Hi-Lo Latin Grocery, Hyde Square-ish

Despite its poor online reviews, the Hi-Lo I found this Friday afternoon was delightful. A little jumbled, but relatively clean, with no offensive smells. Produce looked excellent, though somewhat limited - perhaps the result of winter? Five limes for $1, bunches of large bananas, prodigious amounts of pineapple. Tamarind pods, fresh herbs in plastic for .99 cents. Watercress and beautiful striped eggplants, which I bought. Piles of avocados and potatoes for cheap. Plantains, cassava? Onions and attractively priced garlic.

Fresh-baked breads which smelled so luscious, I bought two. I've already eaten one baguette. I looked at some exciting pineapple marmalade, big Jamaican water crackers jumbled in in a bag like cookies, blocks of orange-scented sugar, tablets of Mexican hot chocolate, pickled hearts of palm and pickled flower buds. The aisle of beans and rice, the wall of tortillas and related breads/pastries. Goya items galore, Goya everything, and dozens of different hot sauces. Chinese salsa = soy sauce, English salsa = Worcestershire sauce?! Normally expensive items priced low: vinegar, molasses, allspice, cinnamon sticks. The snack and candy aisle was very entertaining and will be an excellent source of crunchy novelties ("Yellow Cheese Marbles, no trans fats! Banana Jelly Rolls! Guava cakelets!). The meat at the back of the store was non-offensive in odor, and looked fresh as I passed by. The frozen section is very small, with savory pork empanadas and frozen fried plantains taking over. Also a well-stocked area of pineapple and coconut flaky dessert pastries.

The ice cream section was small and not well stocked, but I did see a Breyer's Fried Ice Cream option, which I am sorely tempted to sample. There were ice cream sandwiches, and small boxes of the usual flavors: strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, and mint.

I'm definitely going again. I missed the dairy department, but did see a selection of fresh queso blanco sorts of soft cheeses. I feel this is rich and potentially underutilized cheap grocery resource! Thanks, Hi-Lo - you are better than I had imagined. Marry me.