DES MOINES, Iowa — At Tullpa Restaurant, the sound of sizzle and the smell of different spices and oils make customers want to sit down and savor each bite.
"Oh, when you hear somebody say, 'I was here on Friday and I was craving the whole weekend for this again, to try this again'," owner Gloria Henriquez told Local 5. "It feels so good."
Henriquez calls this restaurant her baby, and it's bringing cuisine thousands of years in the making to the Des Moines metro.
"The ancient Incas to nowadays, then they had the Spanish come in," she said. "So, the food has two different turns in there."
Her team serves up food from Ecuador and Colombia.
Henriquez takes pride and care in designing this space to represent her culture. She wants to show how diverse and unique different Latin recipes are.
"Sometimes we have the same ingredients, but we put them in differently," Henriquez said.
Good food and good conversations is what Henriquez lives for — alongside sharing part of who she is.
Henriquez came to the United States in 1999, first living in New York.
"[I] moved to Iowa 5 years ago. For me, Iowa means a lot. It means peace. Tranquility you know? Growing," she said. "I feel a sense of community, like supporting each other."
She opened Tullpa Restaurant nine months ago, and had her first experience being a vendor at the Iowa Latino Heritage Festival.
"You showcase! Put everything out there, give me your best shot," she said.
And showcase she did. At the festival, she showed different ways of cooking across cultures.
"When they come to the festival, they can see what's the difference between Central America and South America," Henriquez said.
She told Local 5 she hopes more people will learn about the different cultures that call Iowa home. Because, even though she's not from Iowa, it is home.
"I'm somebody here," she said. "I've become someone you know and that means a lot."
Henriquez wants to change the perception of Latinos in Iowa by opening "doors for somebody else behind me."