Arteaga's: Lodi

If you're walking along 200 E. Oak Street, you'll find one of the best Lodi, CA Mexican Grocery stores: Arteaga's! And not just groceries, too – everything from party tray orders to an authentic panaderia, we've got it all.

Of course, we don't have a unique claim to Mexican food. Mexican cuisine has a colorful and rich history that even UNESCO has named it an Intangible Cultural Heritage - Opens in new window. What we bring to the table (pun intended), however, is our own resolve to only give you "quality in the palm of your hands" — Calidad En La Palma De Su Mano!

Just how ancient, exactly? Mexican cuisine finds its roots in ancient Mexican civilizations - Opens in new window – the Inca, the Aztec, and the Maya – who've been foraging the same plant-based ingredients and hunting the same meat for centuries before Spanish explorers even landed on the South American continent.

After three hundred years of rule by the Spanish, however, Mexican cuisine inevitably took on its influences – Asian spices and wheat, livestock like cattle and chicken, and even food-centric religious and holiday celebrations.

Fast forward to the 1900s, a wave of Mexican immigrants brought with them their traditional cuisine and a desire to turn their customs into streams of revenue. Mexican food really spread like wildfire starting around the 1920s, when the first gas-fired and electric equipment were used to produce tamales and tortillas from their base ingredients.

And today, Mexican food is everywhere in the US, and is always a top choice when it comes to celebrations.