Rich in Latin Cuisine
By Jim Duncan

During the last decade, a new Christmas Eve phenomenon developed outside La Rosa café on Forest Avenue. Customers would start lining up at the back door by noon with pots in hand to retrieve their tamale reservations. Others would put their names on a waiting list as Rosa Martinez led her family and staff in the preparation of more than 3,000 holiday treats. While the paring of tamales with Christmas might not be traditional in Iowa, it’s totally appropriate. Being the world’s preferred way to consume hard corn, tamales and tortillas probably represent this state better than any other dish. It just took a recent wave of Latin American immigrants for Iowans to figure that out.

In the last two decades, Latino food developed a breadth of variety in Des Moines that would have seemed impossible a decade earlier. A food tourist can now explore the culinary treasures of Sonora, Ecuador and most every region in between, without leaving central Iowa.

This issue of Relish celebrates the tasty fruits of Latino immigration — the chefs, manufacturers, dishes and drinks that have made Des Moines dining a far more interesting experience than it was not that long ago. RELISH