Mojo Criollo and the Cardenas Market

Moving to a new area is fraught with opportunities to take a half a day to do something that used to take a half an hour in the last place you lived. Because in the last place you lived, you knew exactly where to go to get all the weird little things that make your world more comfortable. Like your favorite chicken marinade.

My favorite happens to come in a big bottle--wine bottle size--from the Goya company, and is called Mojo Criollo. No, I don't know what that means. All I know is that it makes blah chicken breasts taste like a fiesta in my mouth, instead of like dry, boring diet food.

I was getting this elixir at the Safeway when I lived in Washington. Wouldn't you think that in Indio, CA, where the population is a much higher percentage Latino, you'd be able to get this stuff just about anywhere? Well, you'd be wrong.

This is where the half-day comes in. My mother's side of the family lacks the brain computer chip that gives people that geographic orientation known as a "sense of direction." I hold them completely responsible for the fact that I have to have written directions to every place I go in a new town, until I actually memorize the routes. The only directions I've memorized so far are the ones to my community clubhouse and the nearest Starbucks. So, going anywhere else takes the usual time to get there, plus 15-30 minutes for getting lost. Multiply that by the four grocery stores I tried, and I think you get the picture. I finally asked my Mexican-American housekeeper to tell me where a good Mexican store was.

All I can say to the Cardenas family, who started a chain of Mexican grocery stores all over Southern California, is: "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" In a store decorated to look like an outdoor market I found my mojo criollo marinade, my favorite fresh tortillas, and a shaker of Adobo (the Mexican equivalent of Laurie's Seasoned Salt.) Signs were in Spanish and English, the music was lively, and families laughed and shopped and ate sweets. I could come to love this.

A huge fake orange tree presided over the produce section, and a faux bank housed the customer service area near the check-out stands.

I think I'm love with the store. I know I'll be back again soon--even before I run out of mojo criollo.