Dishes for Cinco de Mayo
Buenos dias. It's time for you to help make up our list of favorite dishes at local Mexican restaurants in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Because most of the Latino places in this area are cheap eats, our LIVE reviewer, Karen Nitkin, tends to cover them, so I don't have much to contribute. Does a great margarita count?
Here's what I said about my favorite dish at Blue Agave when I reviewed it a couple of years ago: ...
The assortment from the grill has a couple of different and wonderful sausages, bits of tender grilled skirt steak in a fiery chile sauce, and grilled quail with a complex mole sauce. Its meat melts off its little bones. Warm tortillas and salsas come with the platter.
Can we come up with nine more?
(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)
Comments
Does it have to be dining out food?
My office has a "pig-in" for Cinco de Mayo, with lots of truly homemade food. I brought a Fiesta Cheesecake, which you will never see at the Cheesecake Factory - it is a savory cheesecake, with a crushed corn tortilla crust, a filling made with cream cheese, eggs, grated Pepper Jack cheese, chili powder and cayenne pepper, all iced with sour cream. Sometimes I decorate it with sliced red, green, and yellow bell pepper and sliced jalapeno pepper, but I was hard-pressed for time last night so I forewent (past form of "forego?") the decorations and just have it pure white.
Posted by: Mr. Old Fart | May 5, 2008 10:22 AM
Mr. Old Fart:
Can I get the recipe for that? It sounds fantastic.
Posted by: leeann | May 5, 2008 10:55 AM
The tortilla encrusted grouper at Mari Luna.
Posted by: Mark | May 5, 2008 11:55 AM
As crazy and unbelievable as this sounds, the steak tacos at Big Kahuna are fan-tastic.
Posted by: Bob UU | May 5, 2008 12:56 PM
I really like the potato tacos at Taco Fiesta...
Posted by: Michelle | May 5, 2008 1:38 PM
Not exactly what I'm craving at this time of year, but the roasted corn-chile soup from Blue Agave.
Posted by: Dr. Erlenmeyer Cantaloupe | May 5, 2008 5:17 PM
Arcos has very fresh and tasty guacamole and salsa, the best I've had in town since the Cultured Pearl closed.
Their shrimp fajitas are very good too, served with a generous amount of red, yellow, and green peppers that are cooked perfectly. I don't like so much that they add cheese to the mix, but the homemade tortillas more than make up for it.
And on the patio, the chairs with the horses carved in them are way cool.
Posted by: LJ | May 5, 2008 7:47 PM
Torta al pastor at Tijuana Tacos. Al pastor is the Mexican take on shwarma, a torta is a sandwich on, well, the closest thing I've had is small Bosnian peasant breads.
Tasty, cheap, authentic and, unfortunately, there isn't one sitting by my computer right now.
Posted by: Lissa | May 5, 2008 11:11 PM
I finally went to Los Amigos last night. My hubby, sister and I were very surprised that it was not overly busy. We were greeted with a Hola Los Amigos and seated right away. The chips and salsa were great, much better than El Salto. I am not that adventurous so I had the beef fajitas. They were good. My hubby had the carnitas and loved them. My sister had the veggie fajitas. Over all we are going to go back. This is my new favorite place.
Posted by: Sarah G. | May 6, 2008 8:49 AM