It’s been many years since the Captain and I visited this terrific market on Southern and Stapley in Mesa, which specializes in Mexican foods and products. The original Los Altos market chain of seven markets was acquired by Cardenas in 2017, which I think must account for the lighter, brighter and yes, cleaner, store Demonstration Buddy and I found yesterday, and the fact that the sign no longer says Los Altos Ranch Market. We will always think of it as Los Altos, though.

We stopped by the market for a look-see and for a delicious taco lunch. It definitely all looked a lot fresher and tidier than the last time Cappy and I dropped by. It differs from our usual markets in oh so many ways. For instance, you want dried peppers? Take a look at this whole wall of different kinds of peppers!

You need some herbs and spices for taco night that you might not find in your regular grocery? Check out this wall:

Not only do you get a fair amount of what you’re buying, the prices are more reasonable than the McCormick bottles you’ll find in the big chain store.

Some of the items are things we know well with their names in Spanish – cinnamon sticks, little packets of tomato flavored pasta (?!), cardamom seeds; but some are things we don’t recognize, either by sight or name. Fun!

We enjoyed seeing meat that was displayed without being all packed up on plastic trays with plastic wrap. And where else are you going to find chicken feet (Patas de pollo)? (Well, probably at Lee Lee, but that’s for another post sometime.)

We were kind of amused by the fish display. Demo Buddy has eaten these upside down fish in Mexico and reports they are bony, oily, and are neither delicious nor much fun to eat. But someone sure must like them – or knows how to prepare them better than the person who cooked them for DB. Poor guys look like they’re trying to hide. Too late! Too late!

Please excuse the poor quality of this greatly enlarged photo below which I stole from the interwebs and which shows the cafeteria-style lunch counter at Los Altos. Here you can get fresh-made juices and all manner of Mexican prepared food. We opted for tacos, and were delighted to see our tortillas plucked off a board and cooked to order, then made with our requested filling (chicken, please, and for toppings: todo!). We couldn’t resist sides of refried beans (yum), fried bananas, and guac (note to chef: way too salty, have brought home to add more avocados and some sour cream). Sitting at the long picnic tables and dining with strangers is loads of fun, as is seeing what other people are eating – sometimes recognizable, sometimes not. It was the perfect luncheon for hot and weary ladies of a certain age.

We were able to resist the bakery section – seen below in a 2021 photo from Yelp (thank you, other photographer). We both have always found the colors and the amount of sugar in these baked goods a bit alarming. We are so boring.

There are all the usual supermarket items in the aisles, and loads of fresh fruits and veggies. You could certainly do all shopping here and be more than happy. I haven’t included photos of these aisles because, well, supermarket aisles. meh. The fruits and veggies are beautifully displayed; here’s a photo from the store’s website.

I’ve saved the most fun for last. Los Altos has what can only be described as a Rube Goldberg tortilla maker, that was feverishly pounding out corn tortillas as we watched. It goes so quickly it takes three people to handle the output. Just after making the video you can see here, one of the gents waved us over and gave us hot-off-the-press tortillas. Very delicious.

If you have a chance, check out the Cardenas/Los Altos Ranch Markets. There are nine locations, (only the one I’ve written about here is in the East Valley; the rest are to the West). You won’t be disappointed.