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

Your Last Chance to Taste Capirotada

Everyone loves bread pudding, but only in Mexico do they doll it up with such wildly diverse ingredients as tomatoes, beans, cheese, bay leaves, prunes, pineapple, candied cactus, raisins, wine, cinnamon and sticky syrup. This is capirotada, and you eat it during Lent. That leaves just three days to get a taste.

If you can't make it yourself, you'll have to hunt for a restaurant or bakery that sells it, such as La Fama, a panadería in East Los Angeles.

La Fama leaves out savory ingredients in favor of orange peel, walnuts, raisins, shredded coconut, cinnamon, cloves and, of course, bread--not loaf bread but bolillos.

This juicy mixture is soaked in a syrup made from piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar cones). As the sign above says, you get to choose whether you want the syrup made with milk (leche) or water (agua). The final touch is candy sprinkles. 

A box of capirotada (one large or two small servings) is $3.75 at Panadería La Fama, 420 N. Ford Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90022. (323) 264-4587.

Metro Deli: Homelike and Good

Metro Deli, in a barrio just west of downtown Los Angeles, is so informal that you pour your own coffee from a pot on the counter. The women who take your order speak with charming dimunitives. My coffee was a "cafecito." My scrambled eggs weren't huevos but "huevecitos." 

Technically, they were huevos a la mexicana, which means scrambled with chopped tomato, onion and jalapeños--fresh jalapeños, with all their crisp, bright, acrid chile flavor.

One of the women quickly patted out a few tortillas and put them in a basket to accompany my plate of eggs, spooned alongside rice and beans so soft they were really a puree.

This is homestyle, simple Mexican food, prepared with the same devotion responsible for decorating the restaurant with a calendar that shows Christ on the cross and, above it, a figure of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint.

Metro Deli No. 2,  1422 W 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017.  (213) 483-6455.

Guelaguetza Gets a Bright New Look

The Oaxacan restaurant Guelaguetza used to blend in with Koreatown, its thoroughly Asian building giving no clue that inside were moles, not bibimbap and kimchi. 

Now the restaurant cuts a bright orange slash through the area. Its newly painted tangerine walls are decorated with Oaxacan motifs that reflect the meaning of the word guelaguetza, which is sharing and reciprocity.

On the Olympic Boulevard side, a young girl presents an ear of corn (above).

The boy who will receive the corn gives her a chicken in return (above). 

 On the west wall of the building leading to the entrance, a man plays an accordion (above), preparing arrivals for a good time inside. 

The murals were painted by street artists Rosario Martínez and Roberto Vega from Oaxaca, who are part of the art collective La Piztola.

They were commissioned by the López family, owners of Guelaguetza.

To celebrate the completion of the work, Bricia López organized an art show and mezcal tasting. Guests sipped Tosba mezcal (above), which comes from a palenque in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca. 

They snacked on pastry shells filled with quesillo (Oaxacan cheese) and chorizo; strips of tlayudas (Oaxacan style tortillas) topped with moles and chicken, and memelitas, soft rounds of masa that came with a choice of salsas including one made with chapulines (Oaxacan grasshoppers).

Said López: 'Months ago, my brother and I were walking down Olympic blvd., and as we saw our restaurant from afar, we realized something...He and I have never seen our restaurant as just a simple eating-place, but as a place from where we can share our Oaxacan culture as a whole with all of Los Angeles. We see it as our Guelaguetza to L.A."

Guelaguetza restaurant, 3014 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90006. (213) 427-0608.

Mexican Food on LA Weekly's Plate

What a great place to eat Mexican food, but for one day only.

This was LA Weekly's Plate, the annual food and beverage tasting formerly known as The Gold Standard.

On Sunday, six Mexican restaurants joined such mainstream places as Lukshon, Mo-chica/Picca, The Oinkster and Little Dom's to serve scads of tastes of their best dishes. The site was the Petersen Automotive Museum.

First in from the entrance, La Casita Mexicana (above) put out a stunning combo of three dishes--tamales with house-made mole sauce; cream-topped esquites (corn kernels) and green ceviche. There it is, at the top. The red sprinkle on the esquites is La Casita Mexicana's own ground chile pequin. 

Moving deeper into the tasting, Rocio's Mole de los Dioses presented a brand new dish, jamaica tacos (above) and a variety of moles. 

What stole the show was Rocio Camacho's mole negro (above), a tantalizing blend of fruity, flowery, smoky and spicy flavors. No wonder it's the top mole in Oaxaca.

On the far side of the hall, Bizarra Capital (above) served chorizo soup that was as striking as it was simple, because it was made with the restaurant's own chorizo. There's a colossal difference between chorizo like that and the stuff you get in supermarkets.

Outside, sun-lovers tasted from two Mexican stalls set side by side (above).

Border Grill offered luxe tacos topped with cumin-glazed boneless baby back ribs, jicama-pineapple salsa, avocado and a sprinkle of cotija cheese (above). 

Chichén Itzá arranged cochinita pibil (achiote-marinated pork cooked in banana leaves) on handmade tortillas (above). Those who liked this Yucatecan dish could have it again--in their own kitchens.  Copies of the recipe were handed out by Katharine A. Díaz, co-author with Chichén Itzá chef Gilberto Cetina of the book "Sabores Yucatecos: A Culinary Tour of the Yucatán."

If all that sun and spicy food built up a thirst, there was a delicious quencher inside, Guelaguetza's icy horchata.  This traditional Oaxacan drink is finished off with walnuts and diced cantaloupe. Prickly pear syrup added the bright pink layer at the top.