It was noon and time for breakfast. Lunch, actually, but the sign outside Metro Deli No. 2 was impossible to resist.
The deli is in a Latino neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles, and so the sign was in Spanish.
Desayunos (breakfasts) for $2.75, it said, including handmade tortillas. The choices were huevos (eggs) rancheros, huevos a la mexicana, huevos con jamon (ham), chorizo or salchichas (sausages) or just plain fried (estrellados).
Soon I was inside, waiting for huevos rancheros--eggs with a mild tomato sauce, refried beans and rice. A super hot green salsa on the side let me spice it up as much as I could stand.
The tortillas, fresh and hot, had chewy texture, unlike smooth, thin, lifeless machine-made tortillas.
I thought about ordering a banana shake (licuado). That would have rounded out the egg plate and tortillas with milk and banana, but I wanted horchata, a light, frothy rice drink speckled with cinnamon.
This was simple food but delicious, as if I were eating in someone's home. And the ambience was just as friendly.
The women behind the counter laughed and chattered with customers. I was "muchacha," and the man at the next table was "muchacho." One of the customers was a taxi dispatcher from Veracruz, eating with a driver.
The wall I faced was painted with a mural of fishermen at work in some tropical estuary. This indicated that seafood would be present. And soon a man came in and asked for "camarones, con mucho, mucho ajo" (shrimp with lots of garlic).
If he hadn't wanted shrimp, he could have had a campechana (seafood coctail), fried fish or caldo siete mares, a big fish and shellfish soup. Or shrimp prepared in some other fashion.
For its size, Metro Deli tackles an impressive variety of food, ranging from goat birria and chicken mole to steaks, chops, fried chicken and the usual tortas (sandwiches) enchiladas, chiles rellenos and tacos.
Pupusas too, because Metro Deli servess Salvadoran food, including a breakfast of fried bananas with cream and beans. But the price for that rises to $3.25 and goes all the way to $3.75 for machaca (shredded beef) with eggs.
Breakfasts are $2.75 to $3.75 at Metro Deli No. 2, 1422 W 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017 (in a mall at the corner of 6th and Valencia). Tel: (213) 483-6455.
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