La Ideal means the ideal bakery; how do you say misnomer in Spanish again?
Don't get me wrong, La ideal is decent enough at what it does, which is mix water and flour and coat it with sugar, but there are many Mexican bakeries that do the same a whole lot better, like El Bolillo. Glass cases are stocked with an array of pastries so varied that person behind the counter might not be able to tell you exactly what is what. It doesn't really matter though, as everything I had tasted basically the same, sweet and unhealthy. Just pick out the ones that look the most appealing to you and take them home and have them with coffee, or if you need a CPA just go through the hole in the wall to the place next door.
La ideal's most appealing characteristics are their prices, or lack of thereof really. You can feed your entire family with enough sugar to send them into a diabetic coma for under 10 dollars, you just cant beat that. You might be taking a gamble by picking random, unknown pastries off a shelf, but at about $0.50 a pop, the gamble is at least more on your taste buds than on your pocket book. What you cannot go wrong with, however, are the tasty bolillos that are 3/$1 most days and 5/$1 on Tuesdays. They will render you incapable of paying the outrageous prices commanded by the modern grocery store baguette now that you are reminded of just how inexpensive water and flour really are. read more