October 4, 2014 – mmm-yoso

Here you are again, at mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food. Once again, Kirk is soaring while Ed (from Yuma) is hovering and Cathy is drifting around the county, writing another post about another meal.

One morning I woke up craving anything but a 'normal' breakfast. I knew what I wanted and that at 8 a.m. my cravings could be satisfied. Heading South on the 805, going against traffic, was a breeze. My other post about visits here noted that there was a line out the door by 10 a.m.; the above photo shows people filling out the wait list around 9:15 a.m., when we were leaving. [This outpost of a long time (since 1990) Tijuana based restaurant opened in Chula Vista in 2008, when mmm-yoso!!! guest poster, Miz Ducky wrote about it. CC had introduced me to Aqui es Texcoco. Another U.S based location opened in July in City of Commerce.]After ordering, a freshly made, refreshingly tasty not too sweet Jamaica drink ($2.25) was brought to the table, along with the side order of refried beans ($3.25) we requested. Each order came with a medium size cup of consomme; a lamb broth made with lamb drippings and garbanzo beans; savory but not gamey in flavor. Order of 1/2 pound lamb barbacoa ($9.50), the pit roasted meat came with the aforementioned consomme as well as many corn tortillas and was accompanied by the above herb, papalo, instead of cilantro. The flavor of papalo is amazing: sort of a minty cilantro. {It was a quite strong flavor that at first I used sparingly, to not detract from the flavorful interspersed charred and gelled bits of lamb, which I crave.} I found this herb for sale at Northgate Gonzalez Market and look for it at other Mexican markets when shopping: it's something new to me. The Mister has wanted to try the mixiotes here and he chose the rabbit version ($12.50)The rabbit stew, which is almost a chili after all the baking in parchment with chilis, herbs and spices as well as a chunk of agave leaf (which you don't/can't eat) was moist and tender and just so flavorful. Since we were here anyhow, we also ordered a squash blossom quesataco as a side ($3.25) which was wonderful; crispy, cheesy, a bit crunchy from the burned cheese and just nice. (It also was not blurry in person. Sorry.)Finally, we also ordered flan ($3) for dessert. This isn't like any flan you've had before, unless you've had it in Mexico. Thick and viscous custard, made with subtle vanilla with a caramel soaked top in puddle of flavor. Just a perfect ending.