Frosty paletas from El Paraiso: Day glo cantaloupe is front and center. Bright green pickle is to the left, mango with chile to the right--and that's only the beginning.
101, 102, 103, 107….
Once the temperature passes 100, it doesn’t matter how hot it gets. Whatever the thermometer reads, the heat is simply horrific. So brain-liquefying that nothing could drag me from my Freon-chilled lair, unless….
...as Sylvia says, paradise is within reach. El Paraiso Original, that is.
Oh the sacrifices I make. First, an 18-minute drive across town, clutching the searing steering wheel while hellish flames dance in my fevered brain. Then staggering across the desert, nearly felled by the blinding glare of the sand—oh, I mean the parking lot—and there it is. Behind the cartoonish Garden of Eden mural—jaunty monkeys climbing flouncy palm trees—lies a wonderland of frosty delights.
The freezers, you see, are filled with thousands of paletas, Mexican ice pops in lurid colors and fruity flavors that will make your weary palate dance with joy. El Paraiso has it all down. You can go creamy with tropical coconut and luscious pina colada. There’s cappuccino, naturally, but strawberry with cream is this summer’s most popular pop.
If you’re truly parched, crimson watermelon studded with real seeds or day-glo orange cantaloupe will quench your thirst. But if pure fruit is too demure, go wild with pineapple, mango or sour tamarind spiked with incendiary red chile. There’s something crazy about a frozen pop that’s so hot it sears your tongue.
For thrill-seekers there’s pickle—yes, really!—electric green pickle juice, so salty and vinegary, with flecks of actual pickles floating in the ice. Lucas, whoever he is, has his own namesake paleta, an oddly addictive mouthful of frozen salt, chile and, um, citric acid.
I love them all, but none more than pale brown horchata, the creamy but chalky Mexican rice drink pumped up with spoonfuls of bittersweet cinammon, frozen on a stick. Licking is better than drinking any day!
You can buy one paleta, or a dozen. But most everyone walks out with boxes of 50 packed in dry ice. (Only 38 cents apiece!)
Where are they going? Home, of course. To have a paleta party. Just stick those frozen bits of deliciousness into a pile of ice, invite the neighbors and dive in.
What else would you do when it’s 104?
El Paraiso Original, 1934 Fredericksburg Road, San Antonio, Texas 78201. 210/737-8101. 10 AM to 8 PM.
