Ethnic eats in Manchester, NH

2008-02-27

Drive time
1 hrs. 30 mins./95 miles

Take I-95 south to Exit 2, onto Rte. 101 toward Exeter. Continue on Rte. 101 to I-93, merging onto I-93 toward Concord. Take Exit 8/Wellington Road, which becomes Bridge Street as it leads into downtown Manchester.

Touring tips

• Explore Manchester’s French-Canadian roots at the Franco-American Centre (www.francoamerican
centrenh.com), whose exhibits this year focus on the many cultural connections between NH and Quebec.

• Learn more about the waves of immigrants who came to work at the mills, at the Millyard Museum (www.manchesterhistoric.org).

You might not think of NH as a place to go for ethnic dining, and admittedly the ethnic dining scene — beyond Chinese and Italian — has, until recently, been somewhat limited. We’re not talking about fusion or eclectic or any other of the current culinary mix-and-match trends, all of which are alive and well in the Granite State. We’re talking about down-home ethnic: somebody’s soul food.

Among this lively city’s dozens of restaurants, ethnic rules. Many of them may be diner-plain, but there’s a fair share of candlelight and crystal ambiance, too. Visitors looking for authentic menus, culinary styles and even atmosphere will find it in Manchester.
French restaurants have long been de rigueur, but French Canadian food has been hard to find in NH restaurants, where even poutine is rare. Not so at Chez Vachon (603-625-9660) on Manchester’s West Side, where chef/owner Paul Normand serves hundreds of plates of poutine each week, made with proper tangy cheese curds. Other favorites just like M�m�re makes are the hearty tourtiere (pork pie) and savory pat� called cretons.

While French Canadians have long been a significant part of Manchester, south-of-the-border restaurants are easier to find. Family-owned and unpretentious El Mexicano (603-665-9299) serves dishes from the central highlands — not only authentic home-style cooking, but regional foods you won’t find in the average place.

Any travelers who have strayed beyond Dominican Republic resorts to taste the local cuisine will want more. They’ll find it at Don Quijote Restaurant (603-622-2246), small and family-owned, where you can get kid, fried plantains and some Cuban and Puerto Rican foods as well. Family-friendly Consuelo’s Taqueria on Amherst Street (www.consuelostaqueria.com, 603-622-1134) has a more standard menu of traditional Mexican favorites.

For more tastes of Havana, stop for lunch at Nachos Taqueria on Elm Street (603-669-9460), where you’ll meet local Latinos sipping tropical fruit smoothies. When you’re craving Jamaican flavors — ackee and saltfish or callaloo — there’s Caribbean Spice (www.mandmscaribbeanspice.com, 603-647-7423), with a pan-Carib approach that includes Haitian and others.

European ethnicities are most heavily represented by Italian, of course, but that’s not all.

Those longing for goulash, paprikash or delicate layers of dobostort will find them on Elm Street, at Lala’s Hungarian Pastry (603-647-7100), where Ladislau Lala’s American dream story has spun into far more than a pastry shop.

Although it’s only served on Wednesday evenings, Theo’s Restaurant (603-669-4678) offers a special menu of authentic German favorites, including jaeger schnitzel and the more common Wiener schnitzel. The Wild Rover (www.wildroverpub.com, 669-7722), although more a pub than a restaurant, serves Guinness lamb stew and authentic bangers & mashed.

A few Korean restaurants have sprung up, including Manchester’s tiny (and cash-only) Korean Place (603-622-9377), especially popular with Palace Theatre-goers. The newest representative on the Asian scene is Nepalese cuisine, at Caf� Momo (603-623-3733, www.cafemomonh.com). Ingredients and preparation are well described on the menu; think a bit like Indian, with spicy Tibetan influences.

— Contributed by Barbara Rogers