The season for my favorite Mexican dish, "chiles en nogada", is in full swing and will continue through September. Alejandro and I were downtown last Saturday, and we had our third "chile" of the season. We were going to go back once again to one of our favorite restaurants, "Testal". However, there was a long wait for a table. We decided to go to another one of our favorites, a branch of "El Cardenal" located just a few blocks away in the Hilton Hotel. "El Cardenal" was also busy, but we only had to wait a minute for a table.
This time of year, "El Cardenal" has a special menu featuring "chile en nogada". Without any hesitation, that's what we ordered.
The meal began with an appetizer of a "cuitlacoche" enchilada. "Cuitlacoche", also spelled "huitlacoche" is a fungus that grows on corn... known as "corn smut" north of the border. While farmers in the U.S. consider it a blight, in Mexico the fungus is a delicacy. If the idea of eating "corn smut" sounds repulsive, remember that is it is simply a type of mushroom similar to truffles. The enchilada, which was garnished with avocado, red onion, cheese and herbs, and covered with green sauce, was wonderful. I could eat a whole plate of them as a main course.
Then came the main event... the "chile en nogada". "El Cardenal" serves a very good "chile".
For dessert there was a sorbet of "tuna" (the fruit of the prickly pear cactus) with mezcal. I don't care for the taste of mezcal, so I asked the waiter not to add it to the sorbet.
No comments:
Post a Comment