La Tropicana Market in South St. Louis

I love carbohydrates. Bread, tortillas, pitas, crostini, croutons, crackers, biscuits. You name it, and if its carb, I want to eat it. And some carbs are infinitely better than others. Which brings me to La Tropicana Market in South St. Louis.








I came across La Tropicana while on a hunt for Mexican Coke (they do carry it!) It is tucked back in a quiet, typically south side looking neighborhood near Kingshwighway and Chippewa. While I was there, I checked out the rest of the store. La Tropicana carries great looking raw ingredients as well as prepared food. You need plantains? They have them. And chiles. And bags of frozen mangoes, papayas, guavas, and tamarind. There are spices you have never heard of and gritty (that's a good thing) Mexican style chocolates. Bags of homemade tamales. A cooler filled with cold Mexican fruit sodas.


Equally cool is that La Tropicana's prepared foods counter is the only place in town where I have ever seen Cuban food.


Anyway, in order to satiate my undying need for carbs, when I eat salads (all the time), I like to wrap them in a flour tortilla and eat them like a burrito. Seriously, its a problem like that. La Tropicana has a refrigerator filled with flour and corn tortillas in a variety of sizes, including tortillas that are big enough to easily wrap a salad. They are tender and not at all doughy or chewy. I like to imagine that a nice abuelita rolled them out especially for me. Way better than grocery store tortillas.

La Tropicana Market is located at 5001 Lindenwood in beautiful South St. Louis.