Aurora Orozco shares her taste of home at Tres Marias

Aurora Orozco seems to know all the customers who come into Tres Marias Mexican Market in Marda Loop, oohing and aahing over the newly expanded and remodeled space.

The sunny room is full of vivid colours, the brightly painted shelves full of homemade and imported Mexican foods dried chilies, sauces, and their famous tortillas and salsas.

On the back wall a large fridge and freezer hums, filled with their homemade tamales, empanadas, enchiladas, burritos, sorta azteca, Mexican pizza and pies.

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Taste of Mexico in Calgary

Aurora and her husband Alejandro arrived in Calgary from Guadalajara 17 years ago with their two young sons in tow, having sold the leather manufacturing business they ran for almost 20 years.

"We wanted to move to a smaller, safer place, and be close to the mountains," Orozco says.

They quickly discovered the authentic Mexican foods they loved were hard to come by in the city.

"17 years ago you couldn't find a decent tortilla in grocery stores," Orozco says, "so every time family came to visit us from Mexico, they'd bring tortillas and salsas with them. They suggested we start our own business and make them ourselves so we did."

Alejandro returned to Mexico for three months to learn how to make tortillas on a larger scale, they imported equipment and rented a facility. After perfectingtheir product,the stores and restaurants they approached loved them, but no one wanted to buy them at a higher cost than the ones that were already being imported from the US.

"We had already purchased the equipment and invested in the company, and we couldn't sell our product," Orozco says. So they rented a space at the Calgary Farmers' Market at Currie Barracks and sold their tortillas directly to the public.

"Once the people got to know us and our products, stores started calling."

Healthy, local, fresh

They've grown from there; when the CFM moved, they rented a space in a small strip mall at 35th Avenue and 19th Street S.W.in Marda Loop.

Alejandro makes the tortillas at a larger facility regular and organic, made with corn or non-GMO wheat flour, or gluten free with garbanzo bean, red lentil, black bean and rice flours, which they sell at their own store as well as at Community Natural Foods, Planet Organic, Blush Lane and other health food stores.

They also make their own salsas, and import others they produce with a co-packer in Mexico.

The fridge is stocked with guacamole, ceviche, beans and chipotle and cilantro hummus.

Their freshly prepared and frozen meals, many of which are gluten-free, are made with ingredients sourced from local farms: Spragg's pork (they even sell zip-lock bags of frozen cooked and crumbled chorizo sausage, ready to scatter over nachos or pizza or stir into soups and pasta sauce), Bowden Farm chicken, Silver Sage beef, Sunworks Farm eggs and CRMR bison.

The kitchen turns out daily fresh dishes evening specials might be a hearty pozole (hominy soup), tlayudas (crispy tortillas spread with beans and other ingredients) or chiles rellenos; tacos (the real thing) are available every day, with a wider variety on Tuesdays barbacoa beef, chicken mole, fish, veggie, and al pastor (pork and pineapple), and always a few surprises.

Beyond breakfast

They revamped their hours as part of the expansion, and started serving breakfast every morning (except Sunday, when they're closed), and all day on Fridays and Saturdays.

Most people go for the more familiar huevos rancheros, but the menu includes lesser-known tamales and chilaquiles a traditional Mexican fry-up of corn tortillas, queso fresco, homemade salsa and sour cream, topped with eggs.

Their own salsa and hot sauces are set out on the casual tables, and there's spiced Mexican hot chocolate to wash it all down. There's even a kids' menu.

The Orozco's own kids are in their twenties now, but Aurora still cooks for them when they come home to visit and when she isn't cooking at the shop, she makes chilaquiles at home every Sunday.

"We thought it was going to be a quiet life," she laughs, "but it hasn't been!"