EatMx: Real Mexican food, at home and on the road

Tacos Around Town: House Cafe

At $7.50, the taco at House Cafe isn't cheap--I can get one that's just as good for a lot less in East Los Angeles. This would mean a drive, though. And not as nice a place to eat as this smart but friendly mid-L.A. bistro. There are other benefits, which I'll get to later.

The fillings--actually toppings, because the tacos are served open face--are chicken or short ribs, which might be the better choice because you don't get short rib tacos at just any taco stand.

At House, the meat is cooked until super tender, mixed with a sauce that gives it spicy zing, then spooned onto a stack of two tortillas and piled with onions and cilantro. 

The downside is, the juices soak into the tortillas, which fall apart if you try to fold and pick them up. So you'll eat your taco with knife and fork.

One of the side benefits is, you can have wine with your taco or, even better, Margo's Bark Rootbeer, which guarantees you'll feel good, because Margo's helps out dogs in need with money from rootbeer sales.


Since you're in a place that puts out some of the best French fries in town, you might as well get those too. The thick golden fries come with aioli for dipping. Because the tacos include plenty of meat and the tortillas are minimalist, meaning thin and fragile, it's a pretty good combination after all.

House Cafe, 8114 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048. (323) 655-5553.

Return to Life in Champotón

Vuelve a la vida means return to life, and the logical place to serve a seafood cocktail with a name like that is across from a cemetery, which is where you will find Cocktelería El Tigre.

This street stand in Champotón, Campeche is famous for its vuelve a la vida, a concoction said to have restorative powers.

On one side, it faces the blue walls of the Champotón panteón (cemetery). You can see them in the photo above. On the other is the Gulf of Mexico.

Whether the ghostly inhabitants sneak out for a taste isn't clear, but the living stop there all the time, drawn by the sparkling fresh seafood and ocean breezes. 

The stand, which is actually a cart on wheels, is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, and its owner, Jose Luis Delgado Rivera (above), will mix the vuelve a la vida for you. 

In go shrimp, caracol (conch), octopus, crab and oysters, a combination that varies according to what is available. 

The sweet, spicy sauce includes catsup, Worcestershire, habanero chile, olive oil and pepper. Lime juice is squeezed in fresh and cilantro and onion go on top.

You'll eat this with tortilla chips, soda crackers and soft drinks, mingling with truck drivers and others who stop off from their travels along the coast highway.

To reach El Tigre, you go south from Campeche city to the municipality of Champotón, then start looking for the long blue walls surrounding the cemetery. The photo above shows the location. 

Before eating, you can take a walk along the sea--there are benches nice for sunning--and inspect the fishing boats bobbing in the waters around the stand.

Chocolate to Warm the Soul

It's so cold in Los Angeles that I wish I were back in Campeche, holding a cup of the extraordinary, densely flavored hot chocolate that you get at a little place called Chocol'Ha.

This charming cafe is on Calle 59 in Campeche's historic center.

Alejandro Marín and his wife, Atziri González, the owners, use native chocolate, which you can buy if they have any on hand. It was sold out the night I was there.

As you sip the thick brew of chocolate and water, you can pretend you are drinking with Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, who was a great fan of chocolate. 

But chocolate originated with the Maya, long before that, and the name Chocol'Ha means place of chocolate in the Mayan language.

You'll feel even more transported to those days if you try the chocolate spiced with chile de árbol. It will really singe your mouth.

Along with its signature beverage, the cafe serves coffee, fruit drinks and light foods.

Don't miss the puffy, crisp pastries called campechanas in some parts of Mexico but hojaldras in this area. They're next to the cup of chocolate in the photo at the top. 

Glazed with grains of sugar, they're so addictive that I ate a whole basketful. They come from a local baker.

Mexican tradition is to follow the main meal of the day, which is taken in the afternoon, with a light snack of chocolate and pan dulce at night.

Chocol'Ha is the ideal place to practice that custom. It opens only in the evening.  

When you're there, ask if you can see the house a few doors down that the owners have restored as a museum.

If it's open, you can see how the people of Campeche once lived and a dining room where they might have sipped their evening chocolate.

Chocol'Ha, Calle 59, No. 3, between 12 and 14, Centro Historico, Campeche, Mexico. Tel: (981) 811-7893. 

Eating Chinese in Cancún

For really great Chinese food, I go to the San Gabriel Valley, close to Los Angeles.

So it was a shock to find food every bit as good where I wouldn't have dreamed of eating Chinese. In Cancún. Yes, the resort on the Riviera Maya in Mexico.

The dishes that shone included whole steamed fish as voluptuously tender and sweet as any I have had. Shrimp and celery (above) were barely seasoned so as to show off the purity and freshness of each component. A bowl of chicken broth contained translucent chunks of locally grown organic white squash. Barely wilted romaine leaves had just a hint of oyster sauce. 

The place was the Hong Kong Restaurant, one of a chain in Cancún and Playa del Carmen.

Big enough to seat 500, it looks like an old school Chinese restaurant anywhere. You'll see lazy susan tables, bright red chairs, chopsticks (in red wrappers that say "product of China"), pots of jasmine tea, all the usual accessories, including Buddhas.

But some things are unique to the location. Sizzling hot black pepper beef (above) included nopales (cactus) strips. You'd never find that in the San Gabriel Valley. And those were lime slices separating the meat and cactus.

Mapo tofu (above) was made with minced beef and beef broth instead of the more typical pork. And you could spice up the delicate squash soup with salsa de chile de árbol.  I haven't seen that in Chinese restaurants at home.

Pollo al curry rojo, chicken in red curry (above), a sort of Thai-influenced concoction, came with the sweetest onion and red bell pepper, living up to the Chinese taste for lightly cooked, very fresh vegetables.

And then there were fried green habaneros on a bed of slivered onions, a nod to local tastes, I suppose.

The restaurant is in the Hong Kong Mall, a typical Chinatown shopping plaza with its green tiled roofs, red pillars and shop selling Chinese clothing, wind chimes and other souvenirs.

It's not on the hotel strip, but then Cancún is a large city, not just a place of beaches and tourists.

Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant, Sm 35, MZ216 Av. Labná y Xcaret, Cancún, Quintana Roo. Tel: (52) 998-892-3456.

Five Fun Places to Eat in Mexico: (4) Antonio Primero

Antonio Primero in Monterrey looks like a dining room for colonial grandees, with its high arched windows, heavy, tapestry covered chairs, varnished tables and potted palms.

But would such people have eaten chicken with chocolate sauce, yakimeshi, sushi with salmon, mango and cream cheese? Not likely.

They would have been more prone to sample a molcajete filled with spicy tomato salsa and slabs of panela cheese (above), or another packed with guacamole, or a skillet of melted asadero cheese. Or one with zesty, browned potatoes--papas bravas. These are on Antonio Primero's menu too. 

Despite the far-ranging choices, today's customers will probably go for what they are used to--northern style meats, like a platter that combines cabrito asado (grilled goat), arrachera (steak), marrow bones and chicken, accompanied by grilled green onions (below).

This is what you see over and over at restaurants in northern Mexico, until you long for vegetables and a salad.


The meats are good, though. They're imported, the menu says, so they may come from the United States, although northern Mexico is known for its beef.

Antonio Primero opened early last year. It's a restaurant for everybody, including, apparently, TV addicts. TV screens don't seem to fit the elegant room, but in case of a hard-fought soccer match, they'll be necessary.

There's a sports bar at one end of the room lined with portraits of Mexican toreros.  And an upstairs glassed-in wine cellar with room for 1,500 bottles.

Stretching itself even further, Antonio Primero opens at 7 a.m. for breakfast. That means hotcakes, waffles and all manner of huevos (eggs) including huevos light--egg whites with black beans.

There's nothing light about desserts, such as nut-topped ice cream (above) on a stack of buñuelos sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

Or nut pie with ice cream, or banana cake with cajeta. To make sure you succumb to temptation, a dessert cart stands in full view.

And if you think you can't get up from your chair after a sumptuous meal, you may be right. The food isn't the problem but the chairs. They're so heavy you may need someone with muscle to help you out.

Antonio Primero, Ave. Constitución 1475 Pte.,  Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. (0181) 8342-4802.

Muna's Perfect Margarita

If you've dried out from New Year's, you might be ready for a margarita, especially if it's one of the best.

After two weeks of reviewing margaritas in Yucatán, the top of the line, devoid of mixes and any other phony stuff, turned up at a restaurant so far out in the country that the address says it is across from a certain ranch.

Bartender Gustavo Hau (right) of the Restaurant La Finca Puuc turned out this wonder. You may think it sounds like nothing special, just tequila, lime juice and orange liqueur. But only the courageous make such a margarita today.

In the hands of trendy mixologists, the margarita has become a grab bag of whatever sounds cute, different and clever.

Bravo, Gustavo, for making the real thing. That takes courage--and skill.

GUSTAVO'S MARGARITA

1 ounce tequila
1 ounce Controy or other orange liqueur
1/2 ounce lime juice

Combine the tequila, liqueur and lime juice in a salt-rimmed glass and stir with ice. Or shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and pour into the glass.

Makes 1 serving.

Restaurant La Finca Puuc, on the highway from Muna to Merida. Km. 2, facing Rancho los Flambollanes. (01) 997-977-6100.

Tacos Around Town: Lotería

Because I'm just back from Yucatán, the only taco filling that caught my eye at Lotería Grill was cochinita pibil.

This is Yucatán's signature dish, pork seasoned with achiote and steamed in an underground pit. 

Lotería did a good job, even without the pit. The meat was tender and juicy and had the distinctive taste and red color of achiote. And the garnishes were those you would get in Yucatán, pickled onions and thin slivers of habanero chile.

There was a substantial pile of meat on a small (slightly more than 4-inch) tortilla. A base of two tortillas, which many taquerías offer, would have made it easier to handle.

You can choose from lots of fillings.  Check the list above, photographed at the original Lotería in the Farmers Market, where the taquero (above left) is one of the Mexican lottery card images that decorate the stall. 

Lotería Grill, Stall 322 in the Farmers Market, 6333 W. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90036. Tel: (323) 930-2211.