Early each morning at La Flor de Puebla bakery, on Kenilworth Avenue in Riverdale, customers line up for hot bolillos -- loaves of crusty sandwich bread with a soft, chewy center.
On sunny summer afternoons, these same folks know that they can cool off with tamarind-, pineapple- or lime-flavored shaved ice at the gaily striped helado cart outside the El Rodeo country western store on nearby Annapolis Road.
As the sun sets over a shaded, vacant lot on Edmonston Road, the tacos-to-go truck opens for business.
There is no shortage of great, tacos or the essential ingredients to make them in the neighborhood known as Little Mexico. Along a one-mile stretch of Kenilworth Avenue and on adjoining streets, a little more than a mile from the District line in Prince George's County, a Mexican community has emerged.
Over the past four years, a growing number of Mexican restaurants, markets and bakeries have opened in a relatively small area, in and around Riverdale, giving the Washington region an opportunity to taste traditional dishes from southern Mexico. "The [Mexican] people found a less expensive neighborhood, got their foot in the door and changed the neighborhood. Now, this area is really cooking," says Paco Lubian -- whose father, a native of Cuba, opened Americana Grocery on Annapolis Road in 1993.
Anchoring one end of the Bladensburg Shopping Center, Americana is a fairly large market with a mix of Latin American, African and traditional American products. Of particular note is the custom-cut butcher counter. In addition to oxtail and beef feet for soups, the counter has a terrific selection of sausages from Central and South America. But the Mexican influence is even stronger around the corner.
At El Tapatio restaurant in Bladensburg, spangled black velvet sombreros hang on walls painted two tones of purple. The festive, lipstick-red oilcloths on the tables are illustrated with mini-mariachis and cactuses. At 4 p.m., on a weekday, the place is jumping.
"That's when the men get off work," says Elizabeth Navarro after delivering to the table a tall glass of horchata -- a sweet, rice-based drink flavored with vanilla. According to Navarro, many of these workers live in group houses, four or five together, and don't cook, so they come to the restaurant for their meals. Her family owns both this restaurant and another in their hometown of Guadalajara. Both specialize in barbecued goat.
"Nobody was doing goat when we opened 3 1/2 years ago. Nobody," she says with a shake of the head. "Back home ,our goat has won competitions for generations."
But the mostly male crowd has ordered large bowls of a tomato-based shellfish soup -- caldo de mariscos -- a favorite in southern Mexico. No one is talking. No one can. The jukebox is blasting Mexican dance music. Back in the kitchen, Navarro's father, Ruben, assembles each soup as it's ordered.
"You might have to wait 15 minutes. We don't have soup made up," he says while transferring steaming mussels and clams into an empty bowl. El Tapatio is also noted for its flavorful, handmade, white corn tortillas.
Such tortillas, whether handmade or factory-made, are the foundation for the soft taco -- the most prevalent dish in Little Mexico. These tortillas are thin, light discs, and it takes two of them, overlapping, to hold the ingredients of the soft taco. They are sold at restaurants, at cafes called taquerias and from roadside trucks.
For the typical beef soft taco, bite-sized chunks of marinated, grilled, skirt steak are piled on two layers of tortilla. On top goes a sprinkle of cilantro and a little chopped red onion. Sliced radish and wedges of lime or lemon are served alongside.
At the fairly subdued, blue-tiled Taco Rico taqueria, which opened in January on Edmonston Road, there is a choice of tacos ($2 each) made with beef, beef tongue, pork, goat or sausage. Each is seasoned in a unique way.
