Top tastes were plentiful at AltaMed's "East LA Meets Napa" benefit, where some 30 restaurants and food purveyors presented their best. Other booths poured wines, mostly from California but some from Mexico too.
The food ranged from trendy updated dishes such as Rivera's maize cornets filled with a chopped vegetable and lettuce salad, avocado, chiopotle crema and micro amaranth to straightforward tacos, sandwiches and handmade tortillas.
See the preceding post for the first five taste. The following five--actually seven because they include two drinks--show why you ought to plan on attending next year's tasting. Check AltaMed's website for updates. You can also read there about AltaMed's work in providing health care to underserved communities.
6. Zapien's Salsa Grill put out citrus-marinated carnitas on tortilla chips (above). The tangy bits of meat were all the more tasty because they were combined with nopales salad, caramelized onions, tomatoes and crumbled Mexican cheese.
Zapien's Salsa Grill and Taquería, 6702 Rosemead Blvd., Pico Rivera, CA 90660. (562) 942-7072.
7. Lotería Grill made the hot night more comfortable by serving two delicious cold drinks (at top). The magenta one is cactus fruit and pineapple; the pale green drink is cucumber with lime juice.
You could sip your drink and then eat Lotería's taco de pez espada al pastor (above), a swordfish taco with the same zesty seasonings as carne al pastor, meat cooked on a vertical spit.
Lotería Grill, 6627 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 465-2500. And four other locations.
8. Guisados contributed its chicken tinga recipe to AltaMed's new book about Latino restaurants in the Southland, "In Their Own Words II."
At East LA Meets Napa, you could obtain the book with a donation. Then at Guisados' booth, you could taste the chipotle-spiced tinga, spooned into a flour tortilla (above).
Guisados, 2100 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033. (323) 264-7201.
9. Carnitas Uruapan was superbly generous with its scrumptious conchas and cookies. You could eat as many of these freshly baked goodies as you wanted. Then you were handed paper bags so you could take some home for breakfast.
Carnitas Uruapan Market & Deli, 2102 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033. (323) 265-2474.
10. Casa Oaxaca earned stars for its presentation of the Oaxacan dessert nicuatole. Each square of the milky corn mixture was served in a corn husk with bright cactus fruit sauce dribbled over the top. Soft meringue spooned into crunchy thin pastry shells was just as tempting.
Casa Oaxaca, 3317 W. First St., Santa Ana, CA 92703. (714) 554-0905.
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