La clase de Español visita el mercado.

This semester I have been attending a Spanish class hosted by the music studio where I teach part-time.  The class is on Monday and Wednesday, but since I teach lessons on Wednesdays I have only been able to go to the Monday class.  I have enjoyed it immensely and I feel as though it has helped me with comprehension and pronunciation, in addition to making me a bit less self-conscious about using my limited vocabulary with my kids at school.  This week instead of meeting at the studio as usual, we had a field trip to a Spanish Market on the West side. 

 It is about the size of a supermarket.  On one end there are places to buy prepared foods, cafeteria-style, and there are tables with benches where you can sit and eat.  Then there is a large area for produce, and aisles of dry goods just like you would expect at the supermarket.  The market sells a lot of produce that you would find in Mexico, and lots of Mexican brands of packaged foods.  It also sells many of the same foods that you would find at the supermarket, but with Spanish labels. 

We explored the restaurant offerings first.  La Maestra, Lisa, helped us order our food (en Espanol) and we sat down to eat and go over the worksheet she had prepared for us.

Frijoles y arroz sin quesa (beans and rice, no cheese).

Tamale Fresa (strawberry tamale!  yummy dessert!)

Our worksheet was a scavenger hunt of sorts, arranged by aisle.  We were given the Spanish names and we had to find the food item, translate it, and write down the price.  After we ate, we set off to explore. 

Salsa bar and Juices.

A juice for whatever ails you! 

The fresh ingredients for the juices were displayed on the counter and the "bartender" would make your drink in a juicer while you watched.

Dried chiles.

 I only moved across the U.S. and I had to find different brands of peanut butter and coffee because the ones I liked are not available in New Mexico.  I can only imagine how great it must be for someone from Mexico or another Spanish speaking country to be able to find these imports!  It might make one a little less homesick.

At one point in the search, none of us could find an item on Lisa's list.  She asked a man who was stocking shelves (en Espanol) and he replied, "I'm sorry, my Spanish isn't that good."  LOL!  Everyone else that we spoke to seemed to be a native Spanish speaker.  Seeing us, one woman at the cafeteria started to speak to us in English, but La Maestra explained that we were una clase de Espanol, so she switched back (but didn't slow down, much to my dismay, so Lisa had to repeat everything she said muy despacio). 

Here are some of the types of produce that I couldn't identify.  One of these days I'd like to go back and buy some of them, then look up how to prepare them and have a tasting party!

The experience was lots of fun, and if you come visit, we can add El Mercado to our list of places to see!