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Slurping Up Inky Black Noodles

I am eating fabulous noodles, chewy as the best Italian pasta, dark as ink (but not squid ink) and rich in deep, caramelized flavor.

The menu calls these brown sauce noodles. Dull, right? But if you read Korean, you will see that the real name is sam san cha jiang (mein), which means noodles in black bean sauce with three kinds of seafood.

The noodles are listed under chow mein at Ogamdo, a Korean-owned Chinese restaurant on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles.

Chinese restaurants don't have this dish, even though its origin is northern China. Koreans add their own touch, caramel, and that makes the taste so seductive that I almost forget the other dishes on the table.

It doesn't matter that the bowl holds only two types of seafood, shrimp and squid, not the promised three. The noodles steal the show anyway. 

And there couldn't be a nicer place to eat them than Ogamdo's breezy patio. 

The dinner we've ordered is perfect for hot weather--fried shrimp with spicy garlic sauce, tender pork steamed for 12 hours, or so the menu says, and baby bok choy with big, meaty black mushrooms.

The batter-coated shrimp are crisp, coated with tiny cubes of garlic and sticky-sweet, spicy sauce. You could call them seafood candy.

Infused with five spice, the pork arrives on a bed of bok choy. Not knowing about the garnish, we have inadvertently ordered two bok choy dishes, but we eat it all. 

Ogamdo has a full list of wines, sake, soju and beer and 35 teas, one of which accompanies our meal.

The weekday lunch specials are great bargains, with many dishes to choose from, including the fried shrimp with spicy garlic sauce and brown sauce noodles.

Inside and out, the restaurant is quirky, decorated with all sorts of surprising things, not the least of which is an enormous red buoy in the patio. It has been turned into a private dining alcove.

Inside the restaurant are high-backed booths so that people can eat in privacy, although they're in the same room.

Chinese chefs from Korea prepare the food. And one Korean dish unfailingly accompanies every meal--ice cold kimchi. Just looking at the ice cubes sparkling on top is as refreshing as the patio breezes on a warm night.

Ogamdo Cafe and Restaurant, 842 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Tel: (323) 936-1500. Open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Super Seafood on the Street

It's 10:25 on Sunday morning, and a crowd has assembled around Mariscos La Guerrerense, waiting for it to open.

This street stand is the first stop for anyone in Ensenada who wants extraordinarly good seafood at an extraordinarily low price. 

Imagine a tostada of sea urchin (erizo) for less than a dollar. Or the same tostada with half sea urchin and half any other topping. 

That doesn't mean some ordinary filler but elite toppings such as "mixto," a ceviche that combines shrimp, octopus, sea snail, clams and mussels. Or sea cucumber, or Spanish style bacalao (salt cod), or creamy fish pate.  And these are just a few of the options.

La Guerrerense has been serving classy seafood for 33 years. It's in full view of passing tourists but didn't catch on until recently, when savvy foodies began to pay attention.

I was introduced to it by Bill Esparza of www.streetgourmetla.blogspot.com. For years, I'd  passed on by, thinking that street seafood was way too risky. (In this case, it is not.)

And what I've been missing, like a fresh-shucked Pismo clam on the half shell, squirted with lime on one side and hot sauce and catsup on the other, then topped with fresh chopped salsa and avocado, scooped out of the shell as I watched.

Chewy sea snail (caracol) is just as delicious. And the seafood cocktails look amazing.  I'll have one of those next time.

People come from far away to taste this food. One guy had just flown in from Guadalajara. His first destination, with girflriend in tow: La Guerrerense.

The name means a woman from the state of Guerrero, and that woman is Sabina Bandera Gonzalez.

Tiny, pretty and unflabbable, she runs the action. Things happen fast.  Customers swarm around, push to the front to call out their orders or just stand there, blissfully eating. But there's no confusion. The right order gets to the right person, and quickly.

Jars of homemade salsas are open to spoon onto whatever you order. The really special one is "chilitos de mi jardin" (chiles from my garden). It's a super spicy mix of hot chiles grown in Bandera's garden, peanuts, almonds, pecans, garlic and olive oil.

Did I say prices were low? The charge for a sea urchin tostada and a Pismo clam was 40 pesos, or about $3.25. Hard to believe.

Mariscos La Guerrerense is located at the corner of Alvarado and First Street (Lopez Mateos). Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Closed Tuesday.

A Taste of Puebla in Ensenada

Fish tacos, margaritas and shopping--that sums up Ensenada for most vacationers.

But head away from the tourist shops and their shiny purses, T-shirts, shell bracelets and semi-porno beer mugs, and what do you find?

Great Mexican food, real Mexican food, in restaurants where you're not likely to come across another tourist.

Take, for example, El Huarache Poblano. It's not glamorous, just another corner place with the name in big letters so that you can't miss it.

Poblano means from Puebla, a city famous for mole poblano, tinga (shredded meat) chiles en nogada and many other specialties. A seasonal dish, the chiles are stuffed with meat and fruits, topped with a creamy nut sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.

In Puebla, almost every restaurant serves chiles en nogada in the fall. El Huarache Poblano has them now and will continue to serve them on weekends well into September. It's run by a family from Puebla, so the cooks know how this food should taste.

The chalupas are very good. The base is a small, thin tortilla made at the restaurant, not a thicker commercial tortilla pressed into service. The topping is shredded meat in a red or green sauce and crumbled cotija cheese.

The mole, which is the restaurant's own formula, is dark and rich, not overly sweet, and has a nice kick of heat. It's delicious on chicken enchiladas, laced with crema.

The huaraches, shaped like the sole of a sandal, come with several toppings, among them tinga, chicken mole, potatoes with chorizo and rajas, which are creamed chile strips.

Like the chalupa tortillas, the huarache bases are made at the restaurant, and you can watch how this is done. The masa is placed between sheets of wax paper on a tortilla press and pressed in several stages. Each time, the end is slid further outside the press to get the oblong shape.

The shaping and baking take place at a corner work station dominated by a large, round, gas-powered grill.

A simple agua fresca de tamarindo (tamarind drink) indicates the care taken in the kitchen.

The drink is made from tamarind pods, not a bottled concentrate, which would have been much easier. Tangy, with just enough sugar, it is perfect with this food.  (My recipe for the drink appears below.)

Dessert is flan, jello or cake, but something not on the menu, made for a youngster, caught my eye. That lucky boy was going to eat a plate of fried bananas soaked with sweetened condensed milk and crema, sprinkled with nuts and decorated with a cherry.

Nice touches include serving the food on Mexican pottery plates. And the restaurant is strung with intricately cut colored sheets of paper, traditionally used in Mexico for festive occasions.  Look closely, and you will see that some of these spell out the word "huarache."

El Huarache Poblano, Riveroll 420, corner 4th Street, Zona Centro, Ensenada. Tel: (646) 161-6746. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Monday.

AGUA DE TAMARINDO
Tamarind Drink

½ pound tamarind pods (about 10)
6 cups water
¾ cup sugar, or to taste

Remove the shells and strings from the tamarind pods. Place them in a large saucepan and add 4 cups water.

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and boil gently for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand until cool enough to handle easily, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

With your fingers, remove the pulp from the seeds and discard the seeds. Also remove any small strings and hard bits of membrane.

Place the pulp and the cooking liquid in a blender container, making sure that all seeds have been eliminated. Blend thoroughly. For a really smooth drink, put through a sieve, but you don't have to do this.

Pour the puree into a pitcher or large storage container. Add the 2 remaining cups of water and stir in sugar to taste.

Add ice to the pitcher if serving immediately. Or chill and serve later over ice in tall glasses. The tamarind pulp will settle to the bottom, so stir well before pouring.

Makes 6 cups, or 6 servings. 

 

Winery Tastings, Good and Bad

You pay to taste at Baja California wineries, and that's the way it should be.

But you don't always get what you pay for.

Ripoff is a mean word, but that's what I would call paying $10 for skimpy tastes (see the photo) of three mediocre wines.

The culprit? Baja's oldest winery, Bodegas de Santo Tomas. Located in the heart of Ensenada, it's an easy walk for tourists taking a break from the shops. Otherwise, they'd have to drive to the Guadalupe Valley, where most of the wineries are located.

No question, the atmosphere is great. The long tasting bar, made of old French oak barrels, lines a cavernous room that also houses the winery restaurant and huge wooden tanks in which wines were once fermented.

The wines poured the day I went in were a thin, semisweet 2008 Colombard, a raw, harsh 2007 Tempranillo, and, the best of the lot, a tannic 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, wines priced at $8 to $16 a bottle. 

The next day's tasting was just the opposite--four very good wines, including one from the top of the line, for $3.50. 

The place: Vinisterra, which is located in San Antonio de Las Minas, the first town as you head into the Guadalupe Valley.

Little more than a barrel storeroom when I went there in 2005, it's now a handsome brick winery with vaulted ceilings, a tasting room, fermentation room and separate barrel room, where the floor is inlaid with tiny lights.

The tasting started with Domino Tinto 2006, a blend of Grenache, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Mourvedre, aged in oak for 16 months. At $14, this was the modest end of the line, but not a modest wine. 

Next came two upper level wines, Macouzet Cabernet-Merlot 2005 and Macouzet Tempranillo 2005. They're named for Guillermo Rodriguez Macouzet, who is the winery founder and owner/partner.

The blend combines equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Aged 17 months in oak, it is young and lean, with bright acidity and wonderful layers of flavor.

The Tempranillo was fresh, fruity and so appealing that I bought it ($23).

The last taste was Pedregal, one of Vinisterra's top wines ($36). The grapes came from a rocky vineyard, and that determined the name (rock is piedra in Spanish).  

This smooth, elegant wine is 67% Syrah, and you can see some of Vinisterra's Syrah vines through the tasting room door. The rest of the blend is Mourvedre.

Along with the wines, we nibbled on cow's milk cheese from Ojos Negros and slices of chistorra, a slim, firm sausage made by an Argentine purveyor in Ensenada.

Agnes Cameleyre, who runs the tasting room, instructed us to pair the Tempranillo with delicious grainy, cinnamon-flavored Mexican chocolates.

Vinisterra is open only on weekends. The annual wine festival is in progress now, and the winery had staged a Oaxacan-themed party the night before we arrived. Agnes gave us leftover party favors--red carnations for the women and, for the men, wooden tubes from which Oaxacans drink mezcal.

Winemaker/partner Christoph Gartner dropped in, as did Rodriguez,  who says he plans to add more vineyards and, eventually, a restaurant.

The nearby town is worth a visit too. You can buy local products in the shops, and a couple of outdoor restaurants are good places to stop for lunch after a visit to Vinisterra.

Bodegas de Santo Tomas, Av. Miramar 666, Zona Centro, Ensenada.  Tel: (646) 178-3333. Open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. Closed Sunday.

Vinisterra, Calle Sexta (6th Street) 984-3, Zona Centro, San Antonio de las Minas, on Highway 3, which  goes from Ensenada to Tecate. Tel: (646) 178-3350. Open Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.  For more information, go to http://www.vinisterra.com. 

 

Bringing Back a Taste of Baja

I'm just back from three days in Ensenada, and my kitchen is a glorious mess.  The counters are jammed with wines, olive oils, marmalades and other delicious foods from Baja, so many things that it was impossible to get them all in the photo.

It was a great trip in great company. eating companions Bill Esparza and Nancy Zaslavsky. They're in the photo below, at one of our wine stops.

Bill, whose deep knowledge of Mexican food is amazing, organized the trip. Check out what he has to say at http://streetgourmetla.blogspot.com. 

Nancy, author of  "A Cook's Tour of Mexico" and "Meatless Mexican Home Cooking,"  leads food tours to Mexico and knows what to eat everywhere and how to cook it. Read about Nancy at  http://www.nancyzaslavsky.com.

We went down for Vendimia, the annual wine festival. Aside from going to winery parties and winery open houses, we prowled the streets of Ensenada, eating at stands, at simple restaurants on back streets and checking out new places serving everything from bagels to giant clam ceviche.  

We had no schedule, no plan. We wandered from one marvelous experience to another, as if some kindly food god were leading the way. We ate the best possible fresh seafood, regional dishes from Chiapas and Puebla, delicious local cheeses, fresh figs straight off the tree and great dishes from the area's best chefs.

But more on these experiences later. Right now I'm busy putting away the things I bought. Well, overbought, but who could resist a gallon can of artisanal olive oil from the region's abundance of olive trees? And a few additional  bottles from local producers?

And homemade marmalades put up in canning jars with hand-pasted labels? 

I bought Andree's green mermelada de nopal con manzana (nopal cactus and apple marmalade). It's delicious on toast.  And organic guava jam from La Casa de Dona Lupe.

And toasty whole wheat granola with raisins, almonds, amaranth and flax seeds, sweetened with honey and piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar). It was made by Maria Teresa Rodriguez Sanchez of Rosarito.

And cinnamon-flavored Mexican coffee from Cafe Negrita's shop in Ensenada.

A few things came from elsewhere, like strips of pickled chipotle chile sweetened with piloncillo from San Pedro Cholula in the state of Puebla. And little bolitas (balls) of Kekua's cinnamon-scented Mexican chocolate candy from Michoacan. The cacao beans had been ground on a metate, the label says. And the candies were packed in a small basket with a lid. 

Some things were impossible to bring home, like delicate goat and cow's milk cheeses from Ojos Negros. And wines that would have taken us over the regrettably small amount allowed into California. 

But before long, we'll be back to eat more, taste more wines and report on our Baja discoveries. 

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Baja's Best Malbec Blend

I had a wonderful wine the other night. Too bad it's the only bottle I'll be able to get, unless I make the long drive back to Baja California wine country. That's the Valle de Guadalupe (Guadalupe Valley) outside the port city of Ensenada.

The wine was Emeve Malbec-Cabernet 2007, a blend of 50% Malbec and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. My bottle was No. 298, hand-enumerated on the back label in gold ink.

I tried it out at Emeve's tasting room, but didn't really get a handle on it until I poured it at home with dinner (oven-fried chicken, linguine with pesto, Mexican squash with home-grown chard and tomatoes).

Aged 14 months in new French and American oak, the wine is young, fresh and elegant, with good acidity and tannins. It would go well with anything from cheese dishes to steak. The cuttings came from UC Davis.

Yet Emeve's winemaker, Ensenada-born Reynaldo Rodriguez, is cautious about Malbec. "We don't know if we will be able to develop the plant in Mexico," he says. That will take time and experimentation.

The blend was necessary because Emeve's Malbec "is too young to be its own varietal," Rodriguez explains. The Cabernet Sauvignon came from 10-year-old vines.

Rodriguez speaks more glowingly of the 2006 Emeve Bordeaux blend, Los Nietos, and the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. Both won gold medals in 2008 from the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, which has a school of enology and gastronomy at its Ensenada campus. 

In the 2009 competition, which took place August 8, a gold medal went to the 2007 Los Nietos. It's a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.

Merlot and Cabernet "love the climate," Rodriguez  says. In the photo above, he shows Emeve's Cabernet Sauvignon vines.

The 2007 Emeve Cabernet Sauvignon was ranked among the best Cabernets produced in Mexico in an article in the July issue of "Buena Mesa" (The Good Table), a supplement of the Mexican newspaper Reforma. Judges found notes of ancho chile and mango with chile in the aroma, which makes it a truly Mexican wine.

Emeve is situated on 945 acres between El Porvenir and Francisco Zarco. The first vines were planted in 2004, and the first commercial release was the 2006 vintage. By 2010, case production will rise to about 3,000, Rodriguez estimates.

Next year will  see the release of an Emeve Tempranillo. "It's my favorite fruit," says Rodriguez, who also makes wine under his own label, Quinta Monasterio. This is not surprising, because he has a master's degree in viticulture and enology from the University of La Rioja in Spain, and La Rioja is known for Tempranillo. 

The owner of Emeve is Mario Villarreal, and what must be his sumptuous home can be seen from the relatively modest tasting room. His daughter, Laura (in the photo at right), is the manager.

Another daughter, Maribel, is chef/owner of L'abricot, a French restaurant and patisserie in Tijuana, where Emeve wines are served. The photo at the top shows the Malbec-Cabernet at L'abricot.

To reach Vinicola Emeve, take the Highway 3 turnoff just north of Ensenada and head toward the Guadalupe Valley. Look for signs that indicate the road to San Jose de la Zorra. Emeve is between the wineries Adobe Guadalupe and Baron Balche. For more information, go to www.vinicolaemeve.com.

Wine country maps are available through the Ensenada Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has an office at Blvd. Costero 540, Ensenada.

The address of L'abricot is Antonio Caso 1910, Zona Rio, Tijuana. Tel: (664) 634-0721.

In Mexico, It's Espaguetti

Once, when I was preparing a book proposal, my agent told me not to use the word spaghetti. It's too mundane, too ordinary, too common and dull, she said. Instead, I had to write about "pasta."

Well, spaghetti isn't the least bit ordinary, in my opinion, and certainly not in this recipe, which comes from a woman I met in Xalapa in the state of Veracruz. 

It's delicious and easy, just onion, garlic, jalapano, olive oil and lots of cilantro. And it escapes the publishing world's disdain on a technicality. In Mexico, spaghetti is not spaghetti but espaguetti, as my friend in Xalapa spells it.

ESPAGUETTI CON CILANTRO
Spaghetti with Cilantro

8 ounces spaghetti
6 tablespoons olive oil
½ medium onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jalapeno chile, seeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups lightly packed cilantro leaves, chopped
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions and drain in a colander.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium skillet. Add the onion, garlic and jalapeno and cook until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes.

Add the olive oil mixture to the pan in which the spaghetti was cooked and heat. Stir in the salt, then the cilantro.

Add the spaghetti and toss with the cilantro mixture over low heat until combined. Serve as a side dish, topped with Parmesan cheese.

Makes 4 servings.

A Tijuana Breakfast: Barbacoa

It was early Saturday morning in Tijuana, and the neighborhood was quiet. Most people were still asleep, or relaxing. But not Victor Manuel Torres.

Saturday and Sunday are his biggest days, the days when his home fills with people who want to eat great barbacoa, the way Torres learned to make it in his native state, Hidalgo.

They sit at long tables in what could have been a front yard or a patio, enclosed to form a restaurant, Barbacoa Ermita.

Instead of cooking the meat in the ground the usual way, Torres has constructed an above-ground pit in the brick counter that lines one side of the room.

The meat, which is lamb, steams in there overnight, the lid tightly sealed with masa. Then out it comes, tender and juicy, cut up and passed to the tables.

But first comes a bowlful of hot consomme, the byproduct of the steaming. Spicy and rich with lamb juices, it contains garbanzo beans, as is traditional. 

Adding chopped onion and cilantro and a squirt of fresh lime makes it even more delicious.

Meanwhile, tortillas are heating on the griddle, and these are handed out for making tacos, or just eating along with the meat.

Salsas are on the table, although there is no need to cover up the pure, fresh flavor of the lamb, which is not at all gamey.

Still, a touch of spice can be nice. The choices are pasilla chile salsa with pulque, a red salsa of beer and chiles de arbol, habanero salsa, and a green salsa of tomatillos, cilantro and serrano chile.

The bravest eaters relish the final flourish--pancita rellena, the stomach of the lamb that has been stuffed with offal and red chile and barbecued along with the meat. It is rich and strong, tasting of liver.

To drink, there are sodas and an enormous jar of homemade jamaica, deep red and sweet.

If you want to end with dessert, the only choice is pay de queso (cheesecake).

Barbacoa Ermita stays open as long as the meat lasts. For those who arrive too late on Saturday, there is consolation.

On Sunday morning, it will open again, serving, as Torres lets you know on his business card and on the sign in front, authentic and original barbacoa Hidalguense.

Barbacoa Ermita is located at Ermita No. 807, La Mesa. Tijuana. Tel: (664)  622-1969. Open Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Taquerias of Tijuana

Driving through Tijuana very late, on dark streets where nobody is around and all the shops are closed, you will see, without fail, at least one bright light. And that light will shine on a taco stand.  

Taquerias are all over the place, meaning this must be everybody's favorite food. Some are crowded and noisy. Some are quiet and lonely, with only a customer or two from the neighborhood.

Of all these, one stands apart. And that is Tacos Salceados, or Tacos La Ermita, as locals call it, for the street on which it is located.

Here you can have a taco like no other. Instead of a corn tortilla, a crisp cheese shell encloses the filling. The concept, melting cheese on a griddle until it becomes firm, like a flourless cracker, is not unique. I've even seen cheese crisps boxed for sale at my neighborhood farmers market.

But what Tacos Salceados does with the cheese is miraculous, like its dessert taco, a mix of sweet and meat wrapped in cheese. Mine oozed with mango puree. The few bits of beef inside weren't enough to distract from the sweetness. Putting it over the top was the "salsa" mounded onto the cheese shell--thick strawberry sauce, sprinkled with chopped pecans.

I don't know how many types of cheese-coated tacos Tacos Salceados makes, but  I had two in one night, the other filled with shrimp and creamy sauce.

Another shrimp taco there had neither a cheese shell nor a corn tortilla wrapper. The shrimp were inside a thin slice of New York steak.

There are lots of other tacos, with a choice of flour or corn tortillas. Fillings include chicken, marlin, cactus, pineapple, tongue, salmon, trout, and salceado, a mixture named for the taqueria. The photo second from the top shows a combination plate with portions of four tacos. The actual tacos are larger.

The table condiments veer from the usual too, with such additions as sliced cucumbers in creamy pink dressing.

Creativity is fun, and Tacos Salceados is always crowded. But if you want nothing more than traditional meaty tacos, go to Tacos El Poblano, where guys behind a white-tiled counter put the tacos together so quickly their hands are a blur.

This taqueria is known for carne asada tacos that combine several cuts of beef.

The tacos aren't served open face, with the filling on top, or doubled in half, but folded into a cone, with the meat inside and avocado sauce slathered over the open end.

The men will turn the same meats into a tostada. The base is a mini-sized crisp corn tortilla, and the toppings are onion, cilantro, red or green salsa and the avocado mixture. You can help yourself to the radishes, limes and charred jalapenos on the counter.

Other popular meat fillings at this taqueria are birria and carne adobada, which is chile-red marinated meat. 

Tacos El Poblano has been open since 1974.  Its tacos are 13 pesos, slightly less than $1 U.S.

When I asked for the address, the taco makers gave me one of their red, white and blue paper hats, printed with the location. I felt honored, like one of the group, although I'll leave the taco-making to them.

Tacos Salceados (Tacos La Ermita). The owner doesn't give out business cards or post the address outside, but Tacos Salceados is directly across the street from Barbacoa Ermita, Ermita 807, La Mesa. Tijuana.  

Tacos El Poblano La Mesa, Boulevard Diaz Ordaz 7813, La Mesa, Tijuana.