Shopping at the Mercado

This past Sunday we visited the Feria Libre mercado here in Cuenca.

We had been there a couple times before but did not do as much shopping as we did this time. We came away with approximately $50 worth of groceries enough to last for a few weeks in terms of vegetables and fruit. In terms of meat, about 6 or 7 days. And in terms of rice, about 5 months.

A good portion of liver (for 3 people) cost $2. Three pork steaks cost $2.20. About 6 yellow platanos cost $1 and 6 green platanos cost $1.  One large papaya - $1. One large pineapple - $1. Three avocados - $1. One large melon - $1. Ten or twelve onions - $1. One kg of cheese - $2. A huge bag of rice - $14. Potatoes - $2. And a number of other things.

Aside:  For some reason I always want to pronounce "platanos" as "plantanos" (for which I am consistently corrected).

Aside:  Yellow platanos are sweet and green platanos are not. Green platanos are sometimes used as a replacement for potatoes. Yellow platanos can appear with almost any meal, are usually fried and are very tasty. 

Aside:  Green platanos are used to make something called "Balon". You cook the platano and then mix it with cheese ("queso" in Spanish) and sometimes add some cilantro and then roll that into a ball and toast it. Very good. Some Ecuadorians use this as their breakfast.

Papaya, potatoes & Rice

Pineapple, Bananas & Platanos

As a contrast 1kg of cheese in the mercado is $2; whereas, a similar cheese in Supermaxi (grocery store) is $6.76.

But there are still reasonable prices to be had in Supermaxi especially when considering how much some things cost back in Canada.

What I have stated above is the PRO part. And now for the CON part.

Unless you are prepared to make many trips to the mercado you will end up trying to cart a lot of heavy bags around while you buy what you need. There are no handy carts like you have at a grocery store (like Supermaxi here in Cuenca). There are no carts to carry your goods out to your car or taxi. And this particular mercado is not anywhere close to as clean as the grocery stores are. In fact, I haven't seen any mercados that are that clean, although there is mention of one that is supposed to be quite clean.

I guess I like my creature comforts. Although it is quite interesting seeing all the goods for sale in one of these mercados.

UPDATE as of February 18, 2015:   Today at a deli I purchased 0.28kg of pork in a thin, wide strip for $2.39 and 0.73kg of smoked pork loin for $11.54.

A few days ago I purchased one large yellow pepper for $1 at a mercado in El Centro. I was subsequently told that should have been $0.25. The lady at the mercado gave me a smug look when I asked for a bag to put the pepper in. Talk about "gringo-gouging"!

I also purchased 1 kg of beef in a thin wide strip and paid $2.25. I was told this should have been $1.

It's taking time but I am getting used to what things are suppose to cost. It is much easier when shopping at a grocery store.