Tamales Acapulco and the Original Community Organizers Behind Oakland Street Food

2 / 18 / 17

You can’t miss the street food vendors on the sidewalk on International Blvd in Fruitvale. The fruit carts with peeled and cubed tropical fruits stacked in neat quart containers that go out to customers with a squeeze of lime and chile. There are tamales, wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves, warm drinks with chocolate, corn and cinnamon, pupusas and bacon wrapped hot dogs on the weekends. While these street vendors seem like an integral part of Fruitvale, many people don’t know about the journey it took for them to be there.

Tamales Acapulco is one of those vendors, tucked behind the parking lot of El Charro Market on Fruitvale Ave and E 15th. The owner, Teresa Mondragon, was among the first group of street food vendors here some 18 years ago. It was her cohort of about 25 vendors, lead by a fierce organizer still working in the community that legalized street vending in the area, setting a foundation for mobile food legislation for the city at large.

“I used to make and sell street food in Mexico, so when I first came here I immediately started doing that and there was no one else selling tamales on the street at that time,” said Señora Tere. “We would sell them out of a Lucky’s shopping cart, and we were always a little scared because we were doing it illegally.”

Emilia Otero, now owner of commercial kitchen La Placita, was approached by some of the first vendors asking for help with legalizing their businesses. A community organizer who had recently moved from LA to be with her grown daughter in Oakland, the need resonated with her— not just to help protect vendors, but to bring healthier food options into the community (like fruit carts).

“This group, they were amazing, if I gave them 24 hours notice they dropped everything. I would have meetings with lawyers, a nutritional group in Berkeley or city hall and they would always be there,” she said.

Emilia Otero with a photo of the first association of street food vendors in Fruitvale.

The group formed the first street vendors association here, and eventually worked with local politicians and the health department to legalize vendors in certain parts of East Oakland in 2001. It was one of the first municipal ordinances on street food vending in the country. Otero then took on infrastructure challenges, like renting a commercial kitchen and providing business guidance. She bypassed $9,000 quotes from California factories and on a trip to Mexico convinced the Governor of Jalisco to help her build Mexican-made pushcarts for an affordable price (of $500). She still organizes for mobile food legislation, helps vendors with their businesses and operates the commercial kitchen La Placita, which supports vendors from all different backgrounds who sell in and outside of Fruitvale.

“My goal was to legalize these businesses, but my dream was to expand these types of businesses. Because you can help so many people, you can bring them out of poverty, and it can work in any country in the world,” said Otero.

The city’s policy on mobile food vending has slowly evolved but been largely restrictive, murky, and cost-prohibitive. Certain districts allow vendors on private property, but outside of that area vendors are greatly restricted on where they are allowed to sell, the hours, and to operating alongside other vendors, forming what are called “pods.” This month there is a City Council hearing scheduled to review a new comprehensive mobile food vending program that should provide more opportunities for vendors (and more options for eaters!) At the last hearing business owners lined up to share how their mobile businesses allowed them to create jobs, put their kids through college, and share their food cultures.

To experience a good tamal, head to Tamales Acapulco. Señora Tere said the children of some of her first clients are still regulars and it’s these customer relationships that have sustained her business for almost two decades. She offers a Guatemalan tamal wrapped in banana leaf with a much softer masa, and Mexican tamales wrapped in corn husks. There is a vegetarian version with cheese and rajas, chicken, and I love the pork made with a salsa roja. She also offers pupusas, tortas, warm drinks like atole and champurrado, and is planning to start making breakfast tacos with freshly made tortillas soon. Best to go in the morning, as tamales tend to run out by the afternoon.

Where to Eat on Holbox, Part 2: Lunch and Dinner

6 / 25 / 157 / 31 / 16

Before there were ferries and before there was refrigeration, Holboxeños used to eat the eggs of wild birds, all kinds of fish, and on a special night, a manatee that could feed the whole town. There are other protein options now.

Keep in mind that lunch in Mexico is the big meal of the day, usually eaten around 2 p.m. Dinner is typically a smaller snack, like a taco. Or three. If you’re looking for breakfast, click here.

Lunch

Raices Beach Club

It was over a whole grilled fish at Raices, the garlic wafting from the table, our toes in the sand, sol beers at our sides, that my friend Sophie asked, “what did they listen to on tropical islands before reggae?”

Raices has a raised Jamaican flag, whole fish hanging on a line curing in the sun, and a constant playlist of reggae which never gets old on an island (well, at least not in a week). Everything is brought in that morning and prepared in the open air on the grill or frying in a cast-iron pan just behind the palapa bar. The ceviche is good, but ceviche tastes the same about anywhere on the island. The whole grilled fish (sea trout the day we were there) smothered in garlic, with tortillas on the side is where it’s at. The pricing is by person, for two it was about $15.

La Cooperativa

While he’s only been open for a few months, Chef Jose’s cooking seems to only still be a secret to tourists. Islanders are here in force enjoying the $4 daily meal which includes a soup, an entrée and a drink. Inside the bright coral fisherman’s collective building is a family-owned restaurant where Chef Jose offers a full seafood menu and displays his time cooking all over the world as a navy cook with his daily specials. Originally from Veracruz, there’s a little more umph in some of the dishes here, like the shrimp in ajillo and guajillo sauce, one of the more flavor-packed seafood dishes I had all week. Open from 1 pm- 5 pm. Near the plaza, you can ask for the cooperativa de pescadores.

Dinner

TacoQueto

As the stars come out so do the street vendors surrounding the plaza with carts and piles of carnitas, poc chuc and cochinita pibil. They’re fun to sample, but for more consistent flavor head around the corner to the island’s most popular evening taco joint. The tacos al pastor come bright red-orange from the achiote marinade, freshly cut off the trompo (a spit that cooks in front of a vertical grill) , and served with a medallion of pineapple. Check out the back of the menu for an evening read on the history of “el burro” a less grotesque version of a burrito (that is hilariously wrapped in about seven taco-sized tortillas when you ask for corn tortillas).

Antojitos el Abuelo Tom

My usual motto in Mexico is the farther from the plaza, the less touristy and the better. Holbox is so tiny that far from the plaza means more than two blocks. The only menu you’ll get here is the satellite shaped sign hanging above the rickety wood fence that advertises salbutes, panuchos and sopes. Here, Margarita and Angelica stand over an open-air comal underneath one florescent light bulb busting out various forms of masa topped with BBQ and shredded chicken. People sit in plastic chairs in the patio, inside kids are watching television. The panuchos and sopes are hand-pressed but but fall apart underneath the weight of the toppings. Still, I could have eaten full plate alone of the asado, crispy cubes of BBQ chicken.
Local prices here, about $1-2 per dish. Opens at 7 p.m.

El Hornito Argentina
There are a ton of Italians on Holbox, which is why you’ll see signs for pizza everywhere, lobster pizza in particular. I’m not typically interested in having pizza in Mexico, but El Hornito Argentina (right on the plaza) wood-fires empanadas and thin-crust pizzas. Go for the Española with jamón serrano , and grab a mojito. The owner here used to be a waiter at one of the hotels my friends used to stay at, which makes me like this place more.

Hamburguesas La Lupita

What? You didn’t pause while eating your last hamburger and think, you know what this needs? Nacho cheese, and hey, maybe some cream cheese too. Lupita is a street stall owned by a lively couple, with wood stools surrounding a 6 -person table and a hand painted sign illuminated by blue christmas lights. The thin patty comes with Oaxaca cheese and American cheese melted together, nacho cheese (ewww), cream cheese, a slice of grilled ham, pineapple, and grilled onions. While Sophie recovered from adding too much habanero to her burger half, our dining companion insisted that we look at his can of juice to note that it’s “natural y no es cerveza” (its natural, it’s not beer) as if it were some kind of evidence to counter his drunken stuper. When I asked where our hamburger vendors were from (Lupita from Veracruz, her partner from Chiapas) he broke into his favorite song from Veracruz which sounded to me like something along the lines of “tan tan tan” and Lupita quickly shut him down. “That’s from Tabasco, idiot!” Making us all crack up and giving him his cue to go home. Life is too silly to not give into a four-cheese hamburger. Opens at 6 PM.

Mandarina
Read my post about fine dining with your toes in the sand here.

Three Food Markets in Merida

11 / 7 / 147 / 31 / 16

On my return to Merida after ten years a lot has changed. Back in the day if you said the word vegetarian you’d get a bewildered look and a plate of beans (or for that matter, chicken). But now they have a slow food market with whole wheat muffins, locally made herbal supplements and organically grown veggies. The owner of a health store told me that vegan is all the rage. And the restaurant scene has made a complete transformation.

But, as always, I don’t look to restaurants first for the best food in Mexico. Because it’s when meals are homecooked, served on the street or hidden in a busy corner of a market that they taste best. Here are three markets in Merida to sample the city:

Mercado Lucas De Galvéz
This is Merida’s main market. The vegetable and fruit section really doesn’t visually compare to markets in other major Mexican cities like Oaxaca or D.F. All the banana leaves, papayas and chiles are there but I always feel bad for the sour oranges sitting in perfect pyramids, the top one losing any glory to the gross concrete backdrop of the parking lot-like market building.

There’s an entire butchery section, the majority of stalls covered by curtains of beef and pork cuts, and a small section in the back with turkeys. If you’re cooking in Merida you may want to know that turkeys are the only animals at the market raised de patio, literally meaning in people’s backyards just like other animals used to be raised. This (plus their range in size) makes them a little more expensive, which is why a lot of typical Yucatecan dishes in restaurants that should have turkey now use chicken. If you’ve been in Merida for a few days, you may already be familiar with recados. These are the spice mixes that flavor a lot of dishes like relleno negro or tikin-xic. I was lucky enough to be shown around the market by Mario Canul of Los Dos Cooking School and he pointed me in the direction of his favorite stand, called Escamilla. I personally fell in love with a company making recados called Semilla de Dioses but more on them later. I was at the market in the days before Hanal Pixan, the Mayan version of Dia de Los Muertos. Literally meaning Food for the Soul, there was a lot of food preparation going on. A woman cut pieces of candied pumpkins, camotes, yuccas, and a year-round treat, sweet papaya into plastic baggies, spooning in a ladle of caramel-colored syrup.

For tortillas, head to La Flecha, where they are still grinding their own corn to make real corn tortillas (although they also make tortillas with processed corn flour, called Maseca). For a solid snack, head to the row of cochinita pibil vendors and look for the stand La Socorrito. The owner has long greasy hair and tattoos, reminding me a little bit of a pirate (albeit a very courteous one). You have two options here, taco or torta. The torta is smaller than most, be sure to ask for it mojado (with the drippings) and ask for it sin grasa (without the fat) so that you get the more meaty pieces. They’ve got a few juices here too.

Mercado Santiago
This is a small local market next to a lovely church and plaza in the Santiago neighborhood, just a five to ten minute walk from the centro. One thing I love about Mexican markets is how they change so drastically from one product to another. Turn the corner from the tortilleria and there’s a tailor, flip around from the lunch stands and you’ll see a pile of marigolds. And right across from the beauty products there’s a really great place to eat breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast in parts of Mexico often means tacos or tortas, things that I typically eat for lunch or dinner at home. But the market is mostly closed by the later afternoon, so I went to La Lupita for second breakfast around 11 a.m.
I guess my ears picked up the chopping sounds, because right outside of the stand were two men in black aprons and blue shirts with a heaping pile of chopped white onions sitting next to them as they rapidly knocked their knives against the wood cutting boards. The blue cursive lettering of La Lupita matched their shirts, which made me feel like there’s some extra thought going into this stand to be so matchy-matchy.

I ordered one taco of cochinita pibil, it came rolled up, juicy and flavorful. I also ordered a polcan, a thick disc of masa slit on one side and stuffed with small white lima beans, tiny pieces of breaded and fried pork, onions and lettuce. It’s a little dry without salsa and all the fried makes it a little heavy for the morning, but overall it’s delicious and filling. Apparently, pork tacos are no longer heavy for me in the morning but polcanes are.Slow Food Market
My first morning in Merida a friend took me to the Merida Slow Food Market. She ran into friends right where the organic bread stand met the stand of bottled chiles. Suddenly I didn’t feel so far from Temescal.

I think this is more of a haven for locals of a certain income and ex-pats than for tourists, but I certainly learned a lot just strolling the market. Don’t miss:-Natural supplements from Maya Natura. What can I say? The guy running this stand had skin like it had been airbrushed. We had to ask what he used. Apparently, it’s the herb called Moringa, a powerful antioxidant. He showed me the plant and suckered me into buying a bottle of capsules for $12. He grows and dries all his herbs.

-Chaya, chaya everywhere. Towards the end of the market there’s a woman selling organic vegetables, cocos, agua frescas, and chaya snacks. Chaya is a local green that seems to have taken off like kale. Everywhere you look you’ll see green juices spiked with chaya and at this stand you can find chaya tortillas, chips and the plant itself. The corn tortillas looked beautiful, speckled with green almost the color of Balinese rice fields— nothing compared to the dull and mysterious green of “spinach wraps” that tend to make me violent. -Cold tea from Yum Kaak. Next to fruit juice there’s nothing I want more than a cold caffeinated beverage to survive the heat in Merida. I’ll admit that I had at least three Frappuccino-like beverages during the week and one of them came with whipped cream. The bottle of iced black and green tea infused with tamarind I got from this tea stand was a delightful relief. The vendor also took the time to teach us how to make it (brew black tea and then add a little bit of tamarind pulp and sweetner to taste). She also had a passion fruit tea blend. I told her to start a franchise, she’s starting with a store on Paseo Montejo.

There’s a mix of locals and ex-pats making cheese, tamales, dips, and selling vegetables. Some of them are making good food and doing nothing related to slow food, like the couple from New Hampshire who have a smoker and smoke things. Like the salmon they buy at Costco. Can I report them to the slow food police please? Still, this is a fun market with a diversity of products you probably can’t get elsewhere in Merida.
Got the travel bug?
Markets are morning activities and are usually closed by the late afternoon.
Mercado Lucas De Galvéz
Calle 56A, roughly between 67 and 69, Centro
http://www.los-dos.com Does a cooking class and market tour worth checking out. Mario also does a street eats tour, which sounds like a whole lot of porky fun.

Parque Santiago
Calles 59 and 70

Slow Food Market
Centro Comercial Colon- Avenida Reforma with Avenida Colon
9 am- 2 pm

TAP

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