Every week someone at the bar asks which taco is the best one on the board. Chef Mateo refuses to answer, so we polled the staff. Birria won on comfort: six hours of braising, a crispy cheese edge and a cup of consommé do a lot of work on a January night. Al pastor won on craft: marinated pork shaved…
From October 31 to November 2 the kitchen steps away from the regular menu for a short Day of the Dead run. Here is what Chef Mateo is planning. Pan de muerto baked in house each morning. Mole negro over braised chicken, a two-day recipe we only make once a year. Tamales de rajas wrapped and steamed in corn husks.…
This started as a staff meal and ended up on the fall specials board. Here is the version you can make at home. Halve a pound of Brussels sprouts and roast them hot with a little oil until the edges blacken. Cook four slices of thick-cut bacon until crisp and chop. For the salsa, char four Roma tomatoes, half an…
Authentic is a loaded word, and we use it carefully. A taco in Mexico City is a corn tortilla, a cooked filling, onion, cilantro, salsa and lime. That is the whole list. What is usually not there: shredded cheddar, iceberg lettuce, sour cream and hard shells. None of those are wrong, they are just a different dish, and we make…
Our guacamole has four ingredients: avocado, lime, salt and white onion. Everything else is optional, and here are three variations the kitchen stands behind. Classic: mash two ripe avocados with the juice of a lime, a quarter cup of minced white onion and a good pinch of salt. Leave it chunky. Smoky: add a charred jalapeño and a spoonful of…
Small changes, big difference. Here are six things we do in the kitchen that work just as well at home. Warm the tortilla on a dry pan until it blisters. Double up corn tortillas for anything saucy. Salt the onion and cilantro, not just the meat. Add acid at the end, always lime, never bottled. Keep the salsa on the…
Patio season in Edmonton is short, so here is the list to work through before the heaters come out. Birria tacos with consommé. Baja fish tacos with cabbage slaw. Street corn rolled in cotija and chili. The saskatoon margarita. Chicken tinga tostadas. The carnitas burrito, eaten on the patio with a view of the Avenue. Republic nachos for the table.…
Mexican lagers are the obvious pairing and we keep plenty on ice, but Edmonton brews some beer that belongs next to a taco. A crisp pilsner from a local brewery cuts through carnitas fat. A hazy pale ale stands up to the chiles in birria. A gose, salty and sour, is the best thing we have found for fish tacos.…
We press hundreds of tortillas a day and we waste almost none of them. Here is what the kitchen does with the leftovers. Chilaquiles for staff breakfast. Totopos fried for nachos. Tortilla soup, where the stale ones are actually better. Migas with scrambled eggs. Enfrijoladas dipped in black bean purée. Tostadas baked flat and crisp. Tortilla strips as a salad…