The Twin Falls Cinco De Mayo Rice And Tequilla Shortage Of 2020

May 5 came and went in Twin Falls, and left behind bare grocery and liquor store shelves, and a fair share of Wednesday morning headaches I would imagine. Finding dinner and celebratory items Tuesday afternoon for this day that celebrates the Mexican culture was comparable to the "Amazing Race," as one Twin Falls store after another seemed to be suffering from shortages.

Even though May 5 is the date that commemorates the Mexican Army's defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, Cinco De Mayo is probably celebrated more in the United States than any other part of the world. My daughter, who is Mexican and Italian, strangely enough doesn't care for Mexican cuisine. I know, crazy...right? She won't even try my wife's homemade guacamole.

I was given the task to stop on my home from work yesterday for a bottle of Tequila. My wife ran out just after 4 p.m. to get some ingredients for dinner. She texted me a photo of a store shelf where every last box of Spanish Rice had been hoarded. Our Cinco De Mayo meals are not very authentic I'll admit. She had to go to multiple stores to find margarita mix also.

The liquor store I stopped at on Blue Lakes was in the process of dealing with crowd control. "Please wait outside," one employee yelled to the guy who came in right behind me. "We are over capacity," she said. A line had formed outside the store.

I couldn't find any decent Tequila under the price of $40 a bottle, as it was "slim pickens" for the generic varieties. I went with a modestly priced bottle of Sauza Silver. We are not big Tequila fans at our house, as both my wife and I have shared some pretty nasty morning after experiences in our lives. Cinco De Mayo might be the one day out of the year when we actually buy the stuff, and we've also toned down our drinking big time in the last few years.

It was obvious that there were a number of quarantine Cinco De Mayo celebrations throughout the city Tuesday night. I'm happy to report I woke feeling just fine. One Corona (hold the virus), and two margaritas, was it for me.

I hope you a had a good one.