Food Stuff

Sacramento’s Broadway does not offer bright marquees or cutting- edge theatre, but the crosstown street does feature interesting performances all the same. A show that plays on an irregular schedule is the manufacture of rainbow fruit bars (paletas) in the Los Jarritos Mexican restaurant. Watch through a window along the restaurant’s back wall. The paleta maker mixes up a batch of sweet fruity liquid (tropical flavors include lime, tamarind, hibiscus, pineapple, banana and coconut), then pours the mixture into a large metal mold that makes several dozen bars. The mold then is placed in a long, stainless steel trough that has some kind of freezing liquid flowing through it. After a few minutes the worker inserts a wooden stick into each of the semi-frozen bars, then pops the bars out of the mold. The bars cost $1 each or $7.50 a dozen, but the Broadway show is free. 2509 Broadway, 455-7911.