"There's no there there." Oh, shut up already, Gertrude Stein.

Those of us who live in Oakland have glimpsed its hidden treasures. We know there's a whole lot of there to be found there for those who seek it. We know that it's more than just a last resort when you can't find or afford a place in The City. We choose to live here and love it and no matter how proud we are of our home, we would never dare to capitalize its article or common noun in prose.

It is in that spirit that I introduce the HairyAlien Oakland A-List, a most definitely not regular column that will honor the unique and interesting places I stumble upon in my ongoing exploration of Oaktown. Yes, even though I've lived here for more than five years, I still get lost, I still marvel at how different the world can be ten blocks away, I still make at least four U-turns on the way to my favorite Indian restaurant downtown -- and I find new places along the way almost every time. This column will highlight those places: the new and the new to me, the underappreciated holes in the wall and the old locals' favorites.

And now, I give you the first inductee to the Oakland A-List:

La Borinqueña

About a week ago, I finished work a little early and decided to spend the afternoon exploring the "Old Downtown" part of my city, an area that retains quaint turn-of-the-century buildings and businesses but has somehow languished for many years in a sort of economic holding pattern: Many storefronts have been empty for years, there's almost always handy parking within a half block of your destination, restaurants and sidewalks are bumpin' during the workaday lunch and then so quiet after hours that you expect tumbleweeds to go rolling by.

Hidden within this maze of vacant blocks are some real treasures, many of them establishments that have weathered Oakland's boom times and bust times and are still quietly toiling away in their little corner of the business graveyard. One of them is La Borinqueña, a self-described tamale shop and "Mexi-catessen" occupying a diminutive storefront across the street from the city jail and freeway overpass. The shop has been in operation since the '40s, albeit at several different locations along the way, and is family owned and operated to this day.

I have yet to try any of the tamales or other taqueria-style goodies offered in the Mexi-catessen part of the shop, but the teeny-tiny grocery offers deliciously thick and soft homemade tortillas, dried jamaica flowers and Mexican herbs, and a wide array of dried chiles, including the elusive pasilla oaxaqueña. This makes me so happy. Now I can make deliciously smoky-hot salsa pasilla any old time I want, even when the stockpile of chiles I brought back with me from Mexico runs out.

The shop also offers a variety of pan dulce and other sweets and a small section of Mexican imports, including molcajetes, ceramics, comales, and tortilla presses.

La Borinqueña
582 7th Street
Oakland
510/444-9954
Open Monday through Saturday