Not fancy, but Elmwood has good eats

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/05/2009 (6295 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like the North End (about which I wrote a few weeks ago), the area on the other side of the river is also short on stylish dining. And, like the North End, Elmwood also has some interesting and appealing options. You might never know about them, though, unless you have friends in the area to tip you off, which is how I heard about Mercadito Latino.

From outside it looks like a tiny grocery store, which is exactly what it is in the front, its shelves crammed with a dizzying selection of ingredients for whose who want to do their own Latino cooking. But work your way past them into the back and you’ll find yourself in a windowless and ultra-simple little room that still manages to be bright and cheerful, with apricot coloured walls and a scattering of Latino artifacts — maracas hanging from a high shelf that holds a TV, wee dolls on another shelf, and a huge sombrero on yet another.

There are only a few tables, and on my visit the language spoken at all of them was Spanish. Only a few items are listed on the wall menu — some Chilean, some Salvadoran, and all of the snack or lunch variety (i.e. no entrees). But they are delicious, and every one is a bargain, with prices ranging from $2.65 to $5.25.

That bottom price is for one of the wonderful, griddle-fried pupusas — plump cornmeal pockets filled with cheese, or pork, or the works, which also includes a thin layer of refried beans. They come with pickled cabbage on the side, as well as a mild but subtly spiced tomato sauce. One pupusa is a snack, two or three are lunch.

The empanadas, on the other hand, are jumbos — huge, rather solid bread-like shells enclosing, in our case, a mixture of diced chicken with lots of onions, a chunk of hard-boiled egg, a solitary black olive and the occasional raisin. With it comes a side of chunky, and in this case, fairly spicy salsa.

All three of the available sandwiches are overflowing with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado. My favourite is the Chilean churrasco, conventional slices of bread filled with crisply grilled, thin, very flavourful pieces of marinated beef. Others come tucked into long, soft rolls, one of hot turkey, another of a chorizo sausage which is softer and less chewy than most Spanish or Portuguese versions — you can have your’s fairly mild, or more forcefully spiced, but both are tasty

There are only two desserts, and both are delicious. One is the Salvadoran quesadilla, but this isn’t the crisp, cheese-filled tortilla you may be familiar with, but actually a kind of pound cake, with a slight tang from cheese (and possibly sour cream). The other is the pizza con frutas, a dense cookie-like base of oatmeal and coconut, spread with cream cheese and topped by such fruits as strawberries, kiwi and pineapple.

No wine, beer or sangria, alas, but they do refreshing fruit squeezes — I loved the one made with lime — and the coffee is strong and hot.

Service couldn’t be nicer or more helpful. The store is open at 10 a.m., the cafe from noon to 6:30 p.m. Monday to Friday; 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

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My recent North End column was about three eat-in institutions, but knowledgeable Winnipeggers know that some of the neighbourhood’s finest foods are for home consumption only. Notably, the marvellous East European cured meats, in which this part of the city is particularly rich. One that tends to be overlooked is Metro Meats, partly because it is much smaller than many of the others, and partly because it is tucked away in Point Douglas. It’s a tiny, cramped little corner grocery, and if there are more than a few customers the space can become tight. And there often are more than a few customers, since its cured meats (mostly Polish style) are the equal of any.

Metro, and some of its fans, claim the coarse-cut kielbasa is the city’s best. Without a side-by-side test of all of them, I would never dare name a single best (if then), but it is certainly way up there — moist, fragrant, even elegant, one might say. Equally elegant are the superb ham sausage and the fine, pale krakowska salami. The skinny kabanosy meat stick and its plumper cousin, the mysliweska hunter sausage, are both drier and smokier than the above, and if you’re open to head cheese that is heady with garlic, the glittery, meaty aspic comes either in slices or blocks.

If you don’t mind doing a few minutes cooking, you’ll find hints of marjoram and allspice in the buckwheat sausage, and the relatively lean, house-cured bacon is marvellously flavourful.

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The North End is also where to find some of our province’s most renowned products. Gimli Fish Market, for instance, stocks freshly smoked goldeye, as well as smoked trout and whitefish. But when it comes to elegance, nothing beats caviar, and Manitoba’s own golden caviar is exceptional. It’s sold in other outlets but usually only by the kilogram, for approximately $40. At Gimli Fish you’ll find it in two- and four-ounce frozen portions at $2.45 and $4.80, respectively, and aristocratic eating is rarely as affordable as this.

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Mercadito Latino, 219 Henderson Hwy. 667-4272

Metro Meats, 121 Euclid Ave., 943-8217

Gimli Fish Market, 596 Dufferin Ave., 589-3474