604 Foodtography

One of the best places to score Mexican Latin-American foods and products is Los Guerreros Mexican Food Products. Don’t believe me? I’ve been going there with my mom ever since I can remember to pick up tortillas, achiote, manzante, and fricking chicharrons! There was also a time when they would sell churros with filling. Yes, churros like the ones you can get at PNE but infinitely better. Still need proof as to how awesome Los Guerreros is? Even the Georgia Straight says so.

Best Mexican food market

Los Guerreros Mexican Food Products

102–3317 Kingsway

604-451-7850

The closest thing you’ll find locally to a Mexican tienda, Los Guerreros has been supplying Mexican foods and ingredients to Vancouver since 1992. Looking for guava paste or horchata mix? How about some tamarind candy or tamale flour? Owners Rolando and Liney Zavaleta offer it all, including a large selection of international brands like Herdez, Las Palmas, and Goya, as well as locally produced tortillas and baked goods. The store is open noon to 10 p.m., Monday to Saturday.

Source: Georgia Straight : Best of Vancouver 2010

Apparently, the owners are El Salvadorean, and you know what that means…. PUPUSA! I’m obsessed with pupusas, they’re so damned good. I’ve had them at El Caracol (I think this post is due for an update, the style of writing I used is so blah) and Rinconcito Salvadoreno. I’m aware that there are a couple other restaurants in town that also sell pupusas, I’ll do my best to try them asap!

Anyways, it was a pretty normal visit to Los Guerreros. My mom just wanted to browse around for some stuff to accompany the tamales we had just picked up from Los Dos Amigos Market, so I walked around. It’s always interesting to see what kind of products they have that’s not commonly seen, and a little visual trip back to Costa Rica.

First time I’ve seen Sidral Mundet in person. Chowtimes had a little giveaway contest with them last year, and I scored an iPod Nano cause of it!

You know all those energy drinks you pound back? They contain Guarana, a berry found in the Amazon forest and Brazil, which contains a lot of guaranine, chemically equivalent to caffeine. Forget Red Bull, if you can get your hands on it, try some Bawls instead, it tastes better.

Curtido [pickled cabbage used in Salvadorean cuisine] essential if you’re going to be eating pupusas. $8.99 though, pricey!

Once you reach the end of the store, you’ll see this. Actually, it’s more likely you’ll smell the pupusas before you even see them. A layer of haze seems to permanently exist in the store cause of them slapping those pupusas on the skillet back here.

Immediately, I figured we could have a couple pupusas here and then head home to eat those tamales. My mom one-upped me on this, and ordered TEN. At only $2 each pupusa, that’s the cheapest pupusa you can get out of the 3 places I know so far! The fillings are the standard queso, frijoles and chicharrón [cheese, beans and pork].

In a space definitely not for those with claustrophobia, pupusas are made by Fredy and Claudia Zavaleta. They’ve been doing so for just over a year in this little tiny corner of Los Guerreros. While we waited for the pupusas to be made, people kept coming in and picking up their orders. Definitely a good sign for what I’m about to eat later.

Bucket full of curtido! Fresh curtido!

Finally 20~minutes later, we have our pupusas wrapped up in aluminum foil in stacks of 5 ready to take home.

Watery salsa and curtido.

PACKED full to the edge of cheese, chicharrón and beans.. oh my dear, they’re doing something right here at Los Guerreros cause they are delicious. So. Damned. Good. My altruistic and giving nature immediately wants to let you all know…go! Sorry El Caracol, gotta say I have a new favourite here with Fredy and Claudia’s pupusas…

No hours of operation, but it should be the same as the market itself, 12pm-10pm Monday to Saturday.
Edit: Friday [5:30-8:30pm] | Saturday & Sunday [3-9pm] *Thanks Wanda.