Food, Wine and Travel ... With Recipes: TableConversation.com

A Super Sauvignon Blanc

San Antonio Winery Maddalena Sauvignon Blanc 2006.

This is the perfect wine to welcome spring. It’s fresh, crisp and as light as a spring day, with just enough grassy-citrus flavor to make it interesting.

The sun glinting through a glass of this pale wine is a beautiful sight, so serve it in the late afternoon on the patio, with cheeses. I poured it with a spicy pork milanesa and another time with creamed chicken and noodles. In other words, it’s good with just about anything.

The suggested retail price is $11.95.

Traveler's Favorite: Casa Oaxaca

We were planning a trip to Oaxaca, and I promised I’d let you know about restaurants we especially liked.

The favorite was Casa Oaxaca. We ate there twice so I could re-experience camarones al guajillo con alcaparras, setas, flores de calabaza y ajo (prawns with guajillo chiles, capers, oyster mushrooms, zucchini flowers and garlic). The dish was served on a pureed plantain base—delicious.

Both the bar and restaurant are beautifully designed, with a gallery entrance that sets the mood.--K.W., Paso Robles

Casa Oaxaca is located at Garcia Vigil 407, Oaxaca, Oax., Mexico. Tel: 52 (01) 951-514-4173.

Pricey Tequila; Free Food

If you drank a different tequila every night for a year, you still wouldn’t get through the stash at Amaranta Cocina Mexicana in Canoga Park.

This restaurant prides itself on making available more than 375 tequilas. Some are displayed in niches in the wall at the back. All of them are on a very long menu divided according to color and intensity of flavor.

The list starts with “The Best of the Best,” meaning ultra premium tequilas. The “best” of these is Partida Elegante Extra Anejo, at $110 a shot.

You don’t get just tequila for that, but a fancy presentation on a silver tray garnished with cinnamon-dusted orange slices and your choice of any entrée. 

The most expensive dish is filete minon con cabra (filet mignon with bacon, tomatillo and chipotle sauce and an ancho chile stuffed with goat cheese). At $19, it would bring the cost of the tequila shot down to only $91.

If I were choosing, I would go for the enchiladas de jamaica ($16). My Partida shot then would rise to $94. This is only the second time that I have seen red jamaica (hibiscus) flowers used at a restaurant in anything but a drink. The other occasion was in Oaxaca at El Naranjo, where fresh jamaica flowers were mixed into a salad.

If I ordered my second choice, coliflor capeada (fried, batter coated cauliflower), the shot would go up to $98, because this dish is just $12.  The cauliflower is stuffed with cheese, set in a tomato sauce and topped with a creamy mixture of poblano chile strips and mushrooms. It’s another dish not often found on restaurant menus.

The enchiladas, by the way, contain vegetables as well as jamaica flowers, which add a nice tang to the flavor. More flowers are on top, along with strands of sour cream.

If there were anything left in my wallet or credit card account after the tequila splurge, I would then order Mexican chocolate brownies ($6). These are lightly sweet and cake-like rather than dense and fudgy. And they taste delicately of the spices used in Mexican  chocolate.

Cut into triangles and glazed with chocolate sauce, the brownies come on a big plate with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and swirls of strawberry coulis.

If I were too broke to afford this presentation, there is another option. Mexican chocolate  brownies to go are only $2 in the takeout shop next door.

Amaranta Cocina Mexicana, 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Suite 1029, Canoga Park, CA 91303. (The restaurant is inside the Westfield Topanga Mall.) Tel: (818) 610.3599