with it was enough for me. On the other hand, I had not eaten much Jicama in the states but it is everywhere here and we eat it all the time now. It is a great snack if you just cut it into chunks and sprinkle it with a little lime juice and chili powder.

So…back to the theme of this whole blog! Last week I had to throw out 3 tomatoes, 2 bell peppers, and about half the green beans in the fridge. Shoot! That meant another trip to the store and, once again, I have lots of perishables that must be eaten before they go bad. The real problem is that we have to refrain from going out for dinner. In a town with over 30 restaurants that is a real challenge!