1440 Des Moines Street
This place is just off 235, between SE 14th and SE 15th. I almost always stop here as part of my food circuit in Des Moines, usually last. Apart from the great products there, I like the feeling that I’ve stepped out of the familiar American supermarkets of Iowa, and into a store that could be in the middle of Mexico. It’s a fairly large store that has everything the Latino community in Des Moines could want, from the wall of dried peppers, to the wide variety of peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes, limes, epazote, cilantro, cactus, chayote, from the aisles with beans, rice, Mexican canned goods and salsas, to the amazing butcher counter, that has a whole section of pork and chicken roasting, every kind of beef part you can imagine, and a great variety of seafood (today they had fresh octopus, shrimp, whole tilapia, and crab). I like this part, because it helps a lot to speak Spanish. I don’t, really, so it’s a bit of a challenge, which is always a thrill to the language teacher in me. There is probably a dozen kinds of Mexican and 
Central American crema–which is similar to creme fraiche, and every kind of Mexican cheese you can imagine. And tortillas: corn and flour, fresh and cheap, and corn masa for tamales (and the corn husks you need to make them), not to mention all the utensils you might want to make authentic Mexican food. And once in a while, there’s a boy selling tamales out of a cooler at the door. In the summer, the parking lot has a taco truck outside. La Tapatia is always worth a stop. If I were listing the top ten reasons I love Des Moines, La Tapatia and Los Laureles, and the Latino community that brought them here would be towards the top.
FoodIowa 
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