A big breakfast doesn’t have to be about bacon and eggs. It could be about chicharron y huevos.
And it doesn’t have to be about paying a lot to eat a lot. In fact, a filling breakfast at La Fonda Paisa (7914 Georgia Ave) is damned dirt cheap.
So are the settings. Dining inside this way-south Silver Spring supermercado is on par with the “sampler’s lunch” at Costco. The incessant rattle of refrigerator cases is the only atmosphere offered.
But if ambiance is no concern, then holler. For $7, one can score breakfast combo no. 1 — a generous serving of chicken hash, rice, black beans and one piece of arepa (a Colombian corn cake).
The chicken hash is a bland preparation of shredded dark meat, sauteed onions and bell pepper, and a thin tomato-based sauce. The accompanying white rice is equally unremarkable, and the arepa is toasted until tough. However, the black beans are hardy, savory and supply enough flavor to to make up for the combo’s shortcomings.
If grease isn’t an issue, then the empanadas (small meat turnovers, $1 each) are a good bet. A crisp, golden, deep-fried crust envelopes moist chunks of corned beef and potato. Hit the Lipitor and enjoy.
The cafe also serves chorizo (served with arepa, $2), a fatty but flavorful sausage seasoned with sharp cumin and oregano (above). Make that Lipitor a double.
Servers at the counter are hospitable, though things can get confusing. Protocols for scoring grub go like this:
- Give your order to the server behind the counter.
- Your server hands you a ticket with your order scribbled on it.
- Take that ticket to the register on the other side of the store. Pay the cashier.
- Finally, return to the food counter to pick up your meal.
Dedicate the rest of your day to burning off the calories or lowering your cholesterol levels.
La Fonda Paisa, 7914 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, (301) 587-0600.
Photos by Ronald Pace for The Silver Spring Penguin. Originally published Jul 25, 2007.
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Nice one Penguin! You dug deep here.
I’ve been a fan of La Fonda Paisa for a while. I actually love the atmosphere, looking out on Georgia. Sometimes, I wish they had some outdoor seating. I also enjoy perusing the aisles at the end of my meal and getting lost in what’s offered.
Hey Jennifer, maybe you or one of your ninjas can check out Gor-E-Kabob (close enough) on Wayne, next to Bonanza Coins and the 3 (count ‘em) hair salons. They took the paper off their windows today, so they just might be in business.
Good call. Much respect. This place is legit.
Try to score the Arepas de Choclo (Sweet corn Arepas) if you get a chance. Better than the plain Arepas in my IMHO.
Say Piero, ever since I came back from visiting my friends in Tucson, I’ve been looking for really good tortillas in the Silver Spring/D.C. area. Can you recommend any stores and/or brands?
My friends taught me how to make enchilada sauce from scratch. Now I am addicted to the good stuff!
Thanks.
Tough question. Authentic Mexican food and ingredients are tough to come in DC. There is a large Central American and Andean community in DC but Mexican stuff is hard to come by. If you ever want to do the authentic Mexican thing, you have to go to Riverdale, MD (PG county) which has a large Puebla, Mexico community.
I am going to assume coming from Tucson you are seeking out thin, corn tortillas unlike the thick corn ones that some central americans eat. That can be found in most stores in the area and there are too many to list. Can’t recall a specific brand right now. If I had to list a store in Silver Spring, I would recommend the numerous latin stores next to and around Pollo Rico, 2541 Ennalls Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20902 in Wheaton, Maryland. There are at least four places there that sell latin products though they slant heavily towards Central American goods and not Mexican but that will be the case most places you go to here in the DC area. Additionally, there is a bakery near Pollo Rico that has a tortilla machine though I have never purchased them so I can’t tell you what they taste like.
Sorry couldn’t be more help.
Piero,
Thanks for the response. Actually, I am looking for the best fat tortillas (or “gorditos.” as my Tucson hosts called them). I do shop at the Pan Am supermarket in Silver Spring, and they have many tortillas for sale their, many of which are made locally. I was just hoping you might be able to recommend a good brand, but since not, I’ll go to Plan B, which is to buy and try each one. So far I’ve done Don Antonio’s, which was…okay.
Yum, gorditas! Make them yourself. There’s no way a store-bought gordita shell will taste as good as home-made.
Check out this blog entry from Homesick Texan — “The good, the bad, and the puffy” — about the vast superiority of making your own. (A puffy taco is a San Antonio specialty that is similar to a gordita.) Check out those pictures!
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/06/good-bad-and-puffy.html
In fact, the official mascot of the San Antonio Missions baseball team is Henry the Puffy Taco. (”This spring, Newsweek magazine named the Puffy Taco the best mascot in minor-league baseball, prompting H.R. 490, an official commendation by the Texas House of Representatives that proclaims Henry “truly entertaining, hopelessly endearing, and curiously appetizing.” They can’t handle redistricting, but the legislators all agree they love the Puffy Taco.”)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/138032_doublea04.html
Being from the flour tortilla belt (south Texas/north Mexico), I am on a perpetual hunt for good flour tortillas. The best ones I’ve found in the area are at Mi Rancho restaurant in downtown Silver Spring. They have a tortilla machine. You can buy them to go. They are warm and soft and just wonderful, although they can be a bit gummy if insufficiently flattened and undercooked.
The WORST flour tortillas are served at the Austin Grill, which is a travesty of a Tex-Mex restaurant/funky Austin roadhouse combo that is extremely popular for reasons that completely escape me.
As long as I’m on the subject of tortillas, I’d like to address the common misconception that corn tortillas are “real” Mexican food and flour tortillas are somehow inauthentic. This is not the case. The climate/soil of northwestern Mexico is more suitable for wheat than for corn, and thus flour tortillas are common there. Since that part of Mexico shares a border (and a large share of its population) with south Texas, it only makes sense that the flour tortilla would cross the border and enter the Tex-Mex repertoire.
KT
Much like Spartacus’ decision to free not just his group of slaves, but ALL the slaves of Rome, I shall take up your advice and make my own gorditas. After all, if I’m bothering to make the sauce, then why not the tortillas, too?
I did make chapatis and date-nut bread and a chocolate cake (all vegan, BTW) in this last month alone, so gorditas ought to be a snap, right?
If not, thanks for the tip about Mi Rancho.
KT, I just checked out the Homesick Texan’s website, and it looks like you and I are not talking about the same thing regarding those gorditas. The Homesick Texan’s recipe will make a puffed-up tortilla, but the gorditas I had in Tucson were not puffy, but simply thick through and through.
Makes sense, though, since so much out of Texas is full of hot air!
La Fonda Paisa: La comida es fea nada que ver con la comida colombiana, el ajiaco horrible las papas la dejan con cascara y parece pura sopa de pollo, la damas que atienden son cochinas usan sus manas para quitar la piel del aguacate sitio sucio e ido 2 veces y no lo recomiendo
Fonda Paisa: Pleace dirty the food is really poor im not recommened this place, the lady used hands dirty for remove skin the avocado no no no poor