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Where should I buy meat?


jkgourmet

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We arrived for the summer a few days ago, and discovered that our rental has an absolutely spectacular kitchen. I knew from the photos that it was a great, but the real thing just exceeds all expectations. So, we'll be eating at home a bit more this year.

We popped over to Walmart for some regular stuff, and stopped to have a look at the meat. Shocked at the high prices! And yes, I'm converting the kilos to pounds. But a whole chicken at $5+USD? That's about 2X what I pay in AZ! Bone in chicken thighs were 2X the NOB price, too. The steak looked too lousy to even consider and the pork was cut in thin slices, like for scallopine.

We popped over to the Carnes place on the south side of the carretera just before El Serape, but nobody spoke a word of English, none of the meats were marked with identification or prices. No signage that listed what they had and the cost. We smiled and gave up.

Last year, we got pretty good meat at Mega, but I'd prefer to shop at the small, local places - if I can find what I want and not feel like I'm breaking the bank to cook at home. (In fact, after we left the Carne place, we DID go to El Serape for a bowl of their chicken soup and a bowl of albondigas soup. Both were wonderful, delicious, large servings - and a bargain at 45 pesos. The chicken soup had an entire leg and thigh in the bowl, which made that $5 USD whole chicken at Walmart seem even MORE expensive. . .)

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Suggestions:

"Puritan Poultry" has the best chicken, at not unreasonable prices. Healthy young chickens. They will cut it to your preference. Next door to Bubba's Restaurant on the Carretera. Left side of the road heading East, next to S&S auto.

COSTCO for the best steaks, ground beef and other meats.

Tony's, next to Superlake is a pretty good bet. Sliced sandwich meats cut to your specs at much better prices than the packaged kind. I like the pork loin.

Walmart has good ground top sirloin, but forget the lesser grades.

Fish market near Superlake for fish. Same parking lot; big sign "Pescaderia".

Welcome back!! Glad you found a good rental. :020:

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There are some very good butchers inside the Mercado Publico in Chapala. Prices are better than Ajijic, in most cases, but you may have to do your shopping in Spanish. Otherwise, you're stuck with the Ajijic sources listed above; with one exception: Go to San Juan Cosala and to the butcher shop almost across the street from the excellent restaurant, "Viva Mexico". English is spoken in both places and the butcher knows USA cuts, aged beef, etc.

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Soriana prices in the meat department are lower than Walmart. I find Walmart somewhat expensive. Always a good idea to check the dates on the meat, by the way! Puritan Poultry does have good chicken, but it is somewhat expensive in my opinion. Costco may have USDA meat, but be prepared to pay dearly for it. If going to Guad anyway, I personally prefer Mega, right next door to the new Costco. Chapala market is a good bet, but first you probably need to find out what the cut you want is called in Spanish. The internet has a few decent charts and articles.

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For arrachera: Susazon on the carretera in the shopping area just west of El Torito. Susazon is an upscale MXN frozen meat chain. Their Argentine sausage is also very good.

For chorizo and fresh ground beef in the village: El Torito

For seafood in the village: southwest corner at Colon and the Carretera (same ownership as the one near SuperLake). If he has baby shark...get it. We buy sea bass and pre-shelled/deviened shrimp from him, weekly.

For rabbit: Chapala market, at the south (??) end (just ask any vendor for conejo and they'll point you to who has some).

For duck confit, etc: Denis at the Ajijic Tianguis; the confit is to die for. He also sells at least 4 different excellent pate's; sometimes has duck breasts. Sadly, we haven't seen him since we got back in June (he was gone for several weeks last summer, too).

For interesting sausages: Tuesday's Organic Market

Chicken: Soriana's is fine (though we don't buy it too often, preferring to buy rotis or grilled around town).

Chorizo Verde (not spicy, but loaded with cilantro and neon green in color): Soriana's (makes a fun appetizer)

Pork: Early last week we got pork tenderloins at Walmart; cheap as chips. Very tender. Went back a few days later...nada. Checked again a few days after that...again, nada. Walmart normally has nice costillos (pork ribs) cut into finger-eating size, for a decent price, but again, nada last week.

We don't eat steak much, but the steaks we've bought at Tony's were fine.

Shanks of all variety (veal/pork/lamb): Tony's

Pork shank (chammoro): El Torito

Italian sausage: Tony's (only makes mild sausage; we add crushed arbols to spice it up).

Bienvenidos!

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Ditto on Angelica's sausages. Hot or mild.

For a delicious quick and easy meal, they also have home made raviolis: Spinach w/ricotta and carne, maybe another. They come frozen: do-it-yourself sauce or they have those for sale, too.

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Jeanette, the Carniceria you started with has the BEST beef and lamb in the area at the best prices. You do need a little Spanish to communicate but it's worth it! I just bought a gorgeous kilo of Fillet today and some tomatoes for less than 140 pesos. It was so tender, it was like buttah! I did in fact use a table knife to slice it while enjoying it this afternoon. I encourage you to give it another try.

Valerie

PS. Welcome back to Paradise!!!

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For chicken I sometimes use the chicken vendor at the foot of the tianguis. He will give you whatever pieces you want and his prices are good.

Second the motion for the chicken vendor Shira mentions. This guy is great and his chicken is superb. He doesn't speak English, or at least he and I never spoke English, but you can just point and say "Medio kilo", "Un kilo", etc--and of course, "Gracias".

The ground beef at any Wal-Mart is invariably the best I've bought in Mexico. Sometimes it's on sale and I buy a bunch to freeze.

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I am a vegetarian, but if I would decide to eat meat I would only go for grass fed, anti biotic free and no growth hormones; in other words go Organic.

The Organic Market is each and every Tuesday morning starting at 10am at at the new shopping mall Centro Laguna. There you will find Marie-Lena, a bi-lingual vender for organic meats.

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Walmart doesn't always have their pork tenderloin visible. Ask for "filete de cerdo" at the counter...it's usually in the walk in cooler. There have been a few times when they don't have any...when they do, we stock up.

If you're buying your chicken in Walmart, the Bachoco brand is (IMHO)the best. We've stuck with Bachoco through three different states now and have never been disappointed.

I would like better directions,please, for the Carniceria that is close to El Serape.

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:017: I'm still lost because I don't know what El Serape is or where. I finally looked in the Chapala Directory under restaurants and found an El Sarape located "on the Carr., Pte #26-A Ajijic west".

So, I guess I'm going west and looking lakeside 'til I find it.

BTW, got some ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach at Angelica's today. Love that it comes frozen and popped it right into the freezer when I got home.

Looks Divine!

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The filet at Carnes Selecta are so tender that I can use a table knife to cut them. Just bought one yesterday and cooked half then and made chili with the rest today. Delicious, tender and affordable...

Valerie :D

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We arrived for the summer a few days ago, and discovered that our rental has an absolutely spectacular kitchen. I knew from the photos that it was a great, but the real thing just exceeds all expectations. So, we'll be eating at home a bit more this year.

We popped over to Walmart for some regular stuff, and stopped to have a look at the meat. Shocked at the high prices! And yes, I'm converting the kilos to pounds. But a whole chicken at $5+USD? That's about 2X what I pay in AZ! Bone in chicken thighs were 2X the NOB price, too. The steak looked too lousy to even consider and the pork was cut in thin slices, like for scallopine.

We popped over to the Carnes place on the south side of the carretera just before El Serape, but nobody spoke a word of English, none of the meats were marked with identification or prices. No signage that listed what they had and the cost. We smiled and gave up.

Last year, we got pretty good meat at Mega, but I'd prefer to shop at the small, local places - if I can find what I want and not feel like I'm breaking the bank to cook at home. (In fact, after we left the Carne place, we DID go to El Serape for a bowl of their chicken soup and a bowl of albondigas soup. Both were wonderful, delicious, large servings - and a bargain at 45 pesos. The chicken soup had an entire leg and thigh in the bowl, which made that $5 USD whole chicken at Walmart seem even MORE expensive. . .)

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I agree with all of the above suggestions--we find that Sorianna's meat is good also. We'll be looking for a nice rental soon--could you tell us where you were able to find yours? The really nice ones are hard to find!!!

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We also like the beef at Carnes Selectas. If your Spanish isn't up for it, take it a beef chart and point. PM me if you don't have one and can't find the version that was on this web. Also agree on the chicken vendor in the tienguis. We buy whole, cut them down and make our own chicken stock.

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