Delicious Hispanic Influences

By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com

After buying steaks at El Palomino (3116 East 14th), the butcher offered to include a free bag of spices. I have found this a somewhat common practice at mainstream supermarkets in San Francisco and Los Angeles, as a friendly compensation for the loss of full service butchering. I figured the custom might work its way to Hy-Vee or Dahl's in a few years, but here it is at a little neighborhood grocery store on the east side, another delicious Hispanic influence on 21st century food service in Des Moines.

The Aztec heart of those influences is having surgery. Along the East Grand corridor, Los Laureles is operating behind scaffolding as its owner spearheads a brilliant neighborhood revitalization. Some significant restaurant players won't be around for "Jaliscolito's" bright future though, having closed last year after complaining about unfair competition from mobile vendors. Knowing that Raul's, Palenque and Carnitas Don Javier all failed, I hardly expected to see another new sit down restaurant open in the area. Amazingly, there are two, almost next door to one another on Hubbell.

San Pancho Aguascalientes (SPA) is a pantheon of eclectic pop cultures. The décor is dominated by a huge pencil stick painting of a cockfight, framed with the kind of logs that usually construct cabins. A portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe stares across the room at one of the Mona Lisa. Sombreros and blankets share space with a pop art Montezuma and a surrealistic Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. All the heroes of the Revolution are honored here, not just Villa and Zapata. Religious candles and paper flowers grace tables, but dazzling folk art paper flowers.

The kitchen also has an original personality, offering a fresher version of scratch cooking than one finds in all but the best Mexican restaurants. Simple things are done extremely well. Begin with the condiment bar. It includes three salsas, guacamole, pico de gallo, freshly chopped onions and chilies, plus one dish of pickled onions and another of pickled carrots that could please a Korean gourmet. All were freshly made and constantly replenished. Tortillas came hot off the grill, not out of the microwave.

Menu choices were fairly standard. Tacos, tostados, burritos and gorditas were offered with fillings of asada, chorizo, pastor, tinga de pollo and chicarron (grilled beef, sausage, marinated pork, chicken and rinds). SPA also offers some non-standards: deshebrado (shredded beef); rajas (roasted chilies); nopalitos (cactus paddles); eggs with chile; and potatoes with cheese. We liked everything, even when an order of "carnitas" turned into "asada." But the dishes that brought us back a second and third time was birria chivo (roast goat). We get excited about finding real roast goat on Sunday menus, but SPA now gives Des Moines two places that offer it daily. The incomparable La Pena is the other and they also have roots in Aguascalientes, where it is a regional specialty. (Goat is now the fastest growing segment of the Iowa livestock market.)

Taqueria Vallarta (TV) also goes for regional purity. It specializes in mariscos (seafood) and has been painted blue as sea breeze, with an original ocean mural. It's slicker looking than SPA, with industrial quality furnishings. TV also features a fresh condiment bar, but with less diversity than its neighbor's. Vallarta's tortillas though, freshly made in the house, were state of the art. We tried a ceviche tostada that had been blended into a paste - easy to eat, but weak on flavors and textures. Pastor and carne asada were better. TV also offered buche and tripas for anyone wanting to compare pig guts to cow guts. Pig guts were flakier.

San Pancho Aquascalientes

1832 Hubbell, 262-2199

Mon. - Fri.: 9-10

Sat. - Sun.: 8:30 11

Taqueria Vallarta

1824 Hubbell, 266-4402

Mon. - Thurs.: 10-10

Fri.- Sat.: 10 - 11:30

Sun.: 10 - 10

Food Skinny

Chocolaterie Stam is now making its gelatos exclusively with natural, free-ranged cows' milk from Cloverleaf Farms in Guthrie County. This improves a superb product, particularly the chocolate flavors that incorporate Stam's other home made specialty. CV

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