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

Stock Up To Feed the Hungry Spirits

Scary faces are all over the place, thanks to Halloween today and the Day of the Dead Friday and Saturday.

You can see a Day of the Dead altar in the front window of La Casita Mexicana in Bell (at top). Check the smiling skulls, the dressed-up lady skeletons and the fruit and other goodies placed there so that returning souls won't go hungry. Marigolds, the flower of the season, are at the top. 

The restaurant shop is full of such items in case you want to pick up some last minute decorations. 

Here's a closeup of a tiny altar laden with food including sugar cane, pan de muertos (bread of the dead), fruit and nuts for the hungry spirits.  The shop is bursting with Mexican candies to put on your own altar. But don't get greedy. If you start to eat them yourself, you might feel a ghostly finger tapping on your shoulder.  Wooooooooooooo!

Brandade and More at Taste of Mexico

What was brandade de morue doing at "The Taste of Mexico?"

That's obvious. It was inside a taco. This classic French salt cod and garlic mashed potato dip was stuffed into a taco dorado, a crisp taco dressed up with red bell pepper sauce and fresh salad greens.

A complete meal in miniature (above), it was presented by Duro, the Silverlake taco place to be opened by Ricardo Diaz of Bizarra Capital.

Duro was one of some 26 Mexican food enterprises that took part in the tasting, the third presented by The Taste of México Association.

Now in a new venue, La Plaza de Cultura & Artes across from Olvera Street (at top), it has expanded into a spectacular event with great food and lots to drink (tequila, mezcal, beer, pulque with orange juice (above), jamaica punch, Mexican sodas and more). Nonstop entertainment included mariachis and son jarocho, the Veracruz music now so hot that KUSC, the classical music station, recently did a segment on it. 

Duro's taco shows how L.A. Mexican food has evolved from the saucy, cheesy stuff of long ago. The Ceviche Project, a pop-up restaurant, went even further with tai snapper ceviche topped with a sorbet of tangerine and chile de árbol (above).

Its pairing of kampachi and erizo (sea urchin) had the wildest seasoning of any dish, escamol salt. From Monterrey in northern Mexico, the salt is blended with escamoles--ant larvae harvested from maguey plants.

There was plenty of traditional Mexican food too, such as Guelaguetza's chicken in mole coloradito, a sweet red sauce, and Don Chente's tacos coated with mole and red and green pipián (above). 

And how could you have a Mexican tasting without freshly made tortillas? These women turned them out for Casa Oaxaca.

The grounds were loaded with seafood, such as El Coraloense's halibut topped with lemon aioli and walnut, peanut and chile de árbol salsa, which was one of many dishes at its table (above). In the bowl at upper right are butterflied shrimp in red chile sauce. Another bowl held shrimp in green sauce made with serrano chiles and cilantro. 

Casa Cabo set out a veritable vat of shrimp, scallops and fish in spicy aguachile (above) and another big container of garlic octopus.

Vegetarians weren't out of luck. Tacos Punta Cabras served cauliflower ceviche (above), set on guacamole and cashew salsa and topped with pineapple habanero salsa--"all made by hand in house every day," said the guy at the booth. The flowers were nice too.

La Monarca Bakery provided caramel latte flan, pan de muerto and miniature puff pastry buñuelos (above). The flan was made with Nescafe, which also had a booth at the tasting. 

Jimmy Smith of Lotería Grill (above) brought out different dishes at different stages of the evening. These ended with a dessert he's just introduced--arroz con leche (rice pudding) flavored with lime and orange zest and toasted coconut and topped with chocolate-almond crunch.

Tequila, mezcal and beer bars did big business (above), but the safest drink before leaving was hot chocolate, set out at a stand not far from the exit. 

Get Ready to Eat Great Mexican Food

Hungry for grasshopper salsa? Tacos stuffed with jamaica flowers? A cucumber mezcal margarita with chipotle salt?

Or would you prefer a taco truck?  Whatever--it will all be at The Taste of Mexico Friday, October 11 in downtown Los Angeles. The site will be La Plaza de Cultura y Artes near Olvera Street, where the tasting has ample room to spread out and a parking area for food trucks.

The Taste of México Restaurant Association, an expanding group of local Mexican restaurants, is organizing the tasting. Last year it was at Vibiana. The new location promises more space and a more relaxed environment.

The restaurant association is partnering with the Plaza de Cultura in this and other events. One feature of the cultural center is a teaching garden where school children are bussed in to learn how food is produced and then have a cooking class. The Taste of México restaurants will provide chefs for the classes.

Friday's tasting will include not just innovative dishes but classics from cornerstone restaurants such as Frida, Candela Taco Bar, La Cocina Mexicana, Casa Oaxaca, Guelaguetza, Mexikosher, El Coraloense, La Monarca Bakery and a newcomer, Mexicali Taco & Co. 

You can look forward to El Coraloense's tostadas, topped with shrimp and mango, fish ceviche with a peanut, walnut and chile sauce and other seafood preparations (at top).

La Casita Mexicana will have Nayarit style ceviche (above) along with tequila-infused guacamole.

Here's grilled shrimp on a chip from Mexicali Taco & Co. This downtown L.A. taco restaurant brings its flour tortillas from Mexicali, which is the hometown of its owners. 

Vegetarianism is big, and so Guelaguetza, the Oaxacan restaurant, will offer tostaditas topped with chileatole made with a mix of carrots, peas, green beans and potatoes (above). It's spicy and delicious. You'll never miss the meat. 

These were a few of the dishes offered at a preview on the party site.  The grasshopper (chapulines) salsa and jamaica tacos were from Casa Oaxaca. Frida offered tacos filled with carnitas, cochinita pibil or chicken. And Candela Taco Bar put together shrimp and cheese tacos with a choice of salsas (above).

Mexikosher's fish tacos were nothing more than a strip of fried smelt on a tortilla with a salsa such as serrano aioli. Folded, this was a simple but very good taco, thanks to the crisp texture of the fish.

Desserts will include La Monarca Bakery's tres leches cake and traditional cookies such as, from left, agave-raisin cookies, Mexican wedding cookies and hojarascas. 

The tasting will have a bar with mezcal, tequila and beer. The mezcal and cucumber margaritas is a specialty of Ilegal mezcal.  Shaken with lots of ice, the drink is topped with a cucumber slice sprinkled with chipotle chile ground with salt. The fixings (above) include reduced agave nectar.

There will be plenty of nonalcoholic drinks too, like the pear and cactus fruit agua fresca that La Casita Mexicana brought to the preview, and an addictive spinach and pineapple agua fresca from Candela Taco Bar. When it's time to go home, look for La Monarca's cafe de olla, wonderful spiced coffee that will make you think you really are in Mexico. 

Don't Miss This Weekend's Mole Fair

Sweet, salty, spicy, black, green, red or yellow--mole has everything, and you'll be able to taste lots of versions this Sunday (October 6) at the 6th annual La Feria de los Moles at Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Even better, you'll  learn how to make it at workshops on mole poblano and red and green pipián. These will be presented by El Mural de Los Poblanos, a restaurant in Puebla that is participating in this year's event. In the photo above is Juan José Cue de La Fuente of El Mural. Behind him is Miss Mole 2013. Partially visible next to her is Miss Oaxaca. 

The workshops are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., but the feria continues from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free. You pay only for what you eat.

Mole grew out of a tumultuous contact between indigenous and European cultures, with input from Asian spices that passed through Mexico on their way to Europe. No wonder the dish is so complex.

At the top is mole negro (black mole) from Rincon Oaxaqueño in Los Angeles, presented during a feria preview at the restaurant (above).

This year's feria will be a combat zone, with moles from Puebla and Oaxaca dueling to determine which state's is the best.This year, Tlaxcala and Guerrero have been invited to join the fray. Dramatizing the battle will be a lucha libre match with luchadores representing Oaxaca and Puebla. That's one of them above.

Although the focus will be on traditional moles like those in the photo above, there will also be unique mole-flavored desserts including crepes, ices and cupcakes to keep things sweet no matter how fierce the competition.