349 N. Main StreetI like to take the long way home from Benton Harbor.
It seems like whenever I get sent to Benton Harbor or St. Joseph, I’m there pretty much until the end of my shift. That was the case yesterday when I left town a little before 5:00.
I could have just hopped on I-94 and headed back to Kalamazoo but whenever I’m in that area, I like to stop at the Casey’s in Watervliet.
Growing up in Illinois, Casey’s was the place in every small town. No matter where you were, the directions you would get from locals (before the days of GPS) was always turn (left/right) at the Casey’s.
I planned on making my Casey’s stop on the way home to grab a slice of pizza and a Pepsi.
I also had other plans. I knew there was a food truck that usually parks at the Shell station across the street from the Casey’s. I was just going to go there but when I looked them up, I saw they actually have a market/restaurant in downtown Watervliet. Since I had time, I decided to go to the brick and mortar store.
La Chula Mexican Market is on North Main Street )(M-140) in downtown Watervliet between the railroad tracks and 1st Street. The market is part of a series of buildings butted up to each other that make up the main business district of the small city in Berrien County. The market takes up the first floor of the two story building right next to the Ace Hardware.
I was a little confused when I walked in the door. I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be counter service or table service. I kind of walked to the counter in the back but it didn’t really have a place to order. I started to walk around the side and the woman standing there asked what I was looking for. I said I just wanted some tacos and she handed me a small menu to look over.
I knew what I wanted but I’m glad I looked at the menu first. I ordered five steak tacos with corn tortillas, cilantro, and onion. You can also get the tacos American style with lettuce, cheese tomatoes, and sour cream or a combination of Mexican and American style with all of the toppings.
The cost was about $15 and I took a seat at one of the booths along the wall to wait for the tacos to be cooked and boxed up.
The restaurant is also a market which is not uncommon in small towns like Watervliet. There isn’t a huge selections of groceries or anything like that but there is a small area on one side of the building where you can get the staples of Mexican cooking.
It took less than ten minutes for a different woman to come out of the back with a bag of food. She asked if I wanted both a green and red hot sauce as she was wrapping up the box to go.
I waited until I got back to Kalamazoo to eat. Tacos are hard to eat in the car and I had to get home.
The five tacos took up the whole Styrofoam container. Each was double wrapped in corn tortillas and filled with a huge serving of tender steak and chopped onion and cilantro.
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I love tacos no matter what. It’s really a hard food to screw up. The steak meat is typically seasoned, tender, and juicy.
This meat was seasoned, tender and juicy but it also appears to have been marinated. There was a bit of a burnt orangish color to the steak and it gave off a little bit of heat. Tacos are always delicious but these went above that. It’s a small thing that just adds a depth of flavor and makes La Chula’s tacos stand out just a bit.
This shop in downtown Watervliet has been there about a decade but I almost never go any farther in to town than past the Casey’s. The last time I went this far on M-140 was probably when I stopped at Arclight Brewing on my way home from Chicago several years ago and I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was passing then.
The food truck near the highway is probably more convenient for most people but the Market downtown gives you more options and a place to sit and eat. I can’t wait to head west on 94 again because now I have to try the food truck.