Mexicana Mama

I met Brian for dinner. We haven't seen each other in a while and it was good to catch up. He suggested the restaurant. Abigail, a mutual friend of ours, had once recommended it to him offhandedly as they passed. The food was terrific.

We started with a chimichanga, of chicken stewed in creamed tomatos. The meat was incredibly tender, the shell not too fried. I moved on to a halibut soaked in coconut milk, then broiled, topped with a mixed nut crust and garnished with mango. Brian had the vegetarian burrito. The fish melted in the mouth, the mixture of flavors a nuanced blend. The burrito came with a complex sauce, at once spicy and sweet. For dessert we shared the isla de chocolate, a warm chocolate cake floating in a pool of vanilla and coconut milk dotted with grapes. The cake tasted faintly of nutmeg or another spice, again balancing flavors to great effect.

The waiter did a great job describing each dish; the waitress struggled to remember all the ingredients. The table beside us emptied then filled with five girls who had a very hard time deciding what they wanted to eat, even before the waiter appeared.

The room is small; a kitchen takes up half the restaurant. Brian and I sipped our margaritas and talked about movies and the Middle East. I asked him about teaching, and he asked me about travelling. Then we talked about food. He said that while there are meals that he can eat and enjoy and pick apart to make at home, there are others where he wouldn't even know where to begin to make such food. And then he's happy to make trips especially to eat it. Mexicana Mama falls into that category. Posted by eku at July 10, 2004 12:53 AM