Canino Produce

When people ask me why I settled in Houston I think of places like Caninos. Any other city would have turned these markets into overpriced, hyped-up tourist attractions but Houston's remains authentic. Bring cash, your best Spanish and the hottest girl you know (to guarantee the best prices). Dash past the front of the house and through the vendor stalls to one of the taco carts in the back and grab a snack to hold you over. You will be salivating soon. This is the place where you buy anything you might want in bulk, as the best prices are on the cajas. The only thing I can ever bring myself to eat a whole box of are mangos, which are cheap and plentiful here when in season. Then make your way through the stalls grabbing vegetables, spices, beans of every variety and fruits for less than half of what you would pay at the local Kroger. Don't be afraid to ask for samples of the fruit and to bargain amongst the vendors. When you have all that you can carry, make a drop off at your car and walk across the street to El Bolillo Bakery to invalidate the healthiness of everything you just bought. Pros: fresh produce for even the tightest of budgets Cons: buying far more than you can possibly eat more

Houston has a handful of awesome local, organic farmer's markets inside 610: Midtown Farmer's Market at t'afia, Rice University Farmer's Market, Discovery Green, Onion Creek and the Bayou City Farmer's Market off Kirby and Richmond. My beef is always that they're SO expensive, boutique and only open one or two days/week. Enter Airline Farmer's Market - well, not really 'enter' since its the original farmer's market in Houston. AND open 7 days/week. It's miles long [I'm an exaggerator] with TONS of produce. It's cheap. It is NOT, however, local - nor organic. It's close though. And I couldn't be happier taking a Saturday morning and walking the aisles and aisles of cactus, peppers, melons, apples, pineapples, flowers; asking what this strange fruit is and trying my hand at my not-even-functional Spanish. Pros: cheap, variety, open 7 days/week Cons: not local, not organic more