Businesses move, or go out of business. New businesses of interest to cruisers open. New products become available which were once rare or nonexistent. I will be posting periodic updates to A Cruising Cook’s Guide to Mexico reflecting current conditions. These updates will be posted as searchable blog entries by location, as well as consolidated later in a single printable summary.
Here are some changes I found on my return to Mazatlan in November 2012:
Grocery stores – Gigante is now Soriana’s, and there is a new large Mega on Rafael Buelna on the corner where buses turn to go to Gran Plaza. In addition, there is a new grocery store named Santa Fe Market in the bottom of the Costa Veleros condos at Marina Mazatlan. It is across from Dock 3 in Marina Mazatlan, and a short walk from the new Fonatur marina. The Supermercado that used to be near the Marina Mazatlan offices has closed.
In my opinion, Santa Fe is a great option for picking up a few items, but I like Mega or Soriana’s for major provisioning stops. Soriana’s seems to be a little more expensive, but has great produce, bakery, pharmacy, and liquor sections. Soriana’s also has some staff who speak excellent English that roam the store and offer assistance to gringo shoppers. It’s well worth tracking one of them down if you are having a hard time finding something.
The new Mega sits over its convenient parking garage.
Mega, on the other hand, has a better variety of both standard and hard-to-find canned and dry goods. Mega also seems to have a bit better cheese and deli sections. We even found Johnsonville hot dogs in the gourmet meats section. Mega has another attraction if you have a car: a high-ceiled garage under the store. You ride up and down from the store on slanting escalators with grooves that lock the shopping cart in place!
Henderson Meats’ sign is recognizable by the meat diagram.
The other good news for cruisers is that Henderson Meats has moved their retail store to a convenient location just a mile from the marinas. It is located across from the Pueblo Bonito hotel, next to The Fish Market restaurant. Henderson has excellent American cuts of meat, and a good selection of sausages and deli meats. All of the meat in the store is cut, wrapped, and frozen, except for ground beef (which is ground to order) and the deli meats. We were delighted to find roast beef and salami on a recent visit. If you want meat packed for your passage, or just want something unusual, you can place an order. We ordered a selection of meat and asked that it be vacuum packed and frozen. The main location prepared the order and delivered it to the retail store the next day. Henderson is easily reached by bus, bike, or taxi, and is a short walk from El Cid marina.
For cruisers at Marina Mazatlan, Fonatur, or Isla marinas, propane service is now available at the Weber store located in the strip mall on the street side of Costa Veleros condos. Liana takes in tanks on Thursdays by 10 a.m. and has them available for pickup at 2 p.m. Propane day at El Cid marina is on Saturdays.
We also found a great wine store in Mazatlan, thanks to recommendations from other cruisers. Casa del Sommelier (aka Casa Del Vin) is located on the ocean side of the main drag (Cameron Sabalo) through the Golden Zone. You’ll find it across from Monte Carlo (the sports book and casino), between Burger King and the movie theaters. It’s a little hard to spot, so look for the large red dot on the building. They carry a good selection of very drinkable wines from Mexico, Spain, Romania, Chile, and Argentina. If you buy a case (which can be mixed), they offer a nice discount on your entire purchase. Many of the staff speak English well.
At a Christmas bazaar, I encountered a woman offering export quality shrimp. Of particular interest to cruisers are the jumbo shrimp that are individually frozen and sold in resealable bags so that you can use only what you need. Current prices are 200 pesos for a one kilogram bag of 16/20 headless, peeled, and deveined shrimp (about 40 shrimp per bag). Maritza’s email address is maritzamalcampo@hotmail.com and she will deliver to the marinas.
Cranberry juice blends and retort pouches of formerly canned items are now readily available,
A final note on available products: the first thing that I noticed is that Ocean Spray is marketing cranberry juice in Mexico in a big way! Cranberry juice cocktail, and a lot of interesting mixes such as cranberry-mango and cranberry-pomegranate, are available in all grocery stores. However, diced tomatoes, which were growing in popularity here a few years ago, are not now found in Mazatlan stores. [Late addition: I found a few boxes of La Costena brand diced tomatoes at Soriana. They were hidden in a sea of Pure de Tomate, so look carefully at the labels for “tomate pelado machacado”.] Other new products of interest to cruisers include retort pouches of whole beans, refried beans, and chilorio.
Fair winds and following seas,
Heather, The Cruising Cook