La Carreta's Mexican dishes worthy of gathering

There are good signs and bad signs when you walk into an unfamiliar ethnic restaurant for the first time.

If you can pronounce everything on the menu, that's probably a bad sign.

If they sell anything by the scoop, that's probably a bad sign.

If you sit down hoping for something truly authentic and your server's name is Eugene, that's probably a bad sign.

But if you walk in and notice a string of tables pushed together in a long line in a back of the room packed with people who aren't speaking English, that's a very, very good sign.

It means the local immigrant population has decided the restaurant is not just OK, it's good enough to become a community gathering place.

I've stumbled upon these gatherings a few times, and always come away with a new favorite restaurant.

So it was on a recent night at La Carreta - a Mexico City-style restaurant that, for 10 years, has done steady business in a hidden strip mall. Beyond a scattering of regular diners was a long table of Mexican guys in baseball caps and mustaches drinking Coronas and talking.

These beer-drinking bellwethers were right on. This place matches good value with careful preparation and an array of authentic dishes.

The humble relleño, tamale and enchilada combination plate ($10.95), which I always use as a quick way to judge a Mexican place, doesn't have a single weak link. The fat, flavorful poblano pepper is stuffed with just the right Monterey Jack cheese so it never gets too tough or too gooey, then it is dipped in seasoned flour and egg whites for a light, crisp breading, and finished with a simple, fresh sauce of blended tomato and onion. A slender enchilada with nicely seasoned shredded beef or chicken comes doused in bright, slightly sour tomatillo sauce. (Tomatillo sauce is the best way to know if you're in a Mexican, not a New Mexican, restaurant. In New Mexico cooking, the "green sauce" is chili.) A fat, homemade tamale with shredded pork came under a veil of brick red, deeply earthy, and amazing salsa made from blended dried red chiles. None of it fell into the combo plate pitfalls of being deluged in melted cheese, or melding into one unidentifiable mire of salty slop.

Tradition and restraint are the guiding forces here. Even the refried beans are made from scratch. (I saw a cook through the open kitchen door performing the ageold task of removing small pebbles from a batch of dried pintos.) The sizzling shrimp on the Fajita de Camarón ($11.95) arrived flared open like iris petals, showing they'd been deveined in the kitchen, not some distant processing plant.

I try to avoid fajitas when dining out because the Tex-Mex dish is tailored for the timid pallets of El Norte and often comes dripping with cheap vegetable oil. But La Carreta's shrimp, sautéed with strips of onion, tomato and pepper, were perfectly cooked, not overly salted, and had only a kiss of oil.

Same with an order of carne asada: the thin sheet of seasoned skirt steak ($9.25) arrived flopping over both rims of the plate. Places often serve this steak with too much oil and salt. Here, the flavor of the meat showed through.

Carreta also serves some unusual dishes, such as Barbacoa de Borrego (lamb tacos, $11.95) and Bisteck Milanesa (Mexican-style chicken-fried steak, $9.50).

The light green mole verde was an intriguing break from the dark brown poblano moles most local Mexican restaurants serve. The smooth sauce came ladled over three pork enchiladas ($9.50) and sang with tart complexity I couldn't decipher.

I stopped Rossy Sandoval, the owner, as she shuffled by in a red apron, and asked what the heck was in it.

She rolled her eyes and said "muchas cosas" - many things: tomatillos, ground poblano pepper, jalapeños, cloves, onion, garlic, "and a lot of others."

It was wonderful. And followed swiftly by hot sopapillas with honey and cinnamon, it had me in heaven.

The only downside I've found in this little restaurant is the décor. Ten years into the operation, it still has a dropped panel ceiling with half the fluorescent bulbs unscrewed to cut down on the cold glare. Some more welcoming lighting and a few booths would make for a better meal.

But as the guys at the long table in the back would probably tell you, that's a small matter when you've found a place where the food, the service and the prices are good enough to bring a group together.

La Carreta Mexican Restaurant
**** (Four out of five stars) Authentic and wonderful

Address: 35 Iowa St. Phone: 719-477-1157
Hours: 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sundays. Closed Mondays.
Entrees: $7.50-$11.95
Vegetarian: Plenty
Alcohol: Full bar
Plastic: Yes