Provo Foods: Hispanic

This post is waaaaaay overdue. Ash grew up going to San Diego every summer where her grandparents lived. Finally when she took me there, we had to go to a little Mexican restaurant that she and her brother frequented....frequented frequently. It was there that I was turned on to how delicious a true Mexican taco is. I'm not talking ground beef with chopped lettuce and Ortega taco shells, I'm talking real corn tortilla, carnitas tacos.

El Gallo Giro is the only place that I've found so far that comes close to matching such flavor. Its definitely the most authentic Mexican food you'll find around here. If the food doesn't say that itself, then the fact that more Spanish than English is spoken there should convince you.

Typically, I would write about the tacos, but for the sake of demonstrating the uniqueness of this place, I decided to order something else. (But seriously, if you're there, get the carnitas tacos. They are sooooo good!)

Price:

Lunch / Dinner: It can really range from $5 a' la carte items to $15 combo meals.

Food:

I have a friend who lived in Tijuana. Whenever I eat out at Mexican places with him he always gets upset when they bring out chips and salsa. Apparently, real Mexico doesn't eat that (at least not together). Munching on chips and salsa though is a lot better than doing nothing when your'e waiting on your food.

That took a long time to say "they give you chips and salsa to start".

And their salsa is pretty good.

Next time I go, I promise I'll get a picture of the juices, but this will do for now. Its about a pint of tamarind juice. It'll give you a sugar high in about 12.3 seconds. The flavors switch up here and there, but they always have horchata (a personal favorite drink).

Chips and tamarind Juice

The Molcajete comes with a side of refried beans and rice. I don't know if there's much to say on that other than "they taste good".

Ok, here's where it's at. The Molcajeta. Its a giant bowl of rock that is full of everything: chicken, shrimp, steak, cheese, cactus, jalapeno, and onion. It comes with a side of tortillas, so you end up treating it kind of like a Fajita. The bottom line is, it is loaded with flavor. Seriously, so good. It's on the pricier side of the menu, but if you go there a few times and are ready for a change, then I would give it a try. It's one of those things that you really can't get anywhere else, its that unique (at least around here).

You may learn that I am a huge sucker for flavor. Yeah, I love a tuna sandwhich and potato casserole here and there, but spices, and herbs, and tanginess, and whatever else, mmmmmm, I love it. In this one bowl, you find all of that. So try it out!!

The bowl is around 1 million degrees, so be careful!

The Molcajete

Overall:
If you like Mexican food, it's worth your time; you'll probably get hooked. Ash and I have totally become regulars, and are actually hesitant to blog about it for fear of it loosing its "hole-in-the-wall, our-own-find" kind of status, but alas, the purpose of the blog lives on: good, local food must thrive.

I would like to thank those who voted for the next restaurant. The Black Sheep Cafe was a total success! Located at about 40 North University Ave, The Black Sheep Cafe is a relatively new restaurant that won my love with one dish. The idea behind it is a Navajo influenced South West/Mexican Cuisine, but I overheard the waiter saying that the head chef was trained in European and American cooking. Makes sense since this restaurant had burgers and I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't fine that in your average Navajo hogan. The venue is actually pretty awesome. It doubles as a native American Jewelry workshop, but it had this really nice modern feel to it. From the very beginning, I could tell I was about to have a food experience. (Especially since it smelled like one of the restaurants I worked in).

Food:

After we got our bearings straight that we were about to eat Navajo inspired food (which I have never actually had before) We decided on the Bleu-Fire Shrimp Appetizer. These shrimp were seriously good. Now that I think about it, they actually tasted a bit like fire. (I bet one in four people would say “oh right, you've tasted fire." Fine! It tasted smoky and almost earthy. Happy?)

It was topped with a corn...pico de gillo...ish stuff, but without tomatoes. Sweet, Sweet corn though. All on top of a bed of cheesy blue polenta. I know! I'd never heard of blue polenta, but since polenta is pretty much just fancy corn meal, I guess it could be made just as easy with blue corn. This polenta was soooo good. I could eat a whole bowl of it, and just might some day. Some may think "Polenta?? that gelatinous stuff in a tube in the grocery store??" No no. This is made how God intended polenta to be eaten.

Bleu Fire shrimp on creamy bleu corn polenta

(Can I just say that I love reading a menu and feeling that discouraging feeling like I dont know what to get cause it all sounds so good.) And then … A TRIO! I got the taco trio, a plate of the other tacos that I was salivating over. The burgers sounded amazing, but I was really trying to go for somewhat of an authentic Navajo experience. (As much as one could have while drinking ice water, and snapping pictures on my smart phone)

Navajo Taco Trio

For the record, these were no ordinary tacos. Rather than a corn tortilla as I was expecting, they use fry bread (made in house and soo good). It was almost like eating a taco made with naan.

My three tacos were the Red Chile Beef, Green Chile Pork, and Black Sheep Pintos. These meats nearly melted to the touch. They were soooo tender and filled with flavor! I LOVED these tacos. The kind of food that makes you laugh because its so good.

Black Sheep Pintos

Green Chile Pork

Red Chile beef

Ash got the enchiladas, substituting the pork with chicken. I had a bite of that and thought it was amazing. Ash claims it was one of the best enchiladas she's ever had (coming from a girl who's spent nearly every winter in Mexico eating enchiladas). I have to question though how black olives made their way into southwest cuisine. Do they have those down there?

Enchiladas with Chicken

Dessert was the Orange-Habenero Creme Brulee. The orange flavor was definitely there, but the habenero not so much. By the time we got to this point, we were already too impressed for anything to convince us not to come back. The caramelized sugar was perfect! Some restaurants actually just put sugar on top and torch it till it's melted. This then results in a shiny charcoal on top that totally ruins the dish. Drives me nuts. Next time though, I'm totally getting the honey-butter FryBread. Mmmmmm....

Orange-Habenero Creme Brulee

Price:

I dont know what lunch is, but here's dinner:

Appetizers:

$7 - $8 (soups, salads, other small meal-beginning stuff)

Entree:

Burgers: $9 - $13

Tacos: $12 - $15 (totally worth it)

Overall:

Totally worth it. Go!

Going back to the food experience, These guys got it! Not only is it a family run restaurant (we saw three generations in the kitchen working) but time and effort was taken to make the food unique. This is the type of food that I feel is great by any standards. You put them just about anywhere in the country (or out) and it would do well because it's something that you just don't experience anywhere. It's a type of menu that hardly anyone is familiar with but you will not regret experimenting with it.

P.S.:
I went back there with my brother a little while later. He was excited to try out some of the stuff I've been writing about. I absolutely had to show off the taco trio, and decided that we should also try the bleu Goat burger since the restaurant holds it in such high esteem (and it totally delivered). We saw someone else drinking this radioactive looking drink and decided that rather than loosing out on our chance in getting super powers, we'd better try it out. Good thing too, turns out it was awesome ... no powers though.