Nationwide, salsa is now more popular than ketchup. The mojito is one of the most popular cocktails in Charlotte. And ceviches and moles are showing up on upscale New American menus around town. Charlotte, the sleepy banking town that fun forgot, is morphing into a culturally diverse city. Need some epazote, an Aztec herb? You can buy the plant at Home Depot or the cut herb at several of our area farmers’ markets.
Latino food has exploded upon the local scene, with innumerable grocery stores, bakeries, butcher shops, and, of course, restaurants showing up in the past decade or so. How much of it will be incorporated into mainstream Charlotte’s daily menus? Into our home cooking? A century ago, putting lasagna or ravioli on the dinner menu would have happened only in Italian neighborhoods. Times change. Now what could be more American than pizza?
How will the food Charlotteans eat change as the Latino community expands? Hilda H. Gurdian, publisher of La Noticia, The Spanish-Language Newspaper, responded, “I think the food will have more flavor, more color, more variety. Latino food is spicier, but not necessarily hot. It has a richer flavor as we love to mix ingredients such as herbs, red or green peppers, onions, garlic, fresh tomatoes, wine, which used in the right amount and cooked at the right heat adds a gourmet style flavor to an otherwise simple meal.
“I see all of us (collectively) in Charlotte enjoying more foods of Latino origin every day: plantains, tamales, corn tortillas filled with cheese, meat, chicken, yellow rice mixed with shrimps, scallops, mussels or any other types of seafood on a rich red pepper, garlic and onions sauce, pasta with mushrooms sauce, beans & rice.”
In 2000, almost 18 percent of Charlotteans spoke a language at home other than English, according to the US Census. Roughly 40,000 Charlotteans (or 12.5 percent) were “Hispanic.” Many in the Latino community believe the census count was considerably lower than the actual number of Latinos living in Charlotte.
“It’s impossible to gauge,” said Armando Reyes, owner of Los Reyes 2, a Latino grocery store off Independence Boulevard and Village Lake Drive. “Most think the number is around 100,000. But it’s hard to say.”
When Los Reyes 2 opened in March 2003, business began slowly. Since then Reyes said his business has increased “ten times over,” a dream come true for any entrepreneur.
But this is what Reyes expected when he came to Charlotte since he had witnessed a similar dramatic growth in the Latino community in Chicago, the city his native Mexican father had immigrated to 35 years ago, and the city in which he was born.
Armando Reyes decided to come to Charlotte because an uncle saw Charlotte’s Latino community blossoming and Reyes wanted to establish a business of his own.
“We wanted to have our store located on a main artery and we noticed there were already a few smaller stores that catered to the Latino population around here. We knew this place was right.”
His customers are 80 percent Mexican and the rest is a mix of Colombians, Brazilians (Reyes is trying to learn Portuguese), Venezuelans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans. His business is customer-driven. If a customer wants an item, Reyes finds a distributor. “Our goal is to have the most popular products,” he said.
But Reyes also knows he needs to change in order to keep his business growing. Already the large grocery store chains, such as Bi-lo and Wal-Mart, are beginning to capture the Latino market by selling more Latino brand canned goods and produce. To compensate, Reyes is renovating his shop to include a butcher shop and a take out/hot food area.
“In our business, meat will constitute about 60 percent of sales. Produce is next in importance. Groceries are next.” His butcher (technically meat cutting) shop will draw customers because the Latino community prefers for meat to be cut to order in front of them.
Ironically this is the opposite direction Charlotte’s major supermarkets chains have taken. During the past five years, area chain stores have eliminated meat cutting and grinding in their stores. They now offer only pre-packaged meat which is ground or cut offsite.
Reyes said, “My father grew up a butcher in Mexico. They go through a lot of training. They’ve been in the trade for five or six years before they can do everything. These butchers are artisans. Fresh meat is what the people had back home and what they want here.”
That’s why Celestino Hernandez opened the first Mexican butcher shop in town. The Carniceria La Mexicana Butcher Shop on Central Avenue opened in 1997. Hernandez commented, “People, especially restaurateurs, came to me looking for thinly cut meat.” Hernandez offers Mexican cuts of steak and pork, as well as chicken, chorizo sausage, offal, cheese, cold cuts, fish and prawns.
One of the best benefits of Charlotte’s expanding Latino community is the reemergence of a local meat market where cuts are sold in the weight the customer desires and in the cut the customer wants.
What other culinary benefits will Charlotte achieve from its booming Latino presence? Not all Latin American cuisine is the same. Nor is it all Mexican. Latin America has a mix of Old World and New World: indigenous foods, flavors, and preparation styles of the native people and the imported foods and style from the European folks who “discovered” them.
Mexican cuisine is the new darling of American culinarians, with celebrity Chicago-based chef Rick Bayless leading the charge. Mexican food is complex and deeply rooted in the indigenous cuisine of Native Americans; scores of chilies provide the flavor base while corn and beans are the staples. In the 1500s, the Spanish introduced pigs, cows, and chickens into the mix. Most of true Mexican cuisine consists of long, slowly simmered dishes that emanate layers of flavors; in Mexico, tacos and enchiladas are snack foods similar to what a hot dog is in the US.
Throughout the countries to the south of the US, food is part of the cultural identity, part of who they are. Mexicans who come to Charlotte may be looking for economic opportunity, but when it comes to their stomachs, they want their homegrown comfort food. Since many come from farm communities, they are used to simple, but extremely fresh foods. This is why so many taquerias in Charlotte have opened to serve, almost exclusively, the local Mexican and Central American population. The Latino upper and middle socio-economic classes, on the other hand, identify more with their European roots.
To place all Latino food under one umbrella is a pretty tall order. South American food is distinctly different from Caribbean, Mexican, and Central American food. In South America, the cuisines are as divergent as the climate. Tropical fruits and fish dominate menus in the north while meats, especially beef, are popular in the south. Foods from the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic are a creative Creole mix of Spanish, French, and African cooking techniques using indigenous produce and seafood to produce such dishes as shrimp and mashed potato balls with chipotle peppers, cilantro, and mango-pineapple salsa, and fricassee de pollo, a chicken dish made with lime, peppers, onions, bacon, and carrots. Some differences are subtle: the Guatemalan tamale is wrapped in a plantain leaf, not a corn husk.
But the biggest differences we see in the Latino food outlets in Charlotte are the socio-economic classes of people. Many South Americans, such as the Colombians and Venezuelans, who come to Charlotte are highly educated middle or upper class, and arrive in Charlotte with advanced skills. Not many of these have set up grocery stores or fast food places. If they do open a food store, it will more than likely be a full-fledged restaurant.
One such person is restaurateur Aldo Sevillano, a native of Lima, Peru, who owns two restaurants in Fort Mill, SC, and closed his popular Inka Grill four months ago, but plans to reopen in a safer south Charlotte neighborhood soon.
“Charlotte is like any city. Once Americans try new flavors, they are ready to try new dishes. In the South, people were used to traditional meals. Now we have added a new spice and people are discovering our food. Americans like to try new stuff. My Peruvian dishes had a good reception from the community.”
Unfortunately in the past 10 years Charlotte has had a succession of quite good upscale Latino restaurants that have closed or changed hands. These include the El Gran Havana, Siboney Cuban Restaurant, and Brazas Brazilian Grill. One of my favorites was Ernesto Tabuerca’s memorable Tango Argentino in South Charlotte. On his menu were chimichurri sauce, a variety of empanadas, parrillada grilled tableside, and a vast number of Argentinean and Chilean wines. Tabuerca also employed a pastry chef who produced a dazzling display of South American desserts.
One veteran entrepreneur of Charlotte’s ethnic food is Jose Hernandez-Paris, now Executive Director of International House and a native Colombian. He was also the first student to graduate from a Charlotte Mecklenburg ESL program 26 years ago, which gives you an idea of how far the Latino community has come. Hernandez-Paris also owned the first Spanish food store in Charlotte, the El Dorado on South Boulevard, from 1986 to 1991.
“I think the Latino culture has influenced Charlotte in many ways. I remember the first Mexican restaurant opening; I think it was El Cancun. Now we have 100 or more. When El Cancun first opened, people said it wouldn’t make it. They have 18 restaurants now.
“When I first opened my store, I was bringing up food from the Caribbean because I had so many Caribbean customers. Then it changed to Mexican. My clients started telling me what I needed and that is what I bought. We had a problem finding distributors. There were no distributors for vegetables or spices or cheeses. I remember we sold a Costa Rican sauce to the Roasting Company for their chicken, but then we couldn’t get it, so the Roasting Company had to develop their own sauce.
“The biggest difference the Latino community makes in Charlotte is to other immigrants. Not just the international ones; we have a lot of people coming who have moved here from other states. It’s something really interesting how these people feel more at home here in Charlotte now. Charlotte is more appealing and it makes it easier for people who want diversity in culture.”
These days, Häagen-Dazs sells a popular Tres Leches ice cream. Plantain chips are sold beside potato chips. Tamale Molly produces hand-tied gourmet vegetarian tamales and sells them in stores across the US. Harris Teeter carries yucca, nopales, tamarind, Peruvian purple potatoes, plantains, and other produce indigenous to Latino countries.
Latino foods and multiple cuisines are a deep trend, not a fad, across the US as well as here at home. These foods are gradually becoming mainstreamed, just as Italian cuisine was decades before. Latino foods will be seen more often on menus and in recipes, as well as being a welcomed permanent addition to Charlotte’s culinary landscape.
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2004.
