Having lived in the ‘Couv for about 10 years, I know what it’s like to have Portland-envy. Where do you go for a Broadway show? Portland. Where do you go for an NBA game? Portland. Where do you go for a great meal? Portland. Trying to get friends from Portland to cross the river might as well be asking them to vacation in Baghdad.

However, if there’s one thing the outlying areas and the ‘burbs have over Portland, it’s ethnic and cheap eats. For Vancouver, the best street to eat over the last decade has been Fourth Plain. I used to travel across town just for Thai Little Home, which still has some of the best simple Thai food in PDX. Later, I made regular trips for Mexican stews at Tortilleria y Tienda de Leon, whose sign still remains, though the store changed hands over two years ago. Now, it’s handmade tortillas, Mexican seafood, and Peruvian chicken that have me hooked. Here are four of my favorites:

Taqueria Colima
2215 Fairmount Rd. (2900 E Fourth Plain)
Vancouver, WA 98661
360.699.2398

Ah, Taqueria Colima, you had me at “tortillas hecho a mano”. I’m willing to try any Mexican restaurant with enough care and pride to press and griddle their own tortillas. There’s been an explosion of taquerias on Fourth Plain since I first visited them five years ago, but they still make delicate and lightly charred tortillas, filling them with delectable meats.

Try the carne asada, crispy little bits of well-seasoned steak, or al pastor, pork marinated in a sweet and tangy red chile sauce. Taqueria Colima uses a hot griddle, browning their taco meats nicely while keeping them juicy.

Brightly-colored, hand-written signs on the front of the counter announce daily and weekly specials. Go on the weekend and enjoy a ginormous bowl of soup, such as menudo (tripe soup), caldo de res (beef soup), or birria en caldo (goat soup).

4 Caminos
3503 E Fourth Plain Blvd
Vancouver, WA 98661
360.695.1797

Most people are happy being greeted with a hearty “Hola, Amigo!” at a Mexican restaurant. Me? I’ll take being greeted by the taco stand out front of 4 Caminos with its vertical spit of marinated sliced pork and sizzling bits of meat. The luscious refried beans that arrive with the chips and salsa is a pretty nice “hello”, too.

You can get taco or enchilada combo platters here, just as you can at your standard Mexican-American restaurant. But the items that make this spot worth driving across town for are the tacos listed in the window — both common items like carne asada and al pastor, but also less-common items like buche, chitterlings chopped up and pan-fried leaving them crisp and juicy.

The mariscos, Mexican seafood dishes, can be quite good as well. Their coctel de camaron — shrimp, avocados, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, and celery in a tomato-based broth with a hint of orange — is refreshing and surprisingly addictive.
Even better is the camarones ahogados, shrimp “drowned” in lemon juice and pureed jalapeno, served with cucumber, onion, tomato, and avocado.

Morelia Mexican Grill
5930 E Fourth Plain Blvd
Vancouver, WA 98661
360.213.1004

If you can’t afford a trip to Mexico, try visiting Morelia Mexican Grill on a Sunday afternoon instead. The restaurant is half full of families gathered around tables laughing and eating. The other half of the restaurant is filled with men drinking bottles of beer that come a bucket at a time, passing the karaoke mic, challenging each other to sing Mexican ballads over the blaring speakers while girls look on and giggle.

As with Taqueria Colima, tortillas are handmade here. But instead of tacos, try the huarache, a sandal-sized tortilla topped with beans and your choice of meat. Think of it as a Mexican pizza that you eat with a knife and fork.

They also have several seafood items available, but the best dish, the sarandeado, isn’t on the menu. It’s worth asking for. Approximately a dozen whole shrimp are butterflied and slathered with a fiery housemade salsa, then grilled. They come beautifully presented in a molcajete, a large stone mortar, with a side of red onions and cucumbers. The aguachile, similar to the camarones ahogados, is also quite good, as is the tostada de ceviche, which isn’t on the menu either, though it is on a poster.

Dakara’s Woodfire Restaurant
4400 E Fourth Plain Blvd
Vancouver, WA 98661
360.694.8880

Open less than two months, this Peruvian restaurant specializing in rotisserie chicken has already changed its name. Hopefully, they’ll continue to serve the same delicious delicacies.

Formerly, Riconsito Peruano, the heart of the restaurant is the hearth in its center: chickens turning slowly in front of a wood fire, basting in a mix of marinade and their own juices. With such a crisp and flavorful skin, the chickens are enjoyable plain, but the housemade green and orange salsas make the birds even better.

Beyond the rotisserie chickens, the Peruvian dishes may seem unfamiliar. The restaurant includes several American dishes on their menu for the unadventurous. However, I encourage you to explore the Peruvian options. The aji de gallina, for example, may be difficult to pronounce, but it’s a simple and accessible dish: chicken stewed in a creamy, mild yellow chile sauce served with rice.

Don’t forget to try an Inca Kola while you’re there. The bubblegum-flavored pop is a national obsession in Peru and difficult to find in Portland or Vancouver.

Nick Zukin is a food writer and restaurant owner. More of his reviews can be found at www.extramsg.com.