Local Flavor: La Tropicana Market
By Pamela Lowney
STLtoday.com Staff Writer
11/26/2001 12:00 AM

A selection of vegetables available at La Tropicana
(Pamela Lowney/STLtoday.com) 
The syncopation of Latin music and the sounds of spoken Spanish conducts the curious passerby through a bustle
of piñatas, guava paste, and the largest selection of fresh peppers in town. Here, in the aisles of La
Tropicana, snack foods take on new life. Mini-pretzels? Who needs 'em? Not when you've got carrow chips,
plantain strips and cassava chips. And to wash them down, try the horchata, a deliciously sweet Mexican rice
drink.

La Tropicana has been St. Louis' Latin market-away-from-home since 1973, providing products for "just about
every ethnic group that speaks Spanish." The current proprietors, the Trabanco family, came to the U.S. from
Cuba via Mexico City to take over the store's operation in 1981. Today the family's son, Luis, oversees the
business.

For the local ethnic community, La Tropicana is not just where you go to buy food and household products. It's
also where you go for a good dose of nostalgia. "We try to find the brands that people are accustomed to, the
brands that they grew up with," says Luis. "It just can't be any type of soda. It has to be a specific kind."

Multiply this task by the culinary traditions of Mexico, Peru, Spain, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and so
on, and you start to get a sense of just how big a task being a Pan-American market really is.

The store's nostalgia trade becomes particularly important around the holidays, when the demand for specific
items is at its highest. Whether it is turron (a sweet almond paste) for its Spanish customers, or the banana
leaves required to make Venezuelan hallacas (a dish akin to a gigantic Mexican tamale), Luis knows that these
items are vital to each culture's celebration, "no matter how many generations you are here."

"At Christmas, people become almost ballistic if you don't have a particular product, because you are talking
about Christmas dinner," says Luis. "And it's like 'what do you mean you don't have this. It is not going to
be Christmas without it.'"

Keeping customers happy frequently leads the Trabancos on a "scavenger hunt for products." One item essential
to Puerto Rican cuisine — a type of short grain rice sold under the brand name, Sello Rojo — proved
particularly hard to find.

Luis started his search with a shot-in-the-dark call to a grocery store in Puerto Rico. Following a series of
leads to a rice mill, a rice packer, and a sales rep who would've gladly exported the rice if only he had U.S.
distribution rights, Luis found himself talking to the U.S. Rice Council in Los Angeles, CA.

Turns out the rice Luis wanted comes from California where it's grown especially for the Puerto Rican market.
A call to its domestic packer connected him to a distributor, who just so happened to be across the river in
Illinois. "I spent about eight hours on the phone," says Luis. "It was quite an adventure."

Given the inherent instability of the import business, finding a domestic or foreign distributor for a
particular product doesn't always mean the item is permanently secured. "Sometimes you'll call a number four
times to place an order," Luis' mom says. "And then on the fifth time, the line'll be disconnected. You have
to start all over."

A large motivation for the Trabanco's persistence however is the memory of their cultural isolation when they
first moved to St. Louis in the early '70s. At the time, Luis recalls being one of two Spanish surnames in the
Parkway School District. Sundays often found the family commuting from their West County home to one of the
area's only Mexican restaurants in Collinsville.

Today Luis is pleased with the region's growing diversity. In addition to Delmar, Cherokee, and Grand, Luis
points to St Charles Rock Road in St. Ann as a hotbed of new activity. As the "granddaddy for everybody," La
Tropicana serves as an invaluable resource for many of these new businesses, providing guidance through the
twists and turns of government regulations.

This Pan-American tradition of community support carries over into the store as well. For many of its
customers, La Tropicana offers the feel of a town square. "You come in here with a recipe and I'll explain how
to do it. If I don't know, I'll call somebody," Luis says. "There are always ideas floating back and forth,
even among customers. Somebody overhears something and somebody will jump in and say 'Hey, try it this way.'"

Given this lively crossroad atmosphere, Luis says he is constantly learning about other countries' customs,
like the Columbian habit of putting chunks of cheese in their coffee. This learning curve even applies to the
nuances of the Spanish language itself, which has sixteen different ways to say the word, "straw," depending
on your country of origin. "A customer will ask for something and I'll say no I don't have that," says Luis.
"But then they see it and say, 'Yes, yes you do.'"


The homemade offerings of the deli counter also reflect the store's overall diversity. Behind the glass sits
Panamanian carimañolas (cassava dough pastries stuffed with meat and fried), Spanish empanadas, and Mexican
mole, among other things. 


A recent innovation by the kitchen perhaps bests captures the market's spirit of openness. Over the last eight
years or so, the Southside neighborhood in which La Tropicana sits has seen a large influx of Albanians and
Bosnians. As part of the store's response, the deli now offers a traditional Albanian eggplant dish with, of
course, a distinct Pan-American flair.

True to the recipe's origins, slices of eggplant are stuffed with sauteed leek, garlic and beef, and covered
by paper-thin slices of tomato and lemon. Yet, under La Tropicana's adroit touch, Cuban cheese and Mexican
chilli relleno have replaced the dish's feta and tomato sauce. Baked to perfection, the results are said to be
sublime.

La Tropicana. 5001 Lindenwood Ave. St. Louis. 314-353-7328.
Store hours: 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.