Evergreen Produce

I’ve been shopping here quite a few years. The staff is usually very friendly… the prices on produce are GREAT. My only complaint is the isles are narrow… and hard to get through if you’re a larger person or on a wheelchair or if someone is already standing in that isle… they make me feel clustaphobic. I’d hate to be in this store during a earthquake.

I was most impressed by the butcher case — they sell ALL parts of pigs and chickens. You can also get oxtail and meat counter standards. Though I’m not really well-​qualified to say, the number of items I didn’t recognize or couldn’t read strong implies the authenticity of the Latin-​heavy assortment of goods. Of particular note was the range of different types of dried beans, peppers, and spices on display. Speaking of displays, Evergreen packs a surprising amount of stock in a fairly small space, but that means the aisles are claustrophobically narrow; don’t expect to move past another shopper. (That’s what keeps them from earning 4 stars.) Note: Spanish is the primary language in use, and some of the staff speak almost no English.

There’s an old Yiddish curse that goes something like this:
«That motherfucker should stick his head in the ground and it should grow there forever, like an onion.»
That’s kind of how I feel about Whole Foods Market, and the fact that those motherfuckers have the audacity to charge two dollars a pound for onions.
ONIONS.
When you take into account that your average onion can weigh close to one pound, that’s kind of ridiculous, don’t you think? I mean, even if it’s organic, it’s still too much money to pay for an onion just because it grew in poo instead of Miracle Grow. For that price, I’d expect John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, to personally come to my house, harvest my poo, and grow me some personalized Tsada onions in the trunk of his BMW. Really.
The onions at Evergreen usually cost about twenty-​five cents a pound. That’s eight times as many onions for the same price, for those of you not mathematically inclined. Other staple produce that is usually ridiculously cheap includes bananas, tomatoes, lemons, and limes. And Evergreen has some fabulous, often hard-​to-​find Mexican items, like cactus, sugarcane, and Mexican papaya.
Also, I like the nice Palestinian guys who work there. They speak fluent Spanish, and I have the most ridiculous exchanges with them. Here’s one:
TSADA: Hola.
GUY: Hola.
T: Sus cebollas estan muy baratas hoy.
G: Where are you from?
T: Puerto Rico.
G: Really?
T: Si. *nervous twitch*
G: [Insert complicated Spanish sentence spoken incomprehensibly fast here].
*pregnant pause*
T: Um… si?
G: ¿Si? ¡¿SI?!
*looks at the Mexican lady in line behind me who laughs and rolls her eyes*
¡¡¡BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
*pregnant pause*
T: Um… cebollas?
G: Onions?
T: Oy. Vey is meir.
G: You’re telling me!
T: Sorry. As Salaam Alaikum?
G: Alaikum As-​Salaam!
T: Whoa, thanks dude!
G: No prob.
T: Adiós.
G: See ya.
Four stars for being a great mom and pop produce market, and for giving Tsada the opportunity to indulge her J-​Lo complex while simultaneously bridging culture gaps, one mispronounced foreign word at a time.

evergreen is a cool store i, ve been coming here since i was a little one not sure if it was called evergreen in the 80s but they defenatly have a good selection of frutas aka fruits and many other mexican products they also have a good carniceria …

Aguacates
Limas
Cebollitas
Elotes
That was my shopping list today for this market. I appreciate living next to Chinatown but sometimes I want a produce store with the frutas y vegetales of my people. Where what would be strange and exotic to some, I know exactly what is without a sign translating into English. Actually, all the produce signs at Evergreen are en Espanol and that’s fine by me.
So, I’m barbecuing with mis amigos Americanos this weekend and have in my head that I want to make Mexican style carne asada tacos. The kind on a slightly charred soft corn tortilla, a few whole pinto beans, some freshly grilled and chopped skirt steak, a slice of avocado, a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of crumbled cotija cheese. Throw in a blackened green onion with a fat little bulb on the end and add a roasted ear of corn with the husk still attached that’s gonna be slathered with mayo, more cotija cheese, more lime juice and some chile powder and we’re set.
Evergreen is making this an affordable idea too. Three heavy bags of produce for my gig cost $ 13.97 out the door. I got the list above plus a bag of fresh cut nopalitos, papas, platanos (plantains) and calibacitas just cuz.
Yum-​o
(Si, I find Rachel Ray annoying too but just writing this review made me hella hungry!!! discupeme!)