For a moment at Campos Market, you are not in Boise.
Here is where to find a heavy wooden tortilla press, chile and lime pistachios, tamarind-flavored candy and pastry in colors and shapes dreamed up by Dr. Seuss.
Around you is loud, lively music and piñatas overhead. In the produce section are stacked leaves of cactus, fat green onions called cebollita, and assuredly the best plantains in town.
Follow the long glass butcher case of the carcinera, with its array of bright red meat, and you will find something more than a curiosity at the back of the store: the taqueria.
Like many ethnic grocery stores, Campos Market is both a much-loved cultural gathering place and an embassy for its tourist visitors. Located in the space that once was the old Crescent “No Lawyers” Bar — with the roadside moon-sliver marquee merely relabeled, martini glass still atilt — the restaurant has been a well-discovered neighborhood gem on Orchard Street for a few years.
There is something wonderful developing on this stretch of the Boise Bench, as within a minute’s drive of Campos you will find Vietnamese noodles at Pho Tam, Argentine empanadas at Tangos, Boise’s best Thai at Chiang Mai, and fresh bread and terrific gyros at Bosnia Express. Add the Bosnian, Orient, and Halal markets to Campos, and there is much in this area for the in-town food tourist to discover.
You order from the small menu at the back counter, where a line usually forms in front of the hot display case, full of rippled sheets of fried pig skin and carnitas. On the counter is a jug of horchata, a sweeter-than-dessert milky vanilla rice drink ($1.49 for a medium cup), or you can purchase a Mexican beer or glass bottle of cane-sugar Coca-Cola from the refrigerated case next to the few tables for dining.
The $1 tacos are delicious, tiny corn tortillas with your choice of meat, topped with minced onion and cilantro. As with everything else, they are garnished with lime and slices of radish, and served with two sauces, a smoky-pepper red sauce and an avocado-cool green. Recently I tried tacos with the azada (steak), and the al pastor (pork with pineapple and spices), but the standout was the crumbly, indulgently orange chorizo, the juices staining my fingertips.
A $4.99 burrito is a meal in itself, filled with well-seasoned rice and beans, and if you have it with some of the excellent, uncommonly savory carnitas, as I did, you may want to lay down immediately for a nap.
More unusual, but just as filling, are the sopes ($3.99) and huaraches ($5.99), which are both on thick corn flatbreads. The sope is round, topped with cotija cheese, tomato, and shredded lettuce, and your choice of meat. The huarache is so named because its longer, oblong shape resembles the sole of a sandal — in this case, about a size 16. Topped with meat, caramelized onions, a rich bean sauce, and cilantro, it was too much for my wife and me. We prefer thinner corn tortillas.
But we enjoyed a torta ($4.49), a sandwich on a soft, homemade bun with avocado, lettuce, and tomato. And I especially liked the steak millaneza we chose for it: a wide cutlet dipped in light egg batter and sautéed crispy. (I had to look it up to discover, of course, it’s made just like veal Milanese.) On weekends, there is menudo and shrimp stew.
None of this food is complicated, and if at first glance this seems like many Mexican restaurant menus, you would not be mistaken. There is still much within the scope of American tastes for Mexican food. But it is clear that special care is taken here with simple things, and simple flavors are often less seductive than their cheese-and-sour cream-slathered gringo counterparts. This is actual food, made from scratch, in the store, from real ingredients. Like many of the working-class markets and restaurants mentioned above, Campos Market is accessible to tourists who go there only once, but is the kind of place that reveals itself fully upon multiple visits over time.
I saw a father and two young sons having chicken tacos, and I thought: What a great place to bring your kids. The vibrant meat case, the music, the friends and families sharing food, the Spanish and English being spoken.
And he fed them real food for two bucks apiece.
Email Alex Kiesig: scene@idahostatesman.com
