A Few Surprises . . . Hot Dog!

Pat, pat, pat--behind the counter, a woman shaped a tortilla for my mixta, a beef hot dog dressed with ketchup, mustard, mayo and guacamole, all wrapped in a corn tortilla. It’s a snack created long ago by German immigrants to Guatemala.

You can get mixtas at Victoria Garden Restaurant and Grill. This small place--a counter and a couple of tables plus a more private small dining room--is dominated by a huge painting of a cobblestoned street and volcano in the Guatemalan city of Antigua.

Owner Jorge Melgar is from Guatemala City. His wife, Rosa Maria, is from Antigua and does much of the cooking. Her food is quite good, and full of surprises.

One day I ordered an enchilada, but what was this that came--a tostada? It was a fried tortilla topped with a lettuce leaf, beet salad, shreds of boiled chicken, tomato sauce and sliced onions and hard-boiled eggs.

A Guatemalan taco is more recognizable, though it’s rolled tightly, like a taquito. There is a bit of beef inside and mild tomato sauce and crumbled cotija cheese on top. That same sauce and cheese go with chuchitos, which are small, bulbous tamales that contain a morsel of chicken.

Tamales de elote are sweet, fresh corn tamales (really made from fresh corn), served plain, rather than smothered with tomato sauce, as they would be in Mexico. One day the kitchen made tamales with chipilin, a leafy green stocked in the herb section of some Latino markets. They were plain too, except for the green shreds. On weekends there are big pork tamales, amazingly light and tender, that are steamed in banana leaves.

Guatemalan rellenitos have nothing to do with chile rellenos. They are fat, golden brown plantain fritters stuffed with sweetened black beans lightly spiced with cinnamon. Topped with thick cream, they’re irresistible, like dessert. Guatemalan chile rellenos, on the other hand, do look like the Mexican kind but they’re stuffed with meat and vegetables. (Cheese-stuffed rellenos are also on the menu, along with a few other Mexican dishes.)

Chicken pepian presents chicken in a brick-red sauce seasoned with pasilla chiles, tortillas, bread crumbs, sesame seeds and ground roasted squash seeds. Tomatoes and cilantro go into the pot too, producing a glorious soup to accompany the chicken and the small, meaty handmade tortillas.

Kak-ik, a Mayan dish from the city of Coban, sometimes appears on weekends. Few people can make it, Melgar says proudly. It’s a big bowl of tomato-based soup and, on the side, a turkey drumstick (cooked in the soup), a small plain tamale, an avocado wedge and lime to squeeze over the components. The tamale is rather hard but softens as you eat it with the soup, which contains green onions, cilantro, spearmint and a dash of ground chiles de arbol.

Soupy dishes are popular here. Another is hilachas: shredded beef in a bright orange sauce that may remind you of canned tomato soup (you wouldn’t guess that it contained tomatillos). Revolcado is a beef soup that tastes strongly of variety meats.

Guatemalan-style creamed chicken (pollo en crema) is nothing like the old American standby. The tangy sour cream sauce is pumped up with onions and garlic, tomatoes and sweet peppers.

The word “grill” isn’t tacked onto the restaurant’s name for nothing. The simple pollo asado (grilled chicken) is very good. Like most main dishes, it comes with salad, rice and tortillas. Other grilled dishes include carne asada and pinchos de pollo (chicken kebabs), and on weekends there is churrasco, a big plate of T-bone steak, rice and fried black beans with guacamole, tortillas and a tomato sauce called chirmol.

Dessert isn’t a strong point, but the restaurant offers a pleasant rice pudding. The one beverage that stands out is fresco de frutas, a glassful of light syrup containing pieces of orange, pineapple, apple and the Central American fruit jocote maranon.

Victoria Garden’s prices are remarkable. Complete lunches, served weekdays only, are $3.50, and dinners run as low as $5. Snack foods such as rellenitos and Guatemalan tacos are $1.50, and the fresh corn tamales are only $1.25 each.

BE THERE

Victoria Garden Restaurant and Grill, 4271 W. Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 913-3551. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Lunch specials for $3.50 available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Street parking only. The adjacent lot is reserved for the Pizza Hut on the corner. All major credit cards are accepted. No alcohol. Dinner for two, food only, $10 to $15.

What to Get: Guatemalan enchiladas, tamales de elote, mixtas, pollo en crema, chicken pepian, kak-ik, rellenitos, fresco de frutas.