Riches of the East

A few miles east of downtown Los Angeles, tucked near the Long Beach Freeway, a short stretch of Cesar E. Chavez Avenue is like an old-time Mexican settlement. It’s an area where immigrants arrived long ago, a part of town where Mexican heritage thrives. It’s a place where tortillas taste like tortillas should, where a bakery still makes pan dulce as it has since 1928.

In one small, easily walkable area, roughly bounded by Ford Boulevard and McDonnell Avenue, you’ll find shops, restaurants and bakeries that are both historic and fascinating.

This part of East L.A. feels like a small town from the 19th century. The avenue is quiet, not crowded and bustling. Spiky maguey cactuses stand outside the parking lot of one restaurant. Not far away there’s a memorial chapel, now empty, that looks like the location for a western film shoot. Even the bus stops are ornamental, with curlicued black iron enclosures.

Merchants tell how their businesses originated generations ago in Guadalajara or Zacatecas or Guanajuato. Barreras Chicharrones on Ford Boulevard traces its origins to 1875. Panaderia La Fama has been in business since 1928. El Gallo Bakery opened in 1949. The quaint, white, country-style church El Mesias was constructed in 1924 by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the large bell in the enclosure outside Our Lady of Solitude Church (La Soledad) dates from 1937. Next to it, the Plaza La Soledad offers a place to rest for a moment.

The food is genuinely Mexican. Tortillas are made from ground corn, not commercial masa flour. Shops sell succulent tamales, intricate Mexican sweet breads and snow cones with natural fruit toppings--even pinatas for a party.

In addition to three restaurants, two bakeries and two tortillerias, the businesses range from a pet store to beauty and bridal shops. Galeria Xochitl displays original work by Latino artists. Botanica La Merced sells Mexican medicinal herbs. A sign in the window of Sloan’s Dry Cleaners advertises nopales limpios (fresh, cleaned cactus paddles) for sale. The Brooklyn & Ford corner market recalls the era when Cesar E. Chavez was Brooklyn Avenue. Farther north on Ford is Majestic Poultry, which sells live chickens.

Parking on the quiet residential side streets is unlimited, allowing plenty of time to stroll, browse and shop.

1 Tamales Liliana’s. This place has much more to offer than tamales. It’s a full-fledged Mexican restaurant with a lively menu of flautas, sopes, gorditas, huaraches, enchiladas and tacos and a few meat dishes. The tamales, $1 each, are packed to go at a takeout counter. Fillings include meat in red or green chile, chicken with vegetables and chile strips with cheese. There are also sweet tamales that contain raisins and pineapple and a sweetened tamal de elote that is made from ground fresh corn. As the waitress said, it’s “muy rico.”

Tamales Liliana’s, 4619 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. (323) 780-0989.

2 Gallos Grill. Savory aromas waft outside, luring you into this Southwestern-style restaurant, which specializes in Mexican cuts of beef grilled over an almond-wood fire. Try gallitos--a sabana steak, which is a long, thin sheet of meat, folded around Jack cheese, ham, onion and tomato and grilled. It comes with a quesadilla, grilled green onions--the Mexican kind with a bulb at the end--rice or beans, tortillas and a selection of salsas. Other choices include arrachera (flap meat), carne adobada (marinated meat), carne asada, New York steak, filete and brochetas. To go with them try the tall, sweet drink called pepino. It’s made with cucumbers.

The grill offers taco combos and tortas (sandwiches) for lunch. On weekends, a brunch menu includes enchiladas, sopes and chilaquiles. The patio out back is nice on a warm day.

Gallos Grill, 4533 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. (323) 980-8669.

3 El Gallo Bakery. The sweet perfume of freshly baked pan dulce entices one to take home sacks full. This is a good idea, because El Gallo makes breads that require so much hand work they have disappeared from many panaderias.

A specialty is the rosa, a strip of dough twirled in the air to form a rose that is then painted with pink sugar. Negritos are capped with cinnamon dough hand-pinched into little points. Airy, round campechanas resemble glazed puff pastry. Libros (books) are glazed rectangles with many “pages” (layers) of dough. Monos (bow ties), raisin buns called guayabas (guavas) and huge, slightly sweet yellow cuernos (horns) are only a few of the many temptations. Cookie-like chamucos, with an outer rim of cinnamon dough and an inner circle of egg and sugar paste, are especially good at this bakery.

In addition to pan dulce and bolillos, El Gallo sells soft, slightly sweet dinner rolls that are wonderful for ham sandwiches.

El Gallo Bakery, 4546 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. (323) 263-9551.

4 La Carreta. Folksy and homey, La Carreta (the cart) is a restaurant hangout for local politicos. It’s popular for breakfast, judging from the long list of morning food including huevos a la Mexicana, huevos rancheros and chilaquiles. However, the specialty of the house is beef barbacoa, and the recipe, which appeared years ago in the Times Food section, is exhibited on the wall that separates the open kitchen from the restaurant. Host Manuel Plantillas dishes up plenty of charm. When a little boy asked if the flowers in the restaurant were real, Plantillas said they were not, then added, “The real flower is here,” gesturing toward the boy’s mother.

La Carreta, 4538 1/2 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. (323) 261-1365.

5 La Azteca Tortilleria. At first glance, the shop may appear drab and empty, but don’t be fooled; it’s tortilla heaven. The tortillas, tamales and other foods to go are in the back, where you can’t see them from the entrance.

A heady aroma of dried corn drifts up from the thick, meaty handmade corn tortillas, so fresh they’re still warm when you buy them. Eat one on the spot, then take the rest home to grill and eat plain, spread with butter or topped with melted cheese. La Azteca’s handmade flour tortillas contain enough lard to make them soft and tender. Both kinds, corn and flour, are $1.50 a dozen.

Signs at the counter announce that champurrado, a hot, chocolate-flavored masa drink, is available daily, while menudo and lamb’s heads are weekend specials.

La Azteca Tortilleria, 4538 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. (323) 262-5977.

6 Eclipse de Mexico. Rustic wooden dining sets just right for a hacienda are on sale in this large furniture and accessories store. The most unusual set displayed recently was painted bright blue and decorated with calla lilies, known in Mexico as alcatraces and used as a motif for everything from dishes and tiles to clothing. Eclipse also sells decorative Mexican plates and glassware in bold colors, including a stand that holds a large pitcher and matching tumblers, just right for the fruity drinks called aguas frescas.

Eclipse de Mexico, 4512 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. (323) 262-4697.

7 BJ Party Supplies. Come here for pinatas. If you don’t like the ones on display, there’s a counter for special orders.

Notice the stacks of boxed candies imported from Mexico. Beyond is a room devoted to decorations for Mexican-themed parties. Here you might find molcajetes (stone mortars for grinding), aluminum tortilla presses large and small, lime squeezers, bean pots, pottery casseroles, straw tortilla holders and tiny sombreros and serape strips for party favors.

BJ Party Supplies, 342 N. Ford Blvd. (323) 263-5014.

8 La Fama Panaderia. The pastries here range from chocolate eclairs, cream horns and fancy cakes to pan dulce and breads stuffed with cheese and jalapenos. Specialties include light, fluffy pan de huevo (egg bread), topped with swirls of sugar paste to make the buns called conchas. Try piedras (rocks), big cookie-breads that are dark and rough-looking but tender and sweet when you bite into them. They’re made with corn flour. Try also the oatmeal cookies, and the empanadas de calabaza (squash turnovers).

If you’re lucky, a tray of pan con crema will be in the display case. This luscious pastry consists of a cookie crust topped with a thick layer of cream and baked until golden brown.

La Fama Panaderia, 420 N. Ford Blvd. (323) 267-8610.

9 Zacatecas Raspados. Red, white and blue-green tiles decorate the front of this small shop, which serves crushed ice drenched with toppings popular in Mexico. Choices include guava, mango, pineapple, strawberry, peach, lime, coconut, rompope (a liqueur that resembles eggnog), cajeta (a thick caramel), jamaica and tamarindo. It also dispenses licuados, blended drinks made with mamey, guanabana, papaya, strawberry, banana or flavored yogurt.

Zacatecas Raspados, 422 N. Ford Blvd. (323) 264-7651.

10 Barreras Chicharrones. This business primarily sells wholesale to markets, delis and restaurants but welcomes walk-in customers.

Its warehouse-like quarters are jammed with gigantic bags of crisp fried pork skins, but there’s a smaller bag that’s practical for home use. The two types sold are chicharron delgado (fried pork belly skin), which remains crisp but not hard and brittle, and chicharron grueso, hand-cut pork leg skin that includes some of the fat and meat. The pork skins are fried in rendered pork fat produced on the premises. The fat is also useful for tamales and other traditional Mexican dishes, but it only comes in six-gallon buckets.

Mike Barreras recalls how his grandfather once operated the business from his garage. The plant is now USDA-inspected.

Barreras Chicharrones, 460 N. Ford Blvd. (323) 268-7307.

11 La Fortaleza. This large tortilla factory sells mainly to restaurants but also has a rather inconspicuous window where retail customers can buy corn and flour tortillas, chips and masa for tortillas or tamales. The corn tortillas, made from ground corn rather than instant masa flour, are unusually flavorful, soft and flexible, excellent for enchiladas and soft tacos or to accompany Mexican dishes. La Fortaleza makes both plain and colored tortilla chips and also produces colored tortillas for use as wraps. Another tortilla factory, La Reina, is located on Ford but has no retail outlet.

La Fortaleza, 525 N. Ford Blvd. (323) 261-1211.