LATINO MARKET HAS WHOLE ENCHILADA.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

NEWHALL - Within the walls of Tresierras Market lies the secret to a good tamale, the ingredients for a bowl of steaming hot menudo and the rich dark chocolates for mole sauce.

Inside, regular shoppers crowd the aisles in search of foods from home: fresh or prepacked chicharrones or pork rinds, sheets of banana leaves used as a wrap, paper-thin carne asada, plump sweet breads, red dried chiles for sauces, and, nopales or cactus for soups.

``This is one of the few stores in Santa Clarita where you can find foods from home,'' said Canyon Country resident Yolanda Romero, whose cart was filled to the brim with cans of corn and bags of crunchy chicharrones. Though a vegetarian, Romero cooks for her family and this New Year's Eve, they'll be feasting on tamales.

``I need my fruits and vegetables and they are inexpensive here,'' she said as she held up a ripe papaya, not found anywhere else for less than 89 cents a pound.

Nefe Loarca of El Salvador bought five boxes of masa or cornmeal to make pupusas, similar to stuffed tortillas, for a feast come New Year's Eve.

``They have everything,'' she said as she maneuvered her cart to the carniceria or meat department. ``You don't find this anywhere else.''

For nearly six decades, Tresierras has satisfied the Latino palate with items from or inspired by the homeland. The products there are purely Latino, such as the Bimbo brand loaves of bread. And they've kept up to date with the times, too.

Tamales come in three stages: For those who insist on homemade tamales - made from scratch - each ingredient from cornmeal to lard is available. For people with little time for food preparation, there are stuffed husks simply waiting to be cooked. And for the growing number of customers who are too busy to even approach a stove, the market offers hot tamales ready to serve.

The first of five stores was opened in 1944 in the city of San Fernando - by Francisco and Pilar Tresierras, who had settled in Santa Paula in the late 19th century and later moved on to the San Fernando Valley. Most of the Tresierras stores are in the Valley, but the Newhall market has become a hub of sorts for the Hispanic community.

``My grandmother was the one that pushed for it,'' said Arturo Tresierras, one of the present co-owners. ``The majority of the recipes are ... my grandmother's. Our big claim to fame is our meat department. All of our meat is prime beef. Our largest meat case has 12 to 16 butchers on call.''

Tresierras said the markets have benefited from the growing Latino communities, the popularity of salsa and tortillas across the nation, and lately from the ongoing strikes at supermarket chains.

``The Latino community has grown and they will always be our biggest customer base, but we're seeing interesting things,'' he said. ``When we first started it, we were a Latino store. But the California taste has come to want fresh carne asada. They want tortillas. We're seeing our customer base become more diversified.''

Like many other food chains, the store is seeing competition from big-box super discount stores such as Wal-Mart. Even so, people come to Tresierras for the personal attention, he said.

The company hopes to add three new stores next year when it celebrates its 60th anniversary, though Tresierras said he could not comment on where the stores will open.

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com