Along the vein of "it takes a village to raise a child," sometimes it takes everyone in a store to…read moreorder food for a gringo. Tienda Guatemalteca is truly an undiscovered gem. It has all the characteristics that yelping foodies like: 1) authentic ethnic food, 2) no one speaks English, 3) no one else who is not have that ethnicity is around, 4) really good food and 5) incredibly inexpensive.
When I walked inside, the eyes of the lady working behind the counter got really big and round and everyone stopped eating and stared at me. I think they thought I was lost and wanted directions. When I tried to order food, my goodness, the excitement! No one spoke English well, so the few people who were around tried to help me with their broken English. With their help and my little knowledge of Spanish (thank goodness I grew up in LA) I managed to order some food.
Tienda Guatemalteca is a little bodega that has a little hot bar at the back that serves delicious Guatemalan food. Nothing fancy. Just down home cooking that you would expect from a little Guatemalan mother or grandmother slaving away at the stove top.
Let me tell you how cheap this place is. A tamale, a plate with rice, black beans, and a short rib stew AND a Guatamalan popsicle came out to $6.75. I don't know how much each of the components cost because quite frankly ordering was such an ordeal that I couldn't bear to try to have another conversation with them. Don't get me wrong, they're really sweet people, but the communication barrier was really painful.
Me: Uno tamale por favor.
Him: Tamale. That's it?
Me: Arroz, frijoles --
Him: No rice. No rice in tamale. No beans in tamale. Only chicken.
Me: Yes. Uno tamale AND arroz, frijoles --
Him: NO RICE! ONLY CHICKEN!
This continues ad naseum until one of the customers with slightly better English figured out that the little Asian girl wanted more food and not a different kind of tamale.
The Guatemalan tamale is a wet tamale cooked in plantain leaves and boiled (Mexican tamales are cooked in corn husks and steamed). It's not a style that I particularly like because it's too wet more me. The masa is too mushy and falls apart.
The plate of fluffy rice, black beans, and short rib stew was amazing. Really good. The short rib was succulent and tender from the long slow cooking process. I loved the big pieces of long beans and carrots. The carrots added a nice sweetness to the stew. A tad too salty, but terrific stick to your ribs comfort food. And considering how cheap it is (they gave me two large pieces of short ribs), I think it's cheaper to eat here than to cook! Especially since I was able to stretch this out to two meals.
Yelpers, you guys need to get here because this is about as real as it gets.
And for dessert, I had a Guatemalan paleta! Because it was a warm day, I chose to have watermelon because I wanted something refreshing. It was fresh, sweet, crisp and utterly delectable! It really tasted like a frozen watermelon. I could tell it was made from real fruit because I found little seeds in my paleta, which just added to the charm of this delightful popsicle.
Fantastic food, incredible prices, and another popsicle for the popsicle throwdown!
