Mi Pueblo Market

A long and depressing time ago, I lived in Washington D.C., a city that has pretty much no good Mexican restaurants and a lot of annoying type-​A personalities. While in the District, I worked in an odd neighborhood that was half yuppies and half Salvadorans. I had never really had Salvadoran food before and assumed it would maybe me like Mexican, so thought I would give the somewhat dingy looking restaurants a try.
That was when I discovered one of my favorite foods: Pupusas. Pupusas are grilled maize almost tortillas stuffed with something delicious, usually cheese, beans or a shredded pork mixture called «chicharron» (not to be confused with the Mexican version). Pupusas are served with curtido, a sort of chunky cole slaw.
The pupusas at Mi Pueblo Market were handmade and very cheap. When I went they were on sale for only 99¢ each, but the main sign lists them for $ 1.50. Very good deal considering you get curtido on the side along with a spicy/​sour tomato dressing for it.
Maybe it’s just hazy memories now, but I think the Pupusas I had in Washington D.C. were a bit better. The chicharron paste was a bit chewy and the cheese almost crispy… maybe they were just on the stove for a bit too long. But their maize envelope was done right so maybe not. I also remember curtido having a bit more spice than the kind of mild flavors I had.
Still, I am very excited to have a pupuseria in Denver and so close to my new house. There was a pupuseria on East Colfax that closed years ago and I’ve been looking for another one ever since. And the best part about Mi Pueblo Market is that they seem to have quite a variety (although they seemed to only have three varieties as part of their special deal).
Generally, Mi Pueblo Market is a nice Latino-​oriented grocery store with a surprising amount of prepared foods with lots of Latin American culinary diversity. I definitely want to come back for the fried plantains and of course more pupusas.

Maybe it’s because I’m from Miami, but I wasn’t as blown away by this store as others seem to be.
Yeah, they had Chicharones, but they weren’t freshly fried or anything like that.
The Hot Foods section DID look pretty good, and if I wanted a quick, hot, lunch, I’d definitely hit it up.
The Meats (Chicken and Beef, mainly, with some fishes thrown in) looked good, too, and were priced decently.
They didn’t have a Fantastic pastry section, which, being raised in the sweet-​toothed Cubano Mercado area, I expected, and was disappointed to miss. Also where are my Coconut and Guava flavored items? Mi Pueblo DID have Guava Paste (Goya and La Costeña) in a tin, but it was $ 7, and you can get the SAME tin at Safeway or Walmart for about $ 3.
I guess that’s my issue with Mi Pueblo. Their shelf items (Boxed, canned, etc) were WAY overpriced… So much so that I walked out with Nada! Their meats looked fine, but not fine enough for me to drive out of my way to purchase them here.
If I lived closer, in the neighborhood, Mi Pueblo might become my «Quick, I need to grab _​_​_​_​_​_​for what I’m making RIGHT NOW and I don’t care that it’s more expensive because they’re RIGHT HERE» store.
Other than that, I just don’t see Mi Pueblo making its’ way into my rounds of Food Purchasing Stores.

When I moved to Barnum I realized that I would no longer have a Safeway across the street from me. I paniced! Can’t lie. Not that safeway is amazing by any means but the convenience factor was HUGE!
Mi Pueblo is great! I won’t be buying boxed items here, they are expensive. The chicken LOOKED AND TASTED LIKE CHICKEN! Who would have thought! It wasn’t some abnormally big bird. I haven’t tried any of the beef yet but it totally looks more legit than mega chain grocery stores.
Also, the fruit and veg is very very cheap and pretty dang good!

First of all, I’m very happy that a grocery store has come to «downtown» Barnum. I think this means it can officially be crossed off the list of «food deserts» (although there were already some little carnicerias and asian grocers in the area, so no one was going to starve).
Mi Pueblo is basically a much smaller version of Avanza or Los Aztecas, and a definite step-​up from the little neighborhood carnicerias. They have an excellent produce selection (including plenty of items you’re not going to find at the Safeway — I never knew what galanga looked like until I saw it here). The prices are reasonable (you can probably find a better deal somewhere, but they’re actually quite cheap for a smaller store; comparable to Albertson’s) and they have basically everything you need (dairy products, a meat counter, basic grocery products like cereal, some household goods, bulk dry beans, the aforementioned produce section, etc), although, of course, you’re not going to find as much selection as at a giant supermarket (except, again, in the produce section). They also have an ATM. The staff is friendly and they speak both English and Spanish. Definitely worth checking out if you live in the area and don’t want to go all the way to Lakewood or Alameda/​Broadway to get your groceries, or just need to stock up on a few items mid-​week.