It was quite fitting for my Ninang's sendoff as well as for the Day of the Dead (a Mexican tradition celebrated on October 31, November 1 and 2)...
The view from La Vista Cemetery atop the hill overlooking Plaza Bonita. As for the cross in the previous photo, you can see it from the 805 freeway.
After my Ninang's burial, my sister, TC and I headed out to look for sugar skulls while Bert went back to pick up food for the reception...
Nephew #3 was currently obsessed with making or decorating a sugar skull. We thought we would check out the nearest Mexican supermarket...
Vallarta, a Mexican supermarket chain, opened a couple of years ago in San Diego. There are many other locations throughout California. Vallarta replaced the old Ralph's on Euclid off Plaza Blvd in National City. This was our first time here.
Cathy from Mmm-Yoso recently went and enjoyed the unadulterated food (i.e. not 'dumbed down' for whitefolk) at their food court. It's hardcore there which is great.
We tried looking for sugar skulls for sale but the only ones we saw were part of this Day of the Dead altar, which featured the late Jenny Rivera, a Mexican singer whose one year death anniversary is coming up.
After asking several employees about the sugar skulls, they both told me they did not carry them so I went to join TC and my sis who were in the food court area. TC wanted to buy a drink...but first, a quick stop at their panaderia section...
As I snapped a few shots, an employee (who might have been a manager) said, "Looks good doesn't it!" and I smiled and agreed. I thought I'd ask him where I could find sugar skulls...
I spied this sign...
Their pan de muerto had pink sugar on top!
The guy told me that he didn't have any for sale but he remarked he could give me one from their altar! So we walked back to it and he ended up giving me two small decorated sugar skulls. I offered to pay him but he said He said they would be taking down the altar later that night anyways. Wow, this guy was really nice and generous.
I went back to the food court and joined my daughter and sis.
I was interested in the "tuna" flavor (sign is obscured but it's the second to the last, the pink one)...which is cactus fruit. I'll have to get that another time. TC got the "sandia" (watermelon) for us to share.
Here were the skulls, which ended up not being what Nephew #3 was looking for. My sis told him that if he wanted one so badly, he could make one himself. Knowing my nephew (this is the Rubik's cube fanatic), he would probably figure out a way to make them.
The skulls were hollow and decoratedwith frosting squiggles and bits of shiny paper for the eyes.
The watermelon drink was a bit on the sweet side. I liked the one we had at El Super last year. The color was more red than pink and actually had a few seeds in it. This tasted watered down. This size was $2.75.
It was a pretty hot day too with temps in the mid 80's so a cool refreshing drink was definitely in order.
We relaxed a few minutes before hitting the road to get to my godbro's house where he was hosting a reception in honor of his mother, my Ninang ("godmother")...
It was a beautiful day and I'm glad that she was finally laid to rest and was no longer suffering. My Ninang was last mentioned in these previous posts:
Return to Hanna's Gourmet and Three Times Dope (January 2013). She was down in San Diego visited her kids and had a free day. I wanted to spend some quality time with her so we took her out to lunch at Hanna's where we had Hungarian food and dessert at Soltan Banoo where she enjoyed the various Persian sweets but not the horrible fermented yogurt drink TC ordered (and also hated). This is the same Ninang we stayed with during our 2009 Road Trip (Pebble Beach, Monterey, Carmel, Pacific Grove, etc) and also in 2011 (Santa Cruz, Felton, Moss Landing, etc).
This post has more about my beloved Ninang:
Heading down the 1...
Vallarta Supermarket
901 Euclid Ave
National City, CA 91950
(619) 472-1683
www.vallartasupermarkets.com
With the sugar skulls and cool drink in hand, we headed up to go to the reception where more food would be awaiting...
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