A bit of Mexico in Granite State
Little Mexico
668 Route 111, East Hampstead, N.H.603-329-5697
Open Tuesday-Sunday 4-9 p.m., Friday-Saturday 4-10 p.m.
All major credit cards accepted. Handicapped accessible
Sometimes history is dull and dry, and sometimes it tastes like green chilis and guacamole.
After relocating to New Hampshire from El Paso, Rito and Sally Acevedo opened Little Mexico in a store-front space in Manchester. It was New Hampshire's first Mexican restaurant and some argue one of the few authentic ones here. We know. Many a night as a teenager we'd make the one-hour round trip for a soft taco.
A lot has happened to Mexican food and to Little Mexico since 1970. The restaurant has moved from Manchester to Salem and now to busy Route 111 in East Hampstead - its most spacious location ever.
During those 37 years, lots of Mexican restaurants - independent, chain, and taco drive-throughs - have infiltrated New Hampshire and it's no longer necessary to drive an hour for a burrito. But it's still not easy to find the real thing. Little Mexico is the real thing.
It's all homemade with old family recipes. We had a delightful waitress who seemed as much a fan of the food here as we were at her age. She urged us to try the queso dip ($7) to start off. "I have it all the time. It's cheesy. It's a secret family recipe and you won't be able to stop eating it." She was so right.
We were dipping our crispy tortilla chips into the spicy, cheesy concoction furiously. We washed them down with cold Coronas ($3.75 each) but were a tad disappointed that there was no beer on tap.
While we were scraping up every last drop of the cheese dip, the child of our party was doing his own serious damage to his crispy, baked nachos ($3.50).
Nostalgic for those old Manchester days, we ordered two tacos ($2.95 each). Little Mexico never used bland flour tortillas for soft tacos, but rather soft corn tortillas stuffed with chopped beef, chicken, or shredded beef (we chose chopped beef), a little tomato, lettuce, and sprinkling of cheese. In the old days that cheese was cold, now it's melted. We asked for the iconic green hot sauce and a side of guacamole. Proust can keep those wimpy Madeleines. We'll take green chili sauce any day. The tacos and guacamole were to die for.
We chose the trio fajitas ($14.95) - marinated and sautéed onions, peppers, chicken, and shrimp, tortillas for stuffing and Mexican red rice and refried beans.
We thought the marinated seafood and meats were tasty and tender, as were the vegetables, but the two tortillas were just not enough - "trio" being the operative word here. But our waitress was quick to bring us more when we asked. The rice was just so-so but the beans were some of the best we've ever had.
We ended with bunuelos ($2.25), fried flour tortillas with cinnamon and sugar, and honey. And with a bill of $55, our pocketbooks were as happy as our tummies.
TOM LONG 