Don Chendo

#102-6994 Greenwood Street, Burnaby, British Columbia.

Don Chendo, at 6994 Greenwood Street in Burnaby, is one of the more reliable points of access for core Mexican pantry goods in the Lower Mainland. The shop carries dried chiles — the kind that cannot be substituted by anything sold in a general supermarket — along with chorizo, tortillas, beans, and dry masa flour. For cooks working seriously with Mexican technique, each of those categories carries weight: dried chiles are the backbone of moles, adobos, and braised sauces; good chorizo anchors bean pots and egg dishes; dry masa flour, a product that became an industry from 1949 onward in Mexico, determines whether your masa for tamales or tortillas has any honesty to it at all. Beans here likely run to at least the common varieties used across Mexico — black, pinto, flor de mayo — though the specific stock on any given day is worth confirming. The tortillas will save time on a weeknight, though a cook who wants the real measure of the place should start with the dried chiles and the masa flour: those are where the shop either earns its shelf space or does not. Don Chendo's web presence at donchendo.com is worth checking before a trip for current stock.