Fue una fiesta en Fiesta!

Here in Houston we're not that far from the Mexican border; oh, I think it takes about 5 hours to get there. So obviously, this city has a lot of Mexicans. And Salvadorians and Guatemalans and Costa Ricans and so on. I mean, just the other day I heard a statistic on NPR that there are now more Latinos in Houston than any other group of people!

So anyway, in our effort to live as cheaply as possible, we decided to try Fiesta. I'd heard that it was the best place to get groceries, costing even less than than Kroger. What an experience! Our closest Fiesta is about 3.5 miles away. Of all the places that we go regularly, this might be one of the furthest away from our house. It's in the Bellaire area of town and wow, was it wild! The parking lot itself was an experience. Cars, Hispanics, and kids everywhere, and outside were guys selling Mexican corn (corn on the cob w/ mayonnaise and Parmigiano cheese on it). It was hot as hell, we were parked miles away, the parking lot was dirty, and there was just something surreal about the whole place. I felt like I'd entered Mexico.

And I had. Inside the Fiesta was a Mexican heaven. It was unlike any grocery store I've ever seen in the States. The Fiesta is sort of like a Wal-Mart in that it has food, clothes, and things like that. But it's absolutely chaotic. Aisles are blocked, people are giving you samples at every corner, groups of 3 or 4 Hispanic men all gathered around one grocery cart, large families, women in tight clothing with large, gold earrings, the whole she-bang. As soon as you get inside there is a store within the Fiesta that sells cowboy boots, all of them colors other than what you might expect, or at least, what I would expect, such as light blue and light green. Then there's the huge lotto station. And the full Taqueria inside in case you want to sit down and get a bite to eat. And let me tell you about the cheese section... the humongous vat of sour cream alone was enough to make me want to just drool. There was fresh queso all over the place. And let's not forget about the meat section. In addition to the regular cuts, there was mondongo which is actually cow's intestines. Carlos loves this kind of thing. We didn't buy any. There were also jars of pig's ears and wow, the chicharones were pig-sized. Literally. Like you know where these pork rinds originated when you looked at them. So la di da, we were shopping away and having a good ole time. We found tunas which are a fruit and I'm not so crazy about tunas but they're okay. We found just the right papaya for Carlos, we found cactus which I'm excited about figuring out how to use, there were of course chiles of all types, oh, and quince, which I'm going to try tonight. We also found my favorite Peruvian purple corn drink, chicha morada, which honestly is one of the best drinks ever, and Carlos found his beloved Inca Cola. Granted, there were a few things we didn't find like my contact solution and shiitake mushrooms. But I guess a store can't be everything to everyone. So instead of regularly shopping at Kroger and going to the Whole Foods to get what Kroger didn't have, now we'll go to Fiesta and then go to the Kroger to get what the Fiesta didn't have. Oh wait, and I didn't mention the prices which was the whole reason for even going in the first place, right? Cheaper than Kroger. I was won over. And I can't wait to go next time and spend some quality time with the dulces.

Later Carlos said that I was the only white person in there. I didn't even notice. Being in the Fiesta almost made me feel like I was on vacation in another country and that upon leaving I would take a cab over to my swank hotel on the beach and relax with some chicha and fresh fruit.