MEXICAN GROCERY TOUR–JULY 30, 2012

I LOVE grocery stores!  Grocery stores are my form of entertainment.  Let’s shop at Honey Bee Market, a Mexican grocery store in Detroit.  For anyone afraid of Detroit, you have good reason.  And Honey Bee Market is not in the best section of town.  A place I would only visit during daylight hours.  Knowing this, I was expecting a run down, graffitied mom-and-pop kind of store.  Honey Bee Market was anything but that.  The parking lot is fenced in with a very nice black fence (not a chain-link, ghetto looking fence.)  They must have just refinished the black top in the parking lot, because I didn’t even see any pieces of old gum on it.  From the outside, everything said, “Prosperous, clean, safe, and modern.”

The name Honey Bee La Colmena has a special meaning, Honey Bee represents the customers and La Colmena is the hive (store) where the bees gather. The store makes and sells 30,000 pounds of chorizo (spicy Mexican sausage) a year, it’s bestselling product made from a secret family recipe. Thus, the slogan was made “Wake up, and smell the chorizo”.

And when we stepped through he doors we were hit with COLOR!  There was fresh produce everywhere.

The prices were also fantastic.  Up here in the North, avocados are a gamble.  I find that for every four I buy, I get one good one.  Here avocados were not already ripened (you don’t have to wait 4 days before you can eat them), all of the avocados I bought were perfect.  We bought the store brand guacamole and salsa, and loved both.

We came to buy pinatas.  We needed three for our VBS and MI Camp Chidren’s hour.  These 3 feet tall pinatas were $15 each.  Now if you have ever shopped for pinatas at party stores, you know that $15 for a 3 foot pinata is a great deal.

We were still officially on vacation, so we had time to browse.  I have no idea how to cook Chayote with needles, but next summer, I plan to try.

Jimcama may not be as unusual as Chayote, but I still only have bought it once.

To me, this is eye candy.  I love the bright colors and interesting possibilities in each vegetable.

Tunas.  Again, I haven’t cooked with them, but won’t it be fun to experiment?   I didn’t buy too many new ingredients because our summer was going to be busy for the next couple of week, and I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to experiment.

I did stock up on limes, though.  Limes are perfect for everything in the summer.  I think we bought thirty.

I knew that the cheese used in Mexican food was white, but I never realized that it was Munster–and at a good price.

There were many, many, many different bags of dried beans.

And look at this loooong aisle of tortillas.  There was EVERY kind!  The bag I bought was 99¢.

The coffee looked interesting.  The Hunni was trying to figure out where it was roasted as there are several places in Michigan that roast coffee.

The kids enjoyed the store as well.  I sent them off to look for some Dulce de Leche for a coffee recipe I had in mind.

Mole every way.

And lard.

And this aisle was all hot sauces.

I didn’t know which one to buy. ???

I didn’t know how I would ever eat 28.2 ounces of pickled jalapeno peppers.  Maybe they eat pickled jalapeno peppers like we eat “pickled peppers.”

I was very excited about the cuts of meat.  It was obviously very fresh (the counter was very busy), and the cuts were interesting.  We bought about 4 different beef cuts to try.

Behind the glass were cuts that I have never cooked, although I have been served.  I don’t remember ever eating cheek jowl, but I have eaten cow-hoof soup, tripe (many, many, many times), and pigs feet (pickled to be precise.)  Tripe is cow stomach.

Ceviche is a marinated fish “salad.”  It is delicious.  I plan on trying their ceviche [say-veech-ay] sometime in the future.  I have ordered squid, but never octopus.

We bought some Carne Asada–a specially marinated meat for grilling–and lots of bacon (that was The Hunni’s purchase.)

The aisle were packed with more interesting products, but the kiddos were starting to get hungry.  It is about 45 minutes to home from the border.

I started supper by starting smoothies–the perfect companion to Mexican food.

This is how I squeeze lemons, I just place my small collander on top of the blender and squeeze away.  I had two differnt lemon juicers, and I have broken both of them, so this works here at My Whit’s End.

Papaya.  People tend to love it or hate it.  I hid some in the smoothie because it is really good for you.

Supper was a haphazard affair.  Check out the silverware.

Supper was also delicious.

I can’t wait to go back to Mexican town and shop.  To anyone crossing the Canadian border at Detroit/Windsor, Honey Bee Market is a great place to shop.  The address is 2443 Bagley Ave., Detroit, Michigan, and it is right after the border.

Thanks for shopping with me,

–rebecca

P.S.  If you enjoy grocery store tours, here are some more links

Asia Market in Ann Arbor, Michigan