03/26/2011

Olvera Street

I enjoy cultural playgrounds, places where people can come together over food, trinkets, and just good company to enjoy themselves and maybe something out of the ordinary. In downtown Los Angeles these places are very prominent. The one I’m going to introduce today is Olvera Street. My family has been going to Olvera Street for my whole life, we would go as children and I fondly remember the scents of rich flavored foods, cinnamon, and cumin floating about from the nearby restaurants. This is street is lined with carts full of strange items to wear, trinkets to buy, and amazing goodies to eat and scattered throughout are restaurants selling some amazing Mexican delicacies.

When my sister was born right after (well I’m assuming not right after but you know what I mean) my dad and grandma went over with a couple of other family members to Ceildo Lindo to get taquitos which are fried shredded beef stuffed larger corn tortillas smothered in a beautiful green avocado/ tomatillo salsa and fresh creamy refried beans topped with cheese to celebrate the 1^st born child/grandchild. My sister is now 28 years old and shes about to have her first baby. Ceildo Lindo is a small shack of a place where there are about 6 tables inside the cubby corner and you stand and order and someone hands you your food right there, its simple and fantastic. The sauce is what really does it more then anything. I’m sure these are good because I expect them to be a certain way and they normally always are. My sister and I recently visited and we sat outside eating and talking remembering how it used to be.

My grandma has been going to Olvera Street probably at least 50 years now or longer, we used to take a trip to Olvera Street before we went to stay with her in Huntington Beach for the weekend. We’d hold hands walking together as little kids, looking and poking one another, drinking piping hot champurrado from La Luz del Dia. Champurrado is a Mexican hot chocolate that is thickened with masa or corn flour. It has a very strong cinnamon flavor with subtle chocolate notes & a different kind of thickness of corn mixed into it. It’s delicious in the stick to your ribs kind of way, where you can’t have too much but I love it. So in my life these two places are staples of my childhood memories and I’m sure they’ll be passed down to whoever wants to listen to them.

La Luz is a beautiful place but normally we just get champurrado because we want to have taquitos, but the food here is wonderful and authentic. Their hand made tortillas are really delicious and there are always people filling the place.