In the U.S., Dell Taco is Lying and the Grocery Store is Robbing You!
The first things many of us think of when we hear the term "Mexican food" are tacos, burritos and fajitas. 
While those items are just the very tip of the Mexican gastronomic iceberg, they have been perverted by Americanization to the degree that what you can order at Del Taco can't even be found in Mexico. I don't mean by name; I mean by execution. For example, a taco in Mexico does not have a hard shell, and it's not filled with seasoned ground mystery meat, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. A taco in Mexico is nothing like that. A taco in Mexico is made with a soft corn tortilla (sometimes two) and it's filled with meat - real meat - none of it chicken. (There are however chicken "taquitos" that are made from chicken meat rolled in a corn tortilla and deep fried. But those are not found very often, and you really don't want them). The meat in meat tacos is either char grilled, braised, our roasted in a variety of ways. Depending on the kind of meat it's filed with, the tacos can be topped with a few beans, shredded cabbage, diced onion and cilantro. Then you can top them with a variety of different fresh salsas. The good news is that these tacos are made with fresh, unprocessed ingredients, and you can buy them for about a buck. Three of them will give you about eight ounces of meat. And, taco stands are usually open until six in the morning. If you're not on a keto diet, a real Mexican taco is about the best portable bodybuilder meal you'll ever find - anywhere.
In Puerto Vallarta, there are specific taco stands for meat (arrachera, asada, biria), for pork (carnitas or pastor) and one for fish. If you're going to Puerto Vallarta let me know and I'll let you know where they are. You can get really sick at the wrong taco stand, so make sure you know which one is the right one!
Other than tacos, the food here in Mexico is as varied as it is plentiful and most of it is really, really good. But I'm not here to give you the walking tour of Mexican eateries. Bodybuilders prepare their food at home. Many of the rentals you'll be able to find here have kitchens, and you'll want to use them. The grocery stores are plentiful, big, well stocked and cheap! So, you'll be cooking here, just like you do at home - with the 
occasional taco run thrown in. You wont be able to resist!
Today I'm going to give you a rundown of just how cheap it is to eat here - like a bodybuilder - with examples of typical bodybuilder foods and their prices from the grocery store. In the pictures you will see the prices given are in Pesos for one kilo. I'll convert to dollars per pound for you.
The markets here stock just about every food item to which you are accustom in the US. I'm not going to cover all of them. But to give you an idea of just how cheap it is to eat here, I'll cover the basics: chicken, fish, beef, broccoli, potatoes, rice, bananas, and peanuts for all us keto guys.
Chicken: boneless, skinless breasts cut into thin cutlets cost 67 pesos a kilo, or $2.30 a pound. Whole chicken breasts with the skin and the bone is 52 Pesos a kilo, or $1.81 a pound. Oddly, this is one of the most comparable prices to the US. I've seen regular boneless skinless breasts on sale in the US for $1.99 a pound, but they usually run about twice that. Chicken is still cheap in Mexico, but not an astounding bargain 
compared the US.
Fish is a steal. My new favorite fish is called Basa. It is a Vietnamese catfish that comes in nice meaty boneless filets. It is available in both the US and in Mexico. The difference is the price. In the US frozen Basa fillets go for about $6.00 a pound. Here they cost 48 Pesos a kilo, or $1.67 a pound! Almost free! Another great bargain is yellow fin tuna - the "red one" Sal Palumbo keeps forgetting. Sashimi grade tuna in the US goes for over $20.00 a pound. Here, you can buy fresh, deep red, beautiful sashimi grade tuna for 75 pesos a kilo, or $2.62 a pound and it was probably swimming the morning you buy it! The rest of the fresh fish you'll find in the fish market is all between $1.50 - $2.62 a pound (yes, tuna is the most expensive). You can even buy frozen salmon filets at Sam's Club for about $3.50 a pound. All of it is as good or better quality as the US, but for way less money.
Beef: If you're looking for choice or prime cuts of beef in Mexico, you'll be buying Argentine beef. That stuff is pretty pricy, but not as bad as prime meat in the US. I was on a budget this summer and didn't buy any fat Argentine steaks. I did go to a couple of Argentine steak houses and ate like a king, but that's another story. Regular Mexican beef is fairly lean, very flavorful but not very tender. Hence, they cut it fairly thin, or grind it. A Milanese cut of beef from the hind quarters was on sale this week at the market down the street for 89.90 pesos a kilo, or $3.14 a pound. A comparable cut in the US would go for about $5.00 a pound. Ground beef 80% lean here is 36.90 pesos a kilo, or $1.29 a pound. Almost free. Now, you do have to be careful with ground beef here, but if you buy it at a good high end market and cook it very thoroughly, you'll be fine. I've eaten several pounds of it during the summer and I'm still alive, so is most of Mexico.
Broccoli is the bodybuilder vegetable. We all eat it - lots of it. The best deal I could get on broccoli in NY was at Pathmark for $2.99 a pound. Here , big full beautiful heads of broccoli cost 16.95 pesos per kilo, or - are you ready for this? 59 cents a pound! Other fresh veggies are in the same ball park. Potatoes, another bodybuilder staple go for 21.55 a kilo, or 75 cents a pound.
Bananas are another popular bodybuilder food. I usually don't buy too many of them back home unless Max has a hankering for them so I'm not too sure of what they go for, but I feel pretty confident telling you that I'd be paying much more than 13.95 pesos a kilo, or 48 cents a pound! Other fruits such as apples, pineapple, peaches, mangos, papaya, grapes, etc. are all way under $1.00 a pound.
Rice and pasta are also really cheap. Especially rice. They sell bulk rice with a few dry beans thrown in for 12.90 pesos a kilo or 45 cents a pound. Barilia pasta from Italy costs 10 pesos, or 76 cents for ½ kilo package (1.1 pounds)
Peanuts may sound odd thrown into the mix, but guys on a keto diet (like me) consume a lot of them. A half pound bag of premium dry roasted peanuts cost me 24 pesos the other day, or $1.80. Other nuts such as almonds and pecans can be bought in bulk, but they are not much cheaper than they are in the states.
All in all, you really don't have to make too many concessions. Anything imported is going to carry a premium over anything produced nationally, so you have to pay attention to that. If Jewbaka were here he'd be shelling out almost $4.00 a box for pop tarts. Even so, my trips to the grocery store were dirt cheap. In NY a trip to the market every three or four days would run me about $120 - $130 for Max and me. It would go up to about $170 when my girl is in town. Here the same trip for the same load of groceries for Max, my girl and me ran about $60.00, and that's including not normally consumable items such those perennially needed by women - shampoo, conditioner, lotion, tampons, you know "girl stuff." A guy on his own would spend less than $50.00. So, you're looking at less than $100.00 a week for groceries. For a bodybuilder? That's almost free!
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