Bounty of Groceries : The ingredients for some super holiday meals are in Oxnard’s supermercados.

Almost everyone agrees that Oxnard is one of the most multicultural cities around.

And a nice side benefit of multiculturalism is, if the Market Lady may be allowed to coin a word, “multi-groceryism.”

Multi-groceryism means that one can find the raw ingredients to make just about any type of meal that can be dreamed up.

Whether it’s a Hawaiian, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Nicaraguan, San Salvadoran or Mongolian dish, chances are there’s a grocery store somewhere in Oxnard that carries everything the recipe calls for.

La Gloria Market is only one of dozens of Oxnard supermercados that stocks the makings for such delicious Christmas dishes from Mexico as sweet tamales (tamales de dulce); pozole, a beautiful, tasty soup; and the hot chocolate beverage known as champurrado.

Although pork, green chili and beef tamales are popular during the holiday season, the most popular is the dessert tamale with pineapple. La Gloria carries the necessary cornhusks, masa harina flour and pineapple filling to make two or 32 dozen.

As for the hot drink champurrado, combine 1/4 cup tortilla flour and 3 cups water in a saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until thick and bubbly.

Add 2/3 cup dark brown sugar, two squares of cut-up unsweetened chocolate and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Heat and stir until chocolate melts. Beat with a rotary beater until frothy. Salud!

The lovely thing about pozole, or hominy stew, is that it even looks festive--garnished on top with shredded red radishes and shredded green cabbage.

In a large saucepan, combine beef or pork stew meat with 4 cups water, 1/2 onion and salt. Cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours.

Add two 15-ounce cans of drained hominy and one 10-ounce can of tomatoes with green chilis. Cover again and simmer 30 minutes more. Blend 1/2 cup cold water into 1/4 cup flour and add to beef or pork mixture. Cook and stir until thickened. Serve in bowls topped with shredded cabbage, green onion and radishes.

Serve on Christmas Eve with a poinsettia for a centerpiece. Feliz Navidad.

Tip of the Week: The first harvests of navel oranges are just starting to appear in farmers markets throughout the county.

These early ones are from the San Joaquin Valley; Ventura County navels are due in markets in a few weeks.