The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Time to move on...

We've enjoyed the past three weeks here at Valle de Bravo. It's one of our favorite places in Mexico. But, Mexico is a big country and we like  to explore and see what else is out there! So today, it's time to move on.

No idea where we're going to end up tonight. We're heading towards the city of Queretaro, which is only about 250 kms (155 miles) away, but we're taking the back roads and we don't know what we're going to come across.

Yesterday was our last day here, so we made on more trip into Valle de Bravo and did some stocking up.

We stopped in at a butcher to pick up some meat. We had ordered our 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of lean ground beef, as well as a big piece of pork loin when Ruth decided to ask about a pot roast. We didn't know how to explain what cut of meat to use for a pot roast...in English, it would typically be a chuck roast...a fairly inexpensive piece of meat. We told him we wanted about a 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) roast.

I tried showing him a picture on the iPhone, and he seemed to understand. Next thing you know, he's gone into the fridge and pulled out a huge piece of a cow and starts cutting it apart. He's working at it for a while, and eventually he comes back with the big whole piece of filet mignon tenderloin! Not really what we were looking for...

He weighs it, and it comes in at 1.7 kgs...about 3.5 lbs.

Ruth and I are looking at each other, thinking "this is going to be expensive", and I get out a 500 peso ($42 CAD) bill to be prepared to pay.

We could have turned him down, but we would have felt bad because he went to so much effort. Besides, we know it's a good piece of meat that will do us for quite a few meals.

The bill for the ground beef, the pork loin, and the filet mignon tenderloin was 529 pesos ($44.43 CAD). Yikes! I guess that's it for our meat budget for the month!

But I looked it up, and even for what we paid, we got not a bad deal. Seems that beef tenderloin goes for between $15 and $20 per pound in the U.S...so I guess we did okay. We will eat like royalty for a few meals!

One last look at our view for the past three weeks.

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Great price today only for a 2,000 watt inverter generator...


And in Canada...



20 comments:

  1. That Is some expensive meat but you still got a pretty good deal.
    Safe travels and enjoy the journey

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    1. Yes, we did get a good deal compared to Canada or the U.S but if we had been in the store and saw the sticker price we probably wouldn't have bought it. I have all ready cut some of it into two steaks and a small package for kabobs and then tonight we will have the rest as a roast, with possible leftovers so that makes it sound a little less expensive.

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  2. But the counter effect is the liquor is cheap so you can have a nice chianti to go with the meat :)

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    1. Yes, it is nice that the liquor is cheaper. We would have red wine with that meal though! :-)

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  3. It always scares me ordering direct from the butcher without finding out the end cost. Still a bargain though :)

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    1. We know that meat is a decent price here in Mexico so we don't normally ask and it is usually nicer meat than at the big grocery stores. We just need to learn how to ask for the proper cut of meat for the next time. We went to the supermarket after to pick up some other items and Kevin looked at the price of the meat there and it was more expensive than at the butcher's. We will definitely enjoy this little splurge! :-)

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  4. Fortunately friends back home happy, hope to see you soon, good trip

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    1. Gracias Paco y Oty! Tuvimos un tiempo maravilloso con ustedes y esperamos verle de nuevo algún día en el futuro, tal vez incluso en Canada. :-)

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  5. If you're going to break the meat budget, then filet mignon is a pretty tasty way to do it.

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    1. That is exactly how we are looking at it! I am looking forward to that roast tonight! :-)

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  6. Ahhhh we mostly eat tenderloin as it's less fatty and more red meat, good for your cholesterol! So see? Your purchase was medicinal!

    KarenInTheWoods and Steveio
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    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We don't eat red meat to often, so it will be a treat and if it is for medicinal purposes, then even better!

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  7. Still not a bad price tenderloins in Florida are 899 a pound I have my guy take a 4 pounder slice it up I'll take it home and vacuum seal itand get five or six meals out of it
    Also the generator sounds like a pretty good deal but you have to remember the generator inverter don't always run a RV type microwave properly in the voltage department it actually burnt my microwave up. That ment getting a new one
    And with that said be careful because some Brands of microwaves are inverted and you can't run the both together

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    1. I cut up the some of the roast yesterday and put it into separate packages. One has 2 steaks in it and another one has pieces cut up for kabobs and then the roast itself. I expect to get two meals out of but I guess we will see how much it shrinks. So now it makes the meat sound much cheaper now.

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  8. I have no idea what beef costs.. in Mexico or the USA... it's been way too many years since we've bought any... BUT... if you like it and enjoy fixing it, then go for it... the dollar cost isn't what matters... enjoy!

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    Replies
    1. We don't buy red meat often but we do like to have it occasionally, especially a nice steak or roast. The dollar cost does matter to us though because we live on a budget and it isn't a champagne budget. ;-) We will enjoy this though and I have packaged it up so that we will get at least 3 if not 4 meals out of it so makes the cost sound a little more reasonable.

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  9. And I was just thinking before I read this that you have spent so many winters in Mexico that you must be really fluent in Spanish. Oh well. Budgets manage to flex.

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    1. Not even close Sherry! We work hard at trying to learn Spanish and we do not bad but we are a very far off from fluent. Having said that we have met expats who have come to live in Mexico and have been doing so for many years and they still can't speak/understand more than just the basics. Each year we learn a little more but learning a second language when you are our age isn't an easy task. Guaranteed we will be learning how to ask for the proper cut of meat for a pot roast for our next visit to the butcher's.

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