All fruits and vegetables, unless you can peel them, need to be washed and then soaked in a disinfectant solution (iodine or chlorine). Supermarkets, fruterías, and sometimes pharmacies carry bottles of the disinfectant. The instructions are printed on the label…usually 5 drops for each liter of water. The drops don't change the flavor of produce. Some people say if you cook the produce, you don't need to disinfect it first. I always do it anyway, just to be safe.

To round out your purchases, you will go to a bakery or "panadería" for fresh rolls ("bolillos"), cookies ("galletas"), turnovers ("empanadas") filled with meat, tuna, cheese, or jam, and other bakery items or to a "pastelería" for cakes and pies.

Unless you shop exclusively in supermarkets in Mexico, you will have to visit several shops to find everything, more or less, on your shopping list. Because these shops are small and usually family owned, you will get to know the owners and employees as well as the other regular customers. Sometimes people come to the shop just to exchange news and gossip.

Your shopping trip will be much longer than the same trip took in the States but will be a much richer experience.