STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Sandra Castillo’s mother sent her seven children to America one by one, using money she made from selling yucca—a cassava-or potato-like plant—on the streets of El Salvador.
When she was certain they were safe from the violence in Central America’s smallest and most densely populated country, she joined them in Los Angeles.
Castillo inherited her mother’s love of cooking, selling hamburgers and, later, Mexican food from a food truck in Los Angeles for 20 years.
But, when gang violence became too much in the City of Angels, she and her husband Jose followed a family friend to Nampa, then Hailey.
It was the Wood River Valley’s gain, as Sandra introduced Salvadoran cuisine to a valley more familiar with Mexican tacos and enchiladas.
Castillo’s Lago Azul restaurant in Hailey will celebrate its 15th anniversary from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, with a variety of half-price specials and $1.25 tacos—what they cost 15 years ago.
“When I cook, I think as if I’m cooking for me. If I love it, others will love it, too,” said Castillo.
Castillo cut her teeth on pupusas—El Salvador’s national dish made of handmade corn tortillas and stuffed with a soft Salvadoran cheese similar to mozzarella, refried beans and pork.
But the country of her childhood was poor and volatile, with coups, revolts and civic unrest culminating in the Salvadoran Civil War from 1979 to 1992. Civilians disappeared, never to be heard from again. And more than 800 civilians—half of them children—were killed in one massacre alone.
Even today, the country has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with gangs running amok.
Sandra was 15 when she left her homeland to move to Los Angeles in 1976. There she met Jose whose well-to-do family had left El Salvador for Los Angeles at the same time.
Jose worked as a mechanic in Los Angeles, while Sandra learned to cook. At home her mother taught her to cook Salvadoran foods like fried yucca, fried plantain, pan con pollo—a sandwich featuring chicken marinated in Salvadoran spices—and caldo de res, a soup featuring bone-in beef.
“I like to cook everything. I make a refried bean soup with pork and vegetables that must be eaten the day you make it,” she said.
But Los Angeles, too, became increasingly dangerous as gangs began running the streets peppering the air with the sounds of gunfire.
“When I get my three kids, I see California was bad. I say, ‘No. That’s not how I want my kids to grow up,’ ” Sandra recalled.
So, the Castillos moved to Nampa in 1994. And, as its population grew, they relocated to the Wood River Valley in 2000. They opened a Mexican store in Bellevue where Sandra sold her pupusas during weekends.
They proved so popular that she and her husband agreed to take over a Mexican restaurant in the heart of Hailey two years later.
The restaurant was not an overnight success. The previous restaurant had not been well liked, said Sandra’s son Chris Castillo. And, since the family did not change the restaurant’s name, it took a year before townspeople realized that there was a new cook and a new menu.
Eventually, Sandra won diners over with her lengthy menu of authentic Mexican and Salvadoran food, including Mulitas and Tinga Tacos—shredded chicken and onions spiked with chipotle inside a deep-fried taco that’s topped with veggies.
Everything is made from scratch.
“I went to a Mexican restaurant in Idaho Falls and asked for a taco salad. It wasn’t good,” Sandra recounted. “I said, ‘No, this is not the Mexican food I want to serve.’ I was thinking: I have to cook better for my customers.”
Today, Sandra runs the restaurant with the help of her husband Jose, sons Richard and Chris, daughters-in-law Juanita and Estefania and sister Lupita Sanchez.
They serve up dishes from a multi-paged menu, including Arachera steak garnished with grilled onions, Mexican cheese, guacamole, tomatoes and lettuce; Lengua Encebolla, a tender beef tongue served with sauteed onions; Cielo, Mar y Tierra, grilled strips of chicken, beef and shrimp flavored with cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos and served in a sizzling hot skillet, and a Fiesta Salvadorena plate brimming with pupusas, yucca fries, fried plantain and other Central American foods.
They also serve a wide array of traditional Mexican foods, such as Chimichanga, Chorizo Burritos, Chile Rellenos, Enchilada Pollo Mole and fish burritos.
Customers come from Boise, Pocatello and other towns just to eat at Lago Azul. One local woman always stops in on her birthday on Dec. 27, ordering a huge array of dishes to take home for her birthday celebration. Others have been known to stop by the restaurant enroute from private jet to their homes in sun Valley and Ketchum to pick up her mole.
And, then, there are those who come looking to eat whatever Sandra wants to serve them, no questions asked. Sometimes it’s on the menu. Many times, it’s a special dish not on the menu, such as seafood fried rice.
“We call it ‘Mama’s Menu,’” said Chris.
IF YOU GO
Lago Azul is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. The restaurant is located at 14 West Croy St., across from the Hailey Public Library.