The hispanic grocery store....

Off Topic
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I live deep in the suburbs of the Bible Belt; the vast majority of the individuals I come into contact with are white southern baptists. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s not much in the way of interesting things that go on.

The past few years, there has been an explosion of hispanic immigrants coming to enjoy the dirt cheap cost of living and awesome schools that my area has to offer. As such, a few hispanic grocery stores have opened.

Maybe I’m just not cultured, but I find some of the items and signs in these stores to be quite interesting. I’d never seen ‘religious candles’ until I walked into such a store. Other fun items include pig and cow feet, cow intestine, nearly every fish in the sea, and many entrees and desserts which look awesome, but I couldn’t read the name off the menu to order it.

Today I noticed a new store opened near the campus of my old college, so I decided to take a look. When I walked back to the fresh fish case, the sign on it surprised me…

“Please do not squeeze the fish. Thank you.”

I’ve been thinking about that statement since I saw it, and I can’t think of any reason a person would want to squeeze a fish, be it cooked or raw.

Anyone have any ideas?

2

Re: The hispanic grocery store…

You find religious candles in Catholocism, Judaism and possibly a few other faiths. Pigs feet are a Southern delicacy. I’d associate them more with soul food than Hispanic cuisine though. No idea about the fish squeezing though - that’s flat-out odd.

4

Re: The hispanic grocery store…

Have you never wondered why small candles are referred to as ‘votive’ candles?

Pigs’ feet aren’t just a Southern delicacy - they’re a really common ingredient in old traditional Western (read French and possibly a little Italian) cuisine. Like many cuts of meat (cheeks, lamb belly, kidneys etc.) they went a bit out of fashion in the 20th century as everyone sought the most luxurious cuts, but were incredibly common back when food wasn’t so freely wasted.

As for squeezing fish - perhaps it’s a shoddy direct translation of some kind of command not to prod them etc. to check for freshness.