Don Cuevas Amigo
Posts : 281 Join date : 2011-02-21 Location : Michoacán, Mexico Job/hobbies : Retired Humor : incomprehensible
| | La Mesa de Blanca Otra Vez | |
We returned with friends yesterday to the delightful Mesa de Blanca at Ziracuaretiro. This was, if I've counted correctly, our fourth visit in just under a year. We'd also been to the breakfast only restaurant, "El Gorjeo de Las Aves En Las Mañanas de Abril", owned and operated by the same couple on two other occasions. Both are very attractive, El Gorgeo almost Eden-like, but overall, the menu selection is more extensive and interesting at La Mesa de Blanca. Note that El Gorgeo is open for breakfast everyday, from 9 to 1, and La Mesa de Blanca open only Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, from 1 to 6. We prefer the weekend days. Yesterday, we arrived just before 2 and there were plenty of tables free. When we left a couple of hours later, there were guests waiting for seating.
La Mesa de Blanca has three kitchens. This one, in the entry hall, is dedicated to masa de maíz, carnitas and grilled meats.
There's a choice of three dining rooms, all bright and airy. The main room has aquaria of carp or very large goldfish. But we chose again to sit in "El Refugio", an elevated and slightly detached terrace off the service bar, which is far from the kiddie playground and where chldren may not enter.
As I've already covered most of our previous visits on my blog, http://mexkitchen.blogspot.com/ I'll limit this to a brief decription of what we five ate yesterday. We focused on the "botanas", which are really more like substantial appetizers, then later, ordered two platos fuertes.
Guacamole con Chicharrones is simple well made. It's hard to beat freshly made guacamole, in an avocado growing district, in a restaurant patronized by aguacateros and their families.
The tacos de carnitas are always good, and yesterday was no exception, this time on freshly made blue corn tortillas. They are served with dishes of pickled jalapeños, pickled carrots, onions and cauliflower and a bowl of salsa roja. All was good, but the salsa roja seemed a littled "tired" in contrast to that of previous visits.
We also had two orders among us the the Platonic dish, Chiles Capones, 3 per order, of long, dark green chles pasillas filled with strips of queso fresco and served in a pool of salsa verde no muy picante, and laced with crema.
Out of curiosity, I ordered Manitas de Cerdo al Chipotle, which was the least memorable dish of all those we had. It was cooked very tender, but the textures did not appeal to me, and the sauce was underseasoned.
Before our meal,my wife and I both had glasses of mezcal, accompanied by the unique sangrita made in house. There's also an extensive listing of Tequilas. The aguas frescas of the day were zapote negro or horchata. Unfortunately, the signature agua de zarzamora was not available. I highly recommend that to all. It's worth asking if it's available. I didn't try the zapote, but my wife did and said is was sweet but not a lot of flavor. The horchata was very pleasant, just the drink to accompany comida picante, and tasted more of almonds than of the usual cinnamon.
During a pause, we discussed platos fuertes and even whether any were desireable. Two of us decided to go for it. Our friend, Ron ordered Mixiote de Cordero, tender morsels of seasoned lamb, impressively presented in a bag from the inner tissue from pencas de maguey. All of us sampled it, and agreed that it was excellent.
I ordered Trucha a la Talla, simply trout split length wise and coated with a mild adobo rojo before grilling. I realized later I'd had that before, but it was a suitably relatively light main dish.
None of us had room for dessert, but there was one café American (weak, sad to say), a rum, and for me, an anís seco. Overall, a very enjoyable afternoon of excellent food and the company of friends.
Rather than try to put more photos in this post, I'll simply direct those of you interested to view them here: http://tinyurl.com/MesaDeBlanca There's also a map in the album and a Google Map Photo Location on the right of the window. | |
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Mon 28 Feb 2011, 11:31 by Peter