Carniceria, Taqueria, Produce and Abarrote
BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL
Lilia’s Market: Carniceria, Taqueria, Produce and Abarrote
It’s 2025. Nearly everyone you know has vacationed or lived in Mexico at some point. It’s time to check out our local Idaho spots that are doing it right, authentically, here in America. If you’ve been way down south, you’ll never forget the wonderful color and variety of food and cultural concessions you find at shops in any zócolo or the larger markets.
Zote laundry soap, real stone molcajete (mortar and pestle), bags of dried chilis of every single type (mole anyone?), cacahuates (peanuts), piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar cones), bags of jamaica (hibiscus), dried shrimp (for X.O. sauce), fresh, authentic Mexican cuts of marinated meats, banana leaves, corn husks (for tamales) and every type of hot sauce, tortilla, tamarind/chili candies, colorful piñatas as well as the ultimate torta bread for your sandwiches. Lilia’s also houses a small dining room, restaurant and barber shop.
Ana Evelyn Nava Mendoza, freshly graduated from high school, is the face of Lilia’s. She lives between Bellevue and Caldwell, staying with Lilia’s owner, her uncle, Eden Mendoza, who has been here for 13 years.
Ana Mendoza is enthusiastic about her culture and the market. “I’m so thankful I’m bilingual because when there are American customers, I want to be able to communicate with them, be able to find out what they need, what they want to experience. If that means a new flavor, a new product, anything, I’m willing to help them figure out what would work for them.”
With the incredible range of products you can make absolutely any dish, with pure authenticity of flavor, cut of meat or even spice blend. There’s also basic needs like ‘tiger’ blankets. “Yeah, the cobijas, like the bigger Mexican tiger blankets.” Mendoza laughs. “I call them tiger blankets because there’s always tigers on them!” More laughter, “or like a deer or a panda. I personally have a deer one. But it’s still a tiger blanket!”
Bright and funny, Mendoza loves it here—the community and the market. She informs that in addition to fresh and packaged groceries, Lilia’s serves authentic Mexican cuisine, plus “Eden got his certificate, so people can actually come in here, eat and drink beer.”
Say less! The birria (slow-cooked beef in a tart red consome from multiple chilis, garlic and oregano) is extraordinary. Spicy but not ‘hot,’ it was served with refritos (refried beans), fresh cucumbers, avocado, and radishes, with fresh pico de gallo and a side of the birria consome. There’s salsa cacahuate (peanut hot sauce) on the table if you’re into the kick. Washed down with a cold Modelo, it’s an ecstatic flashback to wonderful times in western Mexico.
Mendoza is eager to chat, funny and extremely helpful. She’s at Lilia’s Monday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Stop in hungry, grab a beer, a plate of perfect Mexican food and leave with quality meats, veggies and dried chilis for your own dishes.
Lilia’s is spacious, resplendent in color and functions beautifully as the perfect location for authentic Mexican products as well as an amazing, flexible and authentic menu. Not better, exactly, (maybe?), but different, and done so well you’ll think you’re on vacation in Puerto Escondido.
Lilia’s Market
401 S. Main St., Bellevue, ID 83313
Open: Monday–Sunday
10 a.m.–6 p.m.
orderliliasmarket.com
