dsmWeekly - September 11, 2024

Try ceviche at Panka Peruvian Restaurant on Ingersoll Avenue or tuck into one of their special lunch or dinner menus during Iowa Latino Restaurant Week. (Photo: Duane Tinkey)

FOOD & DINING

Buen provecho! Iowa Latino Restaurant Week celebrates culture and connection
Writer: Michael Morain

Take note, hungry readers: It’s tacu tacu time.

The inaugural Iowa Latino Restaurant Week starts today and runs through next Saturday, Sept. 21, at 22 eateries in Greater Des Moines and a couple more farther afield. The idea is to entice Iowans to try some south-of-the-border fare besides tacos — not only tacu tacu, but pozole, llapingachos and other specialties your high school Spanish textbook probably never mentioned.

(So what are those dishes, you ask? Keep on reading. We won’t leave you hanging.)

Local restaurant owners in the newly formed Iowa Latino Hospitality Council cooked up the 11-day foodie fiesta to showcase the diversity of cuisines from Central and South America, as well as various regions in Mexico. Those flavors are available year-round at Iowa’s Latino restaurants, which account for about 10% of all restaurants across the state.

The restaurateurs schedule their big week to lead into the Iowa Latino Heritage Festival (Sept. 21-22 in Western Gateway Park) and National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 through Oct. 15).

“We want to showcase our culture, not just through music and dance but through food, too,” organizer Gloria Henriquez said.

She opened the Peruvian and pan-Andean restaurant Tullpa on Merle Hay Road in 2022, four years after she and her mother moved here from Peru to be closer to their family. “No regrets,” Henriquez said. “Iowa’s been pretty good to me.”

So will Iowa be good to its Latino restaurants this week? “We’ll talk with the other restaurant owners to see if there’s any increase in traffic,” she said. “It’s a new event, so it might take some time, but we’ll keep doing it.”

For starters, she recommends Tullpa’s tacu tacu, a savory mix of rice and beans pressed into a loose cake, often served with a lomo saltado, a beef and veggie stir-fry.

For other Peruvian dishes including ceviche, check out Panka Peruvian Restaurant on Ingersoll Avenue. You can find pozole, a hearty Mexican soup with meat and hominy, at El Fogon in West Des Moines. Or try llapingachos, stuffed potato patties from Ecuador, at Mi Patria, also in West Des Moines.

The Iowa Latino Hospitality Council’s website has a complete list of participating restaurants, with detailed menus for lunch (two for $25) and dinner (two for $50).

Max Wellman and friends star in this season's Noce cabaret. (Photo: Noce)

BEST BET

At Noce, 'Voix de Ville' serves up vaudeville

Ready for some good old razzle-dazzle? This Friday, the little jazz club on Walnut Street assembles a few city voices for a classic cabaret called “Voix de Ville,” complete with singers, dancers, actors, a 10-piece band and a gaggle of drag queens for good measure. The set list promises to sample a whole century of hits, from Cole Porter right on up to Beyonce and Lizzo.

The weekly series, at 7 p.m. each Friday through Oct. 18, will differ each time, but guests can expect to see a mix of professional talent from Noce impresario Max Wellman, singer Napoleon Douglas, bandleader Jason Danielson, Ballet Des Moines dancers Amelia and Logan Hillman, drag queens Tyona Diamond and Domita Sanchez, and plenty more.

The Week Ahead

Kitchen Collage’s 25th Birthday (4-7 p.m. Thursday): The beloved East Village shop celebrates a quarter-century of business with appetizers, desserts and adult beverages. Stop in to party like it’s 1999.

“Jersey Boys” (opening Friday, with shows at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday): Frankie Valli may have the world’s most famous falsetto, but his scrappy rise to fame with the Four Seasons is a true story. See it play out at the Des Moines Playhouse now through Sept. 29.

“The Politics of Worthiness” (5-8 p.m. Friday): Head to Moberg Gallery during a reception to open a new show by Teo Nguyen, whose tranquil landscape paintings are inspired by his native Vietnam and invite viewers to “contemplate, reflect and imagine a difference-friendly world.”

I-Cubs season closer (1:08 p.m. Sunday): Catch the last home game of the season at Principal Park, against those pesky, no-good Louisville Bats.

Fall Renaissance Faire (10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday): The freewheeling faire (with an olde-time “e”) wraps up this weekend at Sleepy Hollow, complete with feasting and general merriment. Check their website to see the lineup of performances.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (7:30 p.m. Friday): After six decades, the Grammy-winning country and roots band behind “Mr. Bojangles,” “Fishin’ in the Dark” and “An American Dream” is on a farewell tour, with a stop at Hoyt Sherman Place.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” in concert (6:30 p.m. Friday): A live orchestra plays Jeremy Zuckerman’s memorable score during a special screening of highlights from the popular animated series at the Des Moines Civic Center.

Black Iowa Outdoors founder Monica Goodlett leads hikes across Central Iowa, including Gray’s Lake. (Photo: Craig Farley)

PEOPLE & COMMUNITY

Get outside and chase the daylight

Writer: Mathany Ahmed

Monica Goodlett fell in love with hiking on the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia.

At the time, the registered nurse from Iowa had taken a position in nearby Charleston, hoping to break out of a rut.

“Seeing that incredible view after going through all that sparked everything for me,” she said.

The call of the wild followed Goodlett when she moved back to Iowa in 2022. She founded Black Iowa Outdoors earlier this year to share her love for hiking with other local Black and brown Americans. Each month, she leads a group of up to 30 hikers of all levels along the trails and into the woods in Central Iowa.

She hopes the group will help her community reconnect with nature and get some exercise. “There were other hiking groups, but they didn’t quite fit,” she said. “I wanted to be among other African Americans and also inspire them to get outdoors.”

Goodlett also uses the hikes to promote mental health in the Black community, which is one of her passions. She is an ambassador for the statewide “Make It OK” initiative. “It’s not always about medicine or other coping mechanisms,” she said. “Just getting out there and walking can give us purpose.”

Group member Craig Farley said taking his children on group hikes reminds him of his early years hiking with his dad.

Farley has watched his daughter Siana, a soft-spoken 14-year-old, flourish during the hikes. He recalled watching her overcome her nerves during a mid-hike sharing session, to share an observation that surprised him. “I’m just excited to spend time with my dad,” she told the group.

“It was a really good moment,” Farley said. “Those are the opportunities this group creates.”