Guatemalan and Chiapan cultures combine to form the flavorsome Azteca Market in Atascadero 

Cultural fusion at Azteca Market is evident even before you read the menu or taste the food.

A blue and white Guatemalan flag hangs from the ceiling of the freshly minted Atascadero restaurant. It rests against rows and rows of papel picado—the colorful Mexican bunting that comes in a rainbow mix of purple, pink, red, orange, green, and blue. The two styles of decoration symbolize the backgrounds of Azteca Market's owners: Guatemalan Carolina Fuentes and her husband, Gabriel Zenteno, who's from Chiapas, Mexico.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Azteca Market
• NATION'S PRIDE Azteca Market serves Guatemala's national dish pepián—chicken stewed in red sauce—throughout the year. It comes with white rice, steamed vegetables, and tortillas.

"The market came from him. He had a small market in Chiapas," Fuentes said of Zenteno. "I had the idea about the restaurant, and he was like, 'Let's combine both things!'"

The business' branding is telling. The name Azteca Market is an homage to Mexico while its logo of a resplendent quetzal flies proud as Guatemala's national bird.

Counters of toys split the store into two halves. One part serves as the market containing shelves and racks stocked with bottles of hot sauce, an assortment of dried chilies, jars of chamoy, cans of chipotle in adobo sauce, jars of chicken bouillon powder, boxes of sweets like de la Rosa Marzipan and Mamut, and even clothes.

The other half is where the husband-and-wife duo doles out Guatemalan Mexican food with the help of their daughters Amanda and Hilary Morales.

Raised in Guatemala City, Fuentes is a "city girl" who made Atascadero her home 25 years ago. Though she lives in a county with a smorgasbord of Mexican restaurants, she found a gap when it came to Guatemalan delicacies. Azteca Market is her way of introducing the community to an unfamiliar cuisine by fusing it with a familiar one.

Still, there are a few major differences between Guatemalan and Mexican cooking.

"We don't eat spicy," Fuentes said with a laugh. "We combine Mayan food with Spanish food."

Fuentes' daughter Amanda told New Times that Guatemalan food focuses on stews.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Azteca Market
• PUPUSA PUNCH Dig into a platter of fresh and hot cheesy pupusas that can include beans, pork, jalapeños, or an upcoming addition of an edible South American flower called loroco.

"The ingredients are simple, but they focus on the spices and herbs," she said. "When my mom cooks, she uses different types of chilies—no seeds—to make one sauce."

Heavy hitters in Guatemalan recipes include sesame seeds, chile guajillo, chile ancho, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, vinegar, and ginger root.

A lot of these ingredients feature in the country's national dish: pepián, which is chicken stewed in a rich red sauce packed with green beans, carrots, and chayote squash.

"Many years ago, before the Spanish people conquered my land, pepián was only for Mayan kings and queens," Fuentes said. "When the Spanish people came, they said, 'Pepián is for everyone.'"

Azteca Market offers piping hot pepián throughout the year with a side of rice and handmade tortillas. This holiday season, the pepián plate is available as a combo that comes with a cup of a Guatemalan fruit punch called ponche.

While many in San Luis Obispo County are being introduced to Guatemalan food through Azteca Market, it appears to be no stranger to some other nationalities. Fuentes recalled a German woman who ordered a Guatemalan stew with chicken in cream sauce. It reminded the customer of geschnetzeltes.

"She said, 'This is from Germany! We eat the same thing in Germany,'" Fuentes said. "For me, it was a huge surprise. I was all, 'Oh, look at that!'"

Another favorite Azteca Market creation is the hilachas—shredded beef stewed in a lightly spiced but vibrant red sauce that comes with potatoes and carrots. The beef is tender and the broth-like sauce packs a flavorful punch. It's perfect with the warm, freshly made tortillas that Fuentes makes, and it's even better with rice. Pair the hilachas with a refreshing glass of Guatemalan horchata, which is creamier and more generously spiced than the Mexican variety.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Azteca Market
• BEEFED UP The product of both Guatemalan and Chiapan cooking, Azteca Market's hilachas is a warming shredded beef stew with potatoes and carrots that comes with Mexican rice and refried black beans

Hilachas may be Guatemalan but in Azteca Market, Fuentes' husband Zenteno includes his own secret ingredients to bump up the flavor.

"She puts a lot of Guatemalan flavors into the hilachas but certain spices she adds reminds me of traditional Chiapas food," he said.

Zenteno's influence features on the menu through the recipes from his family. His late mother's version of Mexican tamales sold out within the day at Azteca Market, and her salsas are available in four different forms—mild, green molcajete, red molcajete, and spicy peanut.

"A lot of people tell us they've never had salsas like that, which is funny to us because it's so traditional to us and where he's [Zenteno] from," Amanda said. "They buy it in ounces from us and give it to family members as gifts."

Zenteno also devised the hefty El Kilo Burrito, which weighs 2 pounds and the family considers it to be one of the largest sold across the county. Unlike Fuentes' Guatemalan upbringing, Zenteno grew up craving spice. While Azteca Market's Guatemalan food isn't fiery, the family serves the spiciest salsa called the Crybaby in his honor.

"My husband eats a lot of habaneros. So, I made that salsa and asked him to try it," Fuentes said. "He said, 'Oh, I don't think it'll be all that spicy.' But when he tried it, he was sweating and crying. So, we called him a crybaby and he said, 'That's the perfect name for it!'"

The family has finally hit its stride after opening Azteca Market this June. They're gearing to plate up more specialty dishes like fried plantain stuffed with black bean paste or Nutella, a vegetarian tostada plate featuring beets and cabbage, pupusas filled with cheese and an edible South American flower called loroco, and Guatemalan tamales.

"Mexican tamales use corn husks and use green and red salsas. They're also small," Fuentes said. "In Guatemala, they are big, and we use banana leaves."

She added that almost every element in Azteca Market—from the masa incorporated in the tortillas to the Guatemalan-style pickled slaw called curtido—is prepared fresh by her and Zenteno.

Fuentes is adamant to not use ingredients, especially fruits and vegetables, from a can. She takes pride in using fresh and whole produce—that's how her grandmother taught her to cook.

"I make food with love," she said. "So many clients tell me, 'I was having a bad day, but I came here, ate your food, and will go home happy.' That's exactly what I want for everybody."

Fuentes' warm, maternal side also shines in her customer service.

"She's a traditional Guatemalan mom, too," Amanda said with a laugh. "If you're a regular, she'll be all, 'I've put an extra tortilla for you! I've put an extra egg! Try my salsas!' and she'll give them 10." Δ

Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal will take a pepián plate for here and a hilachas platter to go. Send white rice to [email protected].