La Calaca Comelona’s mole verde
Cinco de Mayo isn’t much of a holiday in Mexico. But say “Diez y Seis de Septiembre” — the date of Mexico’s independence — to the average American and you’ll get blank stares. So Cinco de Mayo seems as good a time as any to highlight the set of six midscale Mexican restaurants in Portland offering their own take on Mexico’s regional and traditional dishes: Autentica, La Calaca Comelona, DF, Nuestra Cocina, Taqueria Nueve, and La Vanguardia.
A Note on Authenticity
Americans have become accustomed to cheesy Mexican restaurants with gawdy decor. Who hasn’t ended up at a birthday party, the honoree strapped into a sombrero only slightly smaller than the table, an oversized, fluorescent margarita in front of them while a band of mariachis sing feliz cumpleanos, happy birthday, or some especially noisy equivalent ending with whistles and ay-ay-ays? What’s funny is that this isn’t an entirely inauthentic Mexican experience. It may be a caricature of Jalisco culture, but it’s based on something real. You can fly down to Guadalajara right now and see much the same thing.
So what’s a gringo to do? Enjoy what’s put before them, for one thing. It’s difficult for any of us to distinguish the authentic from the inauthentic, even Mexican-Americans who may only know their own region’s food, may not be familiar with current trends, or may just have bad taste. I’m in the Yucatan right now, for example, and on every little cocina economica’s menu (and these are the restaurants where most Mexicans actually eat) is spaghetti. The most popular street foods are hot dogs and hamburgers.
The six restaurants in this report vary in their commitment to Mexico’s traditions. But that will be a secondary concern for me and one that I’ll try to comment on here and there, but won’t affect my judgment of the restaurant. You can decide for yourself how important authenticity is. It’s enough for me that all of these restaurants are working with a Mexican culinary palette, making dishes that are ostensibily Mexican. I haven’t included Oba, for example, because its menu, while having many Mexican dishes, also has Caribbean, Central and South American influenced dishes. I consider it more Nuevo Latino, grabbing from all Latin American cuisines.
Sorry for the tangent, but the issue always comes up when discussing these places. On to the food…
Photo Album
Autentica
La Calaca Comelona
DF
Nuestra Cocina
Taqueria Nueve
La Vanguardia
Carne enchilada
Autentica, just by its name, makes a statement about what to expect: authentic Mexican food. Chef Oswaldo Bibiano is originally from Guerrero, the state west of Mexico City that borders the pacific and includes Acapulco. Thursday in Guerrero is pozole day. Thursday at Autentica is also pozole day.
Autentica makes a pozole blanco, or white pozole. Most people are familiar with the red version popular in the northern Mexican states; it uses dried chiles to flavor the broth. (There is also a green version with pumpkin seeds and tomatillos which is my favorite.) The white version is pozole at its purest. There’s nothing to cover up the flavor of the soup or the quality of the ingredients. Some might find this version bland, but only because their expectations are for the spicy red version.
Autentica’s pozole comes with large chunks of tender pork in a rich, clean-tasting broth. The nixtamal (hominy) is obviously homemade. The treated corn kernels have an al dente texture and sublte sweetness. The soup comes with a full range of traditional accompaniments: oregano, sliced chile, onion, radish, cheese, avocado, chips, chicharrones, a cheese-filled taquito, and lime. It’s expensive at $13, but it’s giant portion and clearly a step up in quality from what can be ordered at a taqueria. It’s also the only place you’ll find a pozole blanco in the metro area, probably the only place north of San Francisco.
It’s Autentica’s attention to details that makes its name so appropriate and makes it such an enjoyable experience. They use handmade tortillas. Each meal begins with some of the best bolillos I’ve had in the US or Mexico. They offer a little tray of pickled veggies which seem to change with the season. Usually underspiced and less tangy than I prefer, but they’re always a perfect texture. They give three distinct salsas: a chile-oil puree, a smooth taqueria-style guacamole, and a fiery, bright uncooked salsa verde. Plus, they have jarred Bufalo chile sauces if you need even more heat.
Lunch or dinner, I haven’t had a bad dish yet. Autentica is probably the most consistent of all the mid-scale Mexican restaurants in town. While some dishes, such as their tortilla soup ($6), can be a bit flat, tasting more like plain tomato soup with fried tortilla strips, for the most part dishes have plenty of flavor and the ingredients are perfectly cooked.
Some of my favorite dishes have included: the tostada con pulpo ($7), a tender octopus and shrimp ceviche atop a crispy tortilla; the queso oaxaca con chorizo ($5), a shallow clay dish bubbling with Oaxacan string cheese and flavorful sausage, served with fresh tortillas; taquitos dorados ($6), three queso fresco-filled rolled and fried tacos served in a very clean, light vegetable broth topped with avocado, radish, sour cream, cilantro, garbonzos, and cabbage; the quezadilla con queso oaxaca and epazote ($5 at lunch), a large folded-over and lightly fried tortilla, cheese oozing out, accented with the licoricey herb; torta de tinga ($6 at lunch), stewed chicken in a tomato-chipotle sauce on one of Autentica’s soft buns with tomato, avocado, and cabbage.
All of these are smaller dishes, but that’s only because my favorite part of Mexican cuisine are the botanas and antojitos. They do a good job with larger dishes as well. Their pollo en mole teloloapan ($13) consists of a juicy half-chicken in a dark and complex sauce, sided by white rice served in a corn husk. Their cocido de res ($13) has giant chunks of tender, stewed short ribs with carrots, potatoes, and fried plantains that add an intesting sweetness. The broth is rich and beefy with a subtle chipotle flavor, easy to slurp down on its own.
The restaurant is small, with warm colors, and a full bar. You can watch the chef work in the open kitchen, but this helps make the interior noisy at times. The restaurant can be busy in the evenings, but lunches are usually dead and a better value. You’re likely to be served by the chef himself.
Despite being relatively upscale, only one dish exceeds $14, and portions are not small. Some items, I would say, are even underpriced, such as the tacos made with fresh tortillas ($1.50), which are cheaper than at some taquerias and half the price of other midscale Mexican restaurants.
5507 NE 30th Ave
Portland, OR
503.287.7555
Pambazo
La Calaca Comelona’s menu matches its decor: eclectic, interesting, and very Mexican. The outside is brightly colored like the streetside walls of Oaxaca. The inside is strewn with art, such as haunting self-portraits by Frida Kahlo, and Day of the Dead decor.
The menu is the most varied and extensive of any in this report. It begins with a proclamation against burritos (that I swear has been moderated over the years), then offers dishes ranging from tacos, quesadillas, and tortas to ceviche, moles, and cochinita pibil, finishing with alambres, a sort of Mexican stir-fry rarely found outside of Mexico. They also have a separate botanas menu where many of the most unusual appetizers can be found, such as spinach tortillas ($2), grilled cactus leaf topped with shrimp ($4), and, for the Anthony Bourdain wannabes, chapulines (ie, grasshoppers, $5).
La Calaca excels with the unusual. Their three moles: chile negro, mole en pipian, and mole with blackberries each have a unique and complex flavor. My favorite is the mole en pipian, a green mole made with tomatillos, chiles, and pumpkin seeds. The tart tomatillos balance the earthy pumpkin seeds. Even the chicken it envelops has flavor, permeated by a seasoned poaching liquid. The sauce covers the entire large plate and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds emphasizes its nuttiness. Tortillas come on the side, but extras are needed for all the great sauce, yet they cost a quarter each. The chicken portion is a bit small, too, given the $20 price tag.
Most taquerias and taco trucks serve tortas, but few serve pambasos, a specialty of Mexico City. Like a typical torta, a kitchen sink’s worth of ingredients are stuffed within a roll. In La Calaca’s pambaso, this includes potatoes, chorizo, pickled jalapenos, cabbage, tomato, beans, sour cream, and mayo. A pambaso differs from a standard torta in that its bun is dipped in a chile sauce giving it extra flavor. Their version is terrific, surpassing most of the ones I’ve had in Mexico, and a good value at $6.50.
La Calaca falls short with some of the simplest preparations. While their tacos ($2.50) use fresh tortillas and come with two great salsas and even pickled onions, their meats are generally worse than the average taco truck. Their carne asada uses chunks of beef that are too thick, becoming chewy and the meat has no char. Their carnitas has a braised texture more like pulled pork than the succulent, yet crispy bits that define the best versions. Their ceviche ($10) has everything right except the fish, which is slightly fishy — in a bad way.
There is no restaurant in Portland better at transporting a diner to Mexico. The restaurant itself is only a minor part of that. The food — both its presentation and its uncompromising flavors — radiate Mexico. To some degree this may limit their clientelle compared with places, such as Taqueria Nueve and DF, more willing to fuse American and European techniques and ingredients with Mexican flavors. But for the experience of eating in Central Mexico without enduring the humiliation of a passport photo, La Calaca Comelona is the place.
2304 SE Belmont
Portland, OR
503.239.9675
Empanadas de huitlacoche
When the folks who brought Portland Taqueria Nueve decided to call their new restaurant in the Pearl District “D.F.”, they set themselves a lofty bar, much more so than Autentica. DF, pronounced day-eff-ay, is shorthand for Mexico City’s metro area, like DC for Washington. But they might as well have called their restaurant NY or SF because Mexico City is easily the country’s best restaurant city and arguably its best food city overall.
The two areas where the food in Mexico City is best are on the streets and in the high end eateries of the Polanco district. But DF, the restaurant, really captures neither of these. There are no foot and a half long huaraches slathered in beans and topped like a pizza with your choice of guisados. There are no blue corn tlacoyos or quesadillas filled with oaxacan string cheese and squash blossoms. There are no foie gras stuffed chiles topped with fried hibiscus flowers. This is the case of a little knowledge (mine) getting in the way of enjoying a meal. So it’s taken me several visits to truly enjoy myself, but I’m glad I finally removed the bar and ignored the name, focusing instead on the food in front of me.
They’ve also narrowed and focused their menu over time. Gone are the variety of caldos, like Mexican versions of pho, that defined the restaurant at its inception. They’ve replaced those with a very traditional pozole rojo ($15), which has large pieces of al dente hominy along with tender pork in a moderately spicy chile-infused broth. The soup comes with oregano, fresh chiles, onion, lime, and tostadas.
Instead of offering six different cocteles, they now offer only one, a mix of octopus, shrimp, and crab in a mildly sweet and bright tomatoey liquid ($10). The octopus can be chewy, but there is plenty of crab and shrimp to make up for that fault. Their trio of ceviches ($12), which has remained on the menu, are each unique and compliment each other, but also tasty on their own. (And they can be ordered ala carte at $5 each.)
DF has expanded the mole offerings, however. Instead of only a mole poblano, they now serve a mole negro oaxaqueno to compete that compete’s with La Calaca’s and a mole amarillo. Taqueria Nueve also serves a mole poblano, but DF’s is more complex, less sweet, not especially chocolatey, and more aromatic. I prefer it. (The mole poblano is $17, while the other two are $18.)
DF does fail, and big, on occasion. Their sopa de camarones tastes like fishy Campbell’s potato soup with chunks of avocado and tomato floating in the pool of sludge. Less a failure than just mediocre and a questionable value are their tacos. Like Taqueria Nueve, DF doesn’t use fresh tortillas. The fillings are decent, especially the house smoked fish which is crusted and topped with a mellowing creamy sauce. But the al pastor and barbacoa don’t really improve on what’s available at a taqueria. Adding injury to insult, each is a hefty $3.50.
Two of the best dishes I’ve eaten are both vegetarian appetizers, the empenadas de huitlacoche ($6) and the chileajo tostada ($3.50). The former come as two delicate masa turnovers filled with a black, earthy, and sweet fungus that grows on corn. They’re served with a poblano cream sauce that is plate-lickingly good, its moderately spicy chile flavor diffused by richness. The crisp tostada is piled with mixed vegetables in a light tomato sauce redolent with the flavor of caramelized garlic. The tostada and the plate which adds just enough balance to make the dish near perfect.
DF exceeds its sister restaurant in some areas (such as its sauces), and lags behind in others (such as its desserts). It may not live up to its name, and it may not be as unique as when it began, but it still adds variety to the Mexican options in Portland, including some really fabulous dishes no one else is making.
1139 NW 11th
Portland, OR
503.243.4222
http://www.taco9.com
Orange flan
Admittedly, there’s something aesthetically pleasing about seeing an open kitchen, especially one serving Mexican food, with a Mexican at the helm. In Nuestra Cocina’s case, Benjamin Gonzales (along with his wife) is the owner, too. Adding to this aesthetic is a little lady straight out of the mercado hand pressing and griddling tortillas throughout the night. This is my first impression of Nuestra Cocina, and many visits later, it’s what sticks with me most.
The food, however, has ranged in my estimation over time. On my first couple visits soon after its opening, it was the antojitos that I felt carried the menu. Then later, it was the entrees. Now I think it may be the desserts.
The bulk of the menu is inconsistent. Among the appetizers, the sopes ($6 for 3) have always stood out. The crisp shells of the masa boats yield to light, tender and moist interiors. The toppings of black beans, chorizo, cheese, radish, cilantro and a little chile de arbol salsa blend together into a rich, earthy, spicy, creamy bite. The sopa de calabaza ($6) is fantastic. Cinderella pumpkin is pureed with guajillo chiles and pumpkin seeds. It’s earthy, sweet, and almost smokey. A drizzle of crema over the soup adds both a tanginess and creaminess. A sprinkling of roasted pumpkin seeds emphasizes the nuttiness makes the flavors explode.
The ceviche ($7) is horrendous, however, textured like catfood or overly mashed tuna from a can, it also has a fishiness that would probably make catfood more preferable. It’s possibly the worst ceviche I’ve ever had.
The tacos de puerco ($6) and the tamal de pato ($6) are both good. Three tacos come in an order piled high with crispy shredded pork. The tamal is filled with duck confit and raisins, sauced with a “guajillo mole”. The tamal itself is just a thin layer of rich, moist masa. The mole has a pleasant sweetness that works well with the duck. The term “mole”, though, suggests that the sauce would have a more complex flavor than it does. Also, this sauce gets used too often in Nuestra Cocina’s dishes.
The chicken mole ($13), for example, has a sauce that tastes suspiciously similar. The green beans and chicken are both cooked properly, but the sauce isn’t interesting enough to make the dish interesting with such a boring base.
Better on the entree menu is the camarones al mojo de ajo ($18). The large white prawns swim in a savory garlic jus with tomatoes. Fried plantains add more sweetness and black beans provide an earthy respite. Also, the gorditas ($9), a vegetarian dish stuffed with black beans, avocado, roasted poblano chiles, and cheese should delight any Mexican food lover. The masa cakes are lightly toasted on the top and bottom, yet retain their moist, delicate texture underneath.
The cochinito pibil ($14) was better in the past. Currently, a huge hunk of pork sits in a bed of black beans topped by pickled red onions. The pork is meaty and fork tender, but too big to be penetrated by the spice rub. The piece should be smaller to emphasize the recado more and separate it from pig preparations in other cuisines. The fish of the day (price varies), though, which on my last visit was sailfish, does this perfectly. The fish is rubbed with similar spicing and steamed in banana leaves, imparting the flavors to the filet. The only problem with this dish is that they add the same guajillo sauce to the plate which is not only totally unnecessary, but actually hurts the dish.
The desserts, however, are uniformly excellent and challenge Taqueria Nueve for the best in this survey. When they first opened, other than the cinnamon ice cream, the desserts were my main disappointment. No longer. The chocolate pound cake, which comes with their delectable cinnamon ice cream, is moist and chocolatey, sweetened by a very nice caramel sauce. The crepas con lechecilla are folded and topped with bananas that are fried until caramelized on the outside and tender and warm on the inside. A cinnamony creme anglaise and a caramel sauce bring the dish together making it both sweet and creamy. But my new favorite is the orange flan, not typically something I would especially adore. But it’s possibly the smoothest and creamiest flan I’ve eaten and the orange is accented with liqueur that prevents it from being cloyingly sweet. (All $6.)
While my heart might be full from seeing a Mexican truly popularize Mexican food in Portland, it’s the several superior dishes and wonderful dessert menu that has me returning to fill my belly at Nuestra Cocina.
2135 SE Division
Portland, OR
503.232.2135
Hangar steak
When Cafe Azul folded, Taqueria Nueve became the de facto king of upscale Mexican in Portland while La Calaca carried the torch for authenticity. Chef-owner Billy Schumaker has never seemed to concerned with presenting dishes exactly as they’d be prepared in Mexico. Which is fine by me, as long as those alterations are improvements, and often they are.
Rarely would I begin a Mexican restaurant report with desserts, but at Taqueria Nueve that’s my favorite part of the meal and the biggest improvement over more “authentic” Mexican restaurants. Their moist tres leches ($5.50) sits in a pool studded with broken pecans of one of its three milks. A light chocolate frosting adds a fourth flavor that never obstructs the other three. Their coconut ice cream ($4) is house made and intensely coconutty. Their silken chocolate mousse tastes as if they had the chocolate ground for them in the markets of Oaxaca.
Their grilled hangar steak ($12.75) is another improvement. The meat is left rare — uncommon in Mexico — but it allows the normally tough meat to be tender and juicy. The brick red sauce has an undertone of chile with tart and sweet accents. It tastes as if there is bitter orange in the sauce, giving it a very unique flavor.
Instead of the traditional turkey, their mole poblano ($14.25) comes served with succulent and crispy duck confit. The sauce itself is sweet and chocolatey and perhaps could use a bit more dried chile flavor, though that may make it less palatable for the average customer.
Perhaps their most typical preparation is also one of their best, and certainly one of their best values, the ceviche ($4). Small cubes of seasonal fish come atop a tostada still tasting of their lime marinade. There’s no attempt to dress it up. It’s just fish, tomatoes, and cilantro on a fried tortilla.
Their chile relleno ($12) is also seasonal and varies in quality. I’ve never had it when it was battered and fried, thank goodness, because I prefer a roasted relleno. But on the last visit the mixture of squash, nuts, raisins, and capers (I believe this is always a vegetarian dish) didn’t compliment each other, the “picadillo” forming more of a misconstrued mess than the parts creating a greater whole. And the tomato sauce it was sitting in was rather bland and uninteresting. Often, though, this is my favorite dish.
Their tacos are a mixed bag. The cochinito pibil and pescado are both underseasoned. The wild boar carnitas, though, have always been one of my favorites and continue to shine. The meat is slightly gamier than the typical pork used. The pieces come nicely crisped and tender and very rich. If only Nueve would use freshly made tortillas and didn’t water down their salsas, I could go and order five of these, even at the relatively expensive $3-per price, and exalt in the porcine glory.
Taqueria Nueve has done well by its subjects. Its reign has been a good one. And even with the growing number of competitors for the crown, they still hold their own. They rarely fail and they judiciously mix techniques and ingredients from both north and south of the border.
28 NE 28th Ave
Portland, OR
503.236.6195
http://www.taco9.com
A surtido de tacos
La Vanguardia is the newest restaurant in this survey. I also suspect it will be the first to close. That’s mean and perhaps unfair, but the owner’s previous restaurantin that location, Cobras & Matadors, failed, I’ve never seen this incarnation busy, they’ve already changed chefs once, and the food isn’t good enough to draw customers away from the other five. One caveat, however, before I get into the review: I’ve only been here twice, far fewer trips than any of the others.
The menu is promising enough, mostly standards listed at $10 and under. There’s nothing earth shattering in the entrees: carne asada ($8), carnitas ($9), mojo de ajo con camarones ($10), classic red enchiladas ($8). There’s even a Cuban dish, ropa vieja ($8). Among the entrees I’ve tried the enchiladas verdes ($8) and the pork mole verde ($8). The enchiladas came folded swimming in the tomatillo sauce, topped with cabbage, green onion, cheese, and the steak. The steak was charred and medium rare, though a little chewy perhaps because of the cut. The sauce was basic but carried a fiery kick along with the tomatillo tang. The mole had a good balance of nuttiness from pumpkin seeds, chile flavor, and tartness. But the allegedly smoked pork didn’t taste smoked, and worse, wasn’t fork tender.
I avoided their salsas on both of my visits. At $5 for an order of one type of salsa and chips, they’re not very tempting. They’re not even interesting salsas, they’re just typical ones found in every taqueria. La Vanguardia is a bar as much as a restaurant, shouldn’t they be giving away salty and spicy food to try to get more drink orders? Another oddity is that they list their pozole as a “house specialty” but it wasn’t available on either visit.
I ordered a variety of tacos: housemade chorizo con papas ($2 for 2), crispy shrimp with pickled cabbage ($4), and achiote roasted chicken and pickled onions ($3). The chorizo and papas came stuffed in a light and crispy taquito, freshly fried, the ends plugged with cheese. I’d read that people were disappointed in the deep-fried tacos, but I found them to be clearly the best. The shrimp, for example, were overcooked and fishy. The chicken, which I assume is the same as the pollo pibil, was bland, yet displeasing, tasting of whatever Taco del Mar stews their chicken in. Not at all like the recado-rubbed meats of the Yucatan.
Their refried beans are pasty ($2). Everything in their house salad ($7) is fresh, but the flavors don’t meld well and the lime is too bitter and overpowering. Their ceviche blanco ($7) is good, though, and comes with very nice chips. The best dish I’ve had, though, was their horchata ice cream. It’s not very creamy, much like the helados in Mexico, but its flavor is terrific, tasting exactly like horchata with its thin milky flavor, cinnamon, and nuts.
I’m not trying to kick a restauranteur when they’re down, but they’ve got a great location, I like the interior of the place with its wood and big windows, but they’re not trying very hard with the food. I know they’ve got at least one Latino on the line under a gringo. Get the Latino’s mom to offer up some recipes or walk over to In Good Taste and buy a book.
232 NW 12th
Portland, OR
503.219.6800
