Columbus has opportunities for everyone to diversify everyday eating through places that mix the quick hotdog stand with the taste of a foreign land. El Manantial Móvil Restaurant is a food venue on wheels stationed on East Main Street just east of South Hamilton Road (next to the Marathon gas station). This unconventional food venue has el sazón Latino — the Latin flavor — as Francis Cortes, owner and cook described it.
In this metal container of flavor, the cook has a story like any other immigrant, but unlike many, she holds the seasoning of her culture at her fingertips — a gift for preparing the different Latin American meals that she wants to share with Columbus, Ohio.
It has been about two months since Francis Cortes opened her food stand. Cortes’ deep roots in her faith led her to choose the name, El Manantial, meaning “The Spring,” after conversing with her parish priest. He brought it to her attention that a spring is known as a place where people from all walks of life gather to nourish their bodies. She believed this meeting place could be embodied in her small food stand, hand-built by her husband, where the meals are prepared in front of you in a quick and efficient manner.
Though it is an odd location to find such flavorful meals, this food haven on wheels is great for a grab-and-go lunch or dinner and on the way folks could get their tires filled with air or fill their gas tank with fuel while it is still cheap. If you find yourself without a set of wheels, the # 2 COTA bus on High Street connects to the #1 Cleveland and stops about fifteen steps away form the food stand. Perhaps the weather may be a bit of an inconvenience once winter sets in with all its fury, but Cortes encourages her customers to call her ahead of time so she may have meals hot and ready to go when one gets there. She can also take larger specialty orders, but these most definitely have to be done ahead of time.
Francis Cortes is a Latin American immigrant who has been in the food business since her days in Colombia cooking for weddings more than 17 years ago. Her experience is present within every bite of the Colombian tamal ($5), a maize dough cocoon filled with chicken stew with traces of shredded chicken breast, carrots and potatoes; in the Venezuelan arepa ($3), a thick maize tortilla-like product with cheese in the middle that melts when taken apart for a first bite; in the Sandwich Cubano ($6.50), made with a bread specially made for Cortes, pork, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and onion — a dish most asked for and liked by many Americans and Latin Americans alike; and in the Papa rellena ($3), made from fresh mashed potatoes rolled into a small ball, deep fried, then sliced in the middle and filled with stewed shredded beef with condiments and sour cream — a lip-licking “ball of carbs” worth the calories.
Though this food establishment is new, the tastes and smells found in El Manantial make the plans to set up a restaurant not only a dream underway but a successful reality. |
