Behind the Business: Marketita Oaxaqueña

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —Elvira Venegas Hernandez has loved cooking ever since she could remember.

“I love to be in the kitchen, they cannot take me out of there.”

Venegas started selling her tamales after a lot of people asked her to.

From there, requests started pouring in for her to make more traditional Mexican dishes. Her growing business eventually expanded to local events.

“We started going to more events and people asked ‘Where is your restaurant?” And I would say ‘We don’t have a restaurant we’re just at events.”

She says people at the events would ask her where the restaurant is located, but at the time she didn’t have one.

So, on December 9th, 2022 Hernandez and her family opened Marketita Oaxaqueña on Shoshone St East.

The menu features Mexican food from the state of Oaxaca like tlayuda and caldo de birria.

“Everything I use comes from Mexico. All of the ingredients are from Mexico and I prepare them.”

One of the reasons Venegas believes her restaurant is unique is because many of the ingredients used in these foods are straight from Mexico.

“It’s all made from scratch, everything has a start for example the Mole I put to cook the chiles all the ingredients, for the chocolate I cook the cocoa.”

She also prepares them herself, so the food tastes homemade and is fresh.

With a large population of Mexican families in our community, Venegas thinks it’s important to have this restaurant and market.

“So they can learn about Mexican culture and to show them how beautiful Mexico is and its taste.”

Marketita Oaxaqueña also serves as a market that sells the ingredients from Mexico, for people that want to use them to cook.

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