Elvis brings real Latin food to Federal Hill
To me, authentic Mexican food means what I ate with my fellow workers when I worked construction in D.C. They’d find little corner shops where potent soups of reddish orange or green bubbled, where strange colas filled the coolers and where no one spoke English.
Maybe mole sauces and enchiladas are authentic too. I’m not interested in debating what authentic means. Besides, the food I remember is pan-Latin, or most likely, knowing the makeup of ethnicities in D.C., central American. “Mexican” is a word Americans have long used to brand the sum of all of Latin America’s foods. So debate doesn’t have much of a point. But what does...
...is wandering in to the strange corner store in Federal hill known as Elvis. Elvis was once a dark little sandwich shop and is now, much to my excitement, a sign of authentic Latin fare coming to Federal Hill.
The menu lists tacos, burritos, and quesadillas, but also more rare fare like pupusas and an advertised drink that sounded like the atole de helate (I misspell, no doubt) that I tried in Tacoma Park (El Salvador North, I swear), a creamy corn based drink that is so hard to describe you feel it MUST be authentic.
I tried Elvis’ carne asada, my favorite on any menu. It was so great I’m going to rant for a minute. For something like eight dollars I got a plateful. The carne was tender and flavorful, the rice steeped in flavor but without the neon orange that American restaurants seem to think Mexican rice requires. The beans were nearly liquid, as I remember them from trips to the corner stores in D.C., and the plate came with peppers and onions, a salsa of mostly tomatoes, a hot pepper, lettuce, three hot tortillas, and a fabulous homemade and zesty guacamole, the best guac I’ve had in awhile. Oh, and it came with lime wedges and a homemade hot sauce. I am ridiculously excited.
Hopefully Elvis will keep doing what they do so well and begin to branch out. I look forward to walking in again and finding mysterious items on their menu and fragrant and suspicious cauldrons of bubbling soups on their stoves.
Elvis is at 1022 Light Street, about a block north of Cross Street Market. Their number is 410-244-8817.
