Bravo Supermarket Purchases

Any frugal foodie will tell you if you want to save on preparing ethnic foods is you need to shop at an ethnic grocery store.  In larger urban areas where there may be several established pockets of various ethnicities (eg. China town, Little Italy, etc.) then the best place to by ethnic ingredients is in the small mom & pop shops in those small niche areas.  If you live in a rural area then some of these ingredients might possibly be found in some country markets or grocery stores.  In general though if you want a few more exotic, ethnic ingredients the main choice is ethnic stores.

We stopped at a small Bravo supermarket in Florida.  It was in an area that has a higher Latino population and I got the distinct impression it was not in what would be considered affluent but still rather safe area.  The store was stocked with all kinds of great Latino foods and ingredient.  Oh my gosh I bought a bit to bring back home.  My purchases included: pork skins, dried black beans, dried Central America red beans (aka small red beans), chicharron de harina (wheat pellets), whole annato seed, ground annato seed, menduo mix, espresso coffee, masa flour, ancho chili pose, turbinado natural sugar and sugar cane (cones to the upper left).  The prices were really quite good in this little grocery store.  I only spent $31.91.  I noticed their prices for rice were almost half of what we pay for long grain rice.  I have a lot on hand otherwise would have bought some.  One of the most interesting things I bough was the chicharron de harina (middle bag to right).  These wagon wheel shaped pellets almost look like a hard pressed rubber except they are not flexible.  However when they are deep fried they puff up like cheesies for a light fluffy snack.  I can't wait to try these!