Home News Specials Restaurants Alaskan King Crab About Contact Pet Owner's Love Ruben's Grocery Apr 21, 2015 As a pet lover with a long history of living with cats and dogs I have a pretty strong stance on what I’m about to say. All living creatures deserve “REAL” food. That being said, this installment of “Where the Foodies Go” is dedicated to all of our pets. I’d like you to think about something for a second. Have you been brainwashed by the decades of commercials and the billions of dollars of marketing invested on making you think that what you feed your pets is healthy? (You already know where I’m going with this.) First, the truth about pet food off the shelf, and remember, this article honors what Ruben has going on at his unique store. He sells the same “off the shelf” crappy pet food that every grocery store in America sells and this article will kill those sales. But he opened my eyes to an undeniable truth. That being said, the food in the cans and bags we feed our pets is simply awful. Take a moment and read the label’s ingredients. The commercials you see would have you think your dog is getting a sirloin steak straight from the butcher’s stash of his best steaks. Contrary to what the dog food companies show you on TV commercials, your dog doesn’t get sirloin from a healthy cow who spent its life nibbling on fresh tall grass, nor does he get white chicken breast from a hen who spent its life pecking happily around the sunny barnyard. In fact, meat used in pet food comes from what the pet industry calls the Four Ds. The Four Ds stands for meat from livestock that was either Diseased, Disabled, Dying or Dead when it arrived at the slaughter house. It won’t pass the USDA inspection so in the pet food bin it goes. What goes into the pet food bin is deemed unfit for human consumption because of mold, rancidity, or contaminants – yuck! They boil the poison out of it and pulverize it so it can be mixed with other empty calories and either squirted in a can or dried into nasty little kibbles. I have the answer, but first I need to be sure you buy in to this idea. Dogs have been domesticated for about 15,000 years (that’s amazing, isn’t it?) and up until the 1930s, they were NEVER fed “kibble” or “canned” brands from a store. Dogs were fed real meat and vegetables, and a little homemade bread. On this diet they thrived, frequently living into their late teens. How old was your last pet that passed on? 12? 13? These pet food companies are cutting our pets’ lives by 30%, (and we are allowing them). As humans, we constantly hear about our processed food cutting years off our lives and ruining our quality of life with diabetes, obesity and all kinds of ailments caused from a weakened immune system from all the nasty things they put in our processed food. Here’s my question to you. Totally rhetorical. Would you spend an extra 50 cents a day to assure your child lives to the ripe old age of 90 rather that 55? We have that answer for your children already. Feed them an intelligent diet of fresh fruit, vegetables and smart proteins, right? Well, a few weeks ago I got to sit in on a meeting at Ruben’s where this man came in with a recipe that looked like he was making a nutritious stew for a camping trip. It had wonderful ingredients bought right off the shelves at Ruben’s. Blueberries, fresh kale, whole turkeys straight from the butcher’s block and everything else you’d feed your 5-year-old little girl to ensure a smart and balanced diet. But he knew that he did not want to feed him the aforementioned “crappy pet food,” so he researched what he believed to be the smartest diet for his pet and created a homemade blend of the healthiest ingredients. Already being a Ruben’s customer he knew that those ingredients would be found there. His only dilemma now would be to find the equipment to process the food. To his great surprise and relief, he discovered that Ruben’s has been processing very special pet food for about 5 years now. Ruben’s invites you to stop in and see how simple it is to make a couple weeks of truly nutritional food for your pets. You pick the ingredients and Ruben does the rest. It’s simple and we are all doing it. Is it more expensive? Yes it is, about 20 cents more per meal. Do you have 20 cents today? LIKE Ruben’s on Facebook to keep up with all the interesting things he has going on. Those DEADLIEST CATCH crabs are right around the corner, so you want to be on that list! Newer Post > < Older Post Latest News Super Foods Webster defines MID LIFE CRISIS as a “period of emotional turmoil caused by the realization that one is no longer young.” This used to be a problem that one handled simply by dropping some Benjamins and buying a brand new canary-yellow Corvette. Problem solved, right? Funny, I was stuck at that same crossroad. Turn right and buy a beautiful sports-car? Turn left and get a beautiful new girlfriend? Or go straight ahead and get the new body I desperately needed so I’d live long enough to enjoy both the new car AND the new girl! I found that I wasn’t alone. Every morning my day starts off with a trip to Ruben’s Grocery Store to visit with the staff, grab my day’s snacks and finally, bend Ruben’s ear a little while. Every now and then I run into him and he’ll be using his Nutri-Bullet to whip up this concoction of all sorts of powders and frozen berries. The World of SuperFoods That’s when it hit me. I have never looked at him that way before but he seemed pretty physically fit. Putting two and two together I asked him a few questions and discovered that he works out every day and makes this shake each morning from these magical powders he carries in the store. They each have a name and purpose, but I simply call them “super- food powders.” The Health-Improving Claims The powders he sells are not the normal protein shake powders all the supplement stores carry; these are the real deal: single ingredient, raw, organic, non-GMO superfoods. Powders that help people put their medicine down and start living normal lives again. Ruben’s carries these superfood powders and his brother, Hugo, has started giving these lectures in the store and people are getting healthy. I watched this a few months as I took the powders, mostly skeptical, but I no longer need my blood pressure medication and all my other health-related problems are gone. Coincidence? Nope, too many people are getting better for it to be a coincidence. The Natural Side of Energy As Ruben puts it: “These superfoods are not miracles, they actually don’t heal anything. What they do is feed your body at a molecular level. Most of us are eating a breakfast full of carbs, like cereal or pancakes or tacos. Or sometimes even worse, not eating breakfast at all. When you make a smoothie from the superfoods that contain very low carbs and lots and lots of great proteins based on non-genetically modified plants, your body responds with incredible energy levels. At the same time, your pH changes from acidic to alkaline; the number one factor in cancer is an acidic body. All of this makes your organs, like your kidneys and liver, function at a much higher level and in turn, your body begins to heal whatever ails you.” Eat. Grow. Shine! Today it’s pretty easy to get the body you have always wanted. You just need a plan and I’ll share mine with you. Believe me, if I can do it, so can you. I dropped 220 lbs. Part of that was my ex-wife! She was 120 lbs. You do the math. I take these superfoods powders each morning now, mixed with a glass of tasty yogurt. That’s it. These superfoods powders appear to be doing great things for people. Set aside a few minutes today and invest 10 minutes in getting some free information about these superfoods at Ruben’s. Tell them Marc sent you. Festive Favorites WOW! Christmas season is already here? Where did the year go? The best part about Christmas for me and all my foodie friends is all the things Ruben’s has planned for us. Like importing in all the breads, pastries, candies and once-a-year things that make your house look, feel and smell like Christmas. Everyone looks forward to Ruben’s Panettones from Italy, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru. The Turrones from Spain, Italy, & Argentina. The German Stollens, along with candy from all over the world, including the traditional Mexican Christmas candies Colaciones! The special way that Ruben’s store is transformed into a special holiday cooking and gift destination. On top of all the exciting products that show up for the holidays, here’s what I look forward to the most. Every year Ruben finds that one special thing, that you can’t find anywhere else, like what he does each year with those giant King Crabs. Ruben seeks on something special each year, and knocks it out of the park! I got a sneak peek and by the time this article gets to you, Ruben will already be stocking this specialty item for you and your family…I promise, this will make Christmas at your house unforgettable. Here it comes! About 10 years ago I found BODIN in Spain, the restaurant that holds the Guinness world record for “THE OLDEST RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD.” What makes BODIN in Madrid so special, besides cooking for people since 1725, NEARLY 300 YEARS?!? It’s their roasted suckling pig dish that’s so tender the waiters cut it with a ceramic plate, as well as the “Jabugo Jamon” from these special pigs that only come from that region. Ibérico pigs are a special breed that, oh hell! It’ll take forever to explain. Suffice it to say, these pigs eat a diet from the area they live which is rich in natural resources, in this case, acorns and berries, adding up to the perfect diet for a pig and making them taste better than any pork you will find on this planet or any other planet for that matter : ) Now here’s what Ruben did. For over 100 years the USDA has banned the import of pork from other countries. They said it was impossible to ensure a healthy produce could stand the trip from there to here, so the USDA forbid it, period. End of story. In fact, try to bring over pork chops from Reynosa. I dare you. The Border Patrol will take your chops, AND YOUR CAR, and slap you with a huge fine. So how was Ruben able to pull this off? Who knows! But he did. ONLY Ruben’s, and only for a limited time. He’s not just bringing that pig FRESH, he’s bringing the suckling babies for roasting in your “Ataud” or your kitchen’s oven. The special baby Ibérico pigs, the babies that have only sipped milk from mamma’s breasts, are here now and available for your family to roast and enjoy. “If you don’t know how to prepare this delicacy, ‘Ibérico Pata Negra Lechon,’ Ruben will teach you how to cook it to perfection or you can ask Chef Larry Delgado, of S A L T New American Table, to prepare it for you along with some paired sides,” says Ruben. He always tries to add one more delightful thing to his holiday lineup and he did it again. Suckling pigs, about eight pounds each and pretty simple to roast. They are here now for you to pick up and prepare for an unforgettable evening. Yerba Mate We all have our “happy place” that we go to feel good. Some retreat to their man cave, others go shoe shopping, some visit mom and dad. Me? I walk the isles at Ruben’s Grocery. Bizarre right? I agree. I have no clue why I do it, but I just do. There are some isles which have things I buy all the time and other isles that I shy away from because I have no idea what lies on those shelves. On this particular visit I found myself on isle #2. Isle #2 is not my favorite, mostly because it’s full of things that I don’t know how to use or just seem too foreign for me to get excited about. But I wanted to learn and there were endless bags of this tea-like product that you drink. Here’s what I found: There is a plant, a shrub really, that grows 50 feet tall in central America. It’s called YERBA MATÉ. What fascinated me was there were so many different bags of this stuff it warranted the question, “Ruben, why on Earth do you carry so many of basically the exact same product?!” Ruben said, “We get as much as we can get our hands on because we want our customers to have great choices. We carry everything from the least expensive to the most expensive. Marc, we don’t have a private brand and we don’t want one. We want to give our customers as many choices as possible and not push any private label products. I love going around the world and bringing our customers as much variety as possible. And it’s not just the Yerba Maté Marc, we do it with everything until we run out of room on the shelves. Breads, cheeses, meats, wine. It’s why you come here. You pass three other “major” grocery stores to get here because of that one fact: Our cool stuff from all over the world! And all those products are here because we listen; we listen to the customer and we do as they ask.” And he’s exactly right. (I also pass a La Michoacana and a Walmart grocery store too). Wait… What was I talking about? Oh yeah. This Yerba Maté business. Yerba Maté has the “strength of coffee, the health benefits of tea, and the euphoria of chocolate,” all in one beverage. Of the six commonly used stimulants in the world: coffee, tea, kola nut, cocoa and guarana, Yerba Maté triumphs as the most balanced, delivering both energy and nutrition. Think of it like Red Bull that your doctor would approve of you drinking. Yerba Maté is made from the naturally caffeinated and nourishing leaves of the South American rainforest holly tree. For centuries, South America’s Aché Guayakí tribe have sipped Yerba Maté from a traditional maté gourd for its rejuvenative effects. These rainforest people find tremendous invigoration, focus, and nourishment in Yerba Maté. This stuff is super good for you, and I’m learning tons about it online as I research it. I’m sort of surprised that it’s not better known here in the United States. The leaves of the Maté tree naturally contain 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids and a lot of antioxidants, too. In fact, The Pasteur Institute and the Paris Scientific society in 1964 concluded, “it is difficult to find a plant in any area of the world equal to Maté in nutritional value,” and that Yerba Maté contains “practically all of the vitamins necessary to sustain life.” (100% cut and pasted as I’m not nearly that smart). Yerba Maté contains caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine, which are well-known stimulants also found in tea, coffee and chocolate. The caffeine content varies between that of green tea and coffee. Unlike tea, Yerba Maté has a low tannin content so it can be strong like coffee with out becoming extremely bitter. Unlike coffee, Yerba Maté is not oily and acid forming, so it is less likely to cause stomach acid and jitters. Yerba Maté can be drank hot, or cold, served with milk and honey, or even iced with lemon and mint. The combinations are endless. Ruben’s stocks over 50 varieties of Yerba Maté and his customers say his collection is probably the largest in the world. Expect to pay anywhere from $5.99 up to $29. Just like coffee, Yerba Maté has lots of different qualities and procedures. Add a procedure, add a dollar. I’m actually drinking some right now. It’s not bad, and I think it may have helped me in writing, what people will refer to for centuries as, the greatest article ever written about Yerba Maté. You are welcome. About Ruben's Grocery If you are longing for the familiar flavors and comforting smells of foods from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Ruben's Grocery in McAllen is your saving grace. Ruben’s Grocery is a specialty grocery store that stocks a variety of food items imported from the entire planet. There’s no reason to go without your favorite native foods and authentic South American groceries in McAllen with Ruben’s Grocery carrying everything you need to feel at home. Contact Us Address: 620 N 20th St. McAllen, TX 78501 Email: info@rubensgrocery.com Phone: (956) 686-5752 Hours: Mon-Sat: 10AM – 6PM & Sun: Closed © 2021 Ruben's Grocery. Another Brilliant Creation By Fantich Media.