Awesome Eats at Latino Market International

I recently returned home after eating my way through the countries of Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic, sampling different cuisines in search of each country's most authentic dishes.

Travelling to a country or region in order to eat the dishes they are known for can be not only time consuming, but expensive.  So when there is an eatery in our local area that brings that genuine, real and native cuisine to us, I am thrilled. 

Enter the Latino Market International on Plank Road and you step inside a market one would typically find anywhere in Mexico.  I am quickly reminded that one doesn’t have to travel outside the city limits of Fredericksburg in order to find foreign authenticity.

The Latino Market prepares staples such as hand-patted Pupusas, a simple soft bread used to scoop and hold meats, vegetables and sauces, mashed black beans that have simmered for several hours, and olive oil and spice rubbed then marinated beef steak also known as carne asada.  

A peek into the kitchen way in the back of the market/store reveals large pans of barbeque lamb simmering atop a commercial stove and several women hand forming dough into flat round tortillas.  

A little bit of looking around the long counter where customers order, I spy a very hard-to-find treasure...homemade, hand formed, tamales steamed in corn husks!  If you have ever made real tamales at home you already know the amount of labor that goes into making them and if you have ever ordered them out, 9 times out of 10 they were a frozen restaurant product. Not these, and the tamales come in three varieties to boot!  

Rosa Recinos, an employee of eight years, brings me a warm corn tamale all wrapped up in layers of corn husk.  I get a whiff of the sweet corn aroma as I pull the first husk aside.   After peeling away nature’s wrapper I find a white-ish, silky smooth tamale with just a hint of yellowness from the sweet ground corn visible. The little lines from the uneven corn husk indent the smooth cooked cornmeal and leave a fossil imprint.  I am almost drooling as I top it off with the thick sour cream and finally take a fork to break the first bite off.  The dense corn ‘pie’ is slightly sweet but full of that cornmeal Mesa flavor and the dollop of sour cream almost makes it taste like a dessert. Rosa tells me that she has seen a steady increase in the tamale sales over the years and I am assuming that it has been word-of-mouth.

 The next tamale she brings me is filled with a spicy chicken that has been simmering with seasoning for hours making the tamale one Hot Tamale!  Of course I love it spicy and add to the heat with a few shakes of the hot sauce sitting on the table.  This one is more of a meal, well if you eat two with some of their home made black bean frijoles simmered with pork fat and a side of rice. 

Their menu is printed on a piece of soiled paper taped to the front glass of the counter but there are pictures on the wall of their offering which include tacos, whole fried fish, burritos, quesadillas and many more authentic, "Real Deal" dishes of Mexico.  

One of the ladies who cooks in the kitchen, Gerarda Amaya, brings a customer a platter of barbeque beef and she stops to give me a look. Large sized pieces of beef in a savory-looking sauce barely fit in the container. I ask about the meat and she points to the other side of the kitchen where the fresh meat market sits.  Whole chickens, meats and sausages filled a refrigerated showcase where worker George Gonzales was making fresh chorizo.  He makes two different kinds, one being a spicy Mexican and the other a mild Salvadorian.  He makes and sells about 400 pounds of chorizo per week. That is a lot of Chorizo!

The Latino Market sells just about everything customers would want or need from their home country and this makes for a unique shopping experience. A cooler filled with fresh coconuts on ice have the tops peeled off to expose the flesh ready for a straw, an alternative to the coconut water you normally buy in a can.  A container of fresh sliced papaya with a lime cut in half (for squeezing on top) is their ‘snack on the go’.  Fresh cactus leaves as long as your arm are in the produce case and a huge wall of spices border the back of the store.

From picking up a mortar and pestle to a new pair of leather cowboy boots, the market covers quite a bit of ground.  And although they have a few tables in the restaurant section, I witnessed many dinners and 6-packs of tamales being ordered to go.  This little hidden gem of authenticity is the perfect way to travel the food world without ever leaving town and definitely has the best $1.59 tamale this side of the border!

Latino Market International is at 2026 Plank Rd. in Fredericksburg.  Be sure to let them know you are there for their Awesome Eats!

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