The blog is mmm-yoso!!! Kirk and Cathy will blog for you again soon. Today ed (from Yuma) has a really long post about Yuma's original Mexican restaurant.
March 2011 update: shortly after this was published, Chretin's was purchased by new owners. While the lunch buffet is still da bomb, the menu is considerably different, and some of the old-school Yuma dishes are gone or prepared differently.
I need to go back and try Chretin's again. My last couple of visits weren't very good and the buffet seemed sparse and overpriced back in the summer of 2013. That was my last visit, but I will try to update when and if I get bck.
My favorite experiences blogging for Kirk are those moments when I can share an unlikely but incredible experience at some out-of-the-way taco stand or a tiny restaurant hidden in a blind alley. My task today is more unusual and more difficult, presenting a restaurant that almost every online poster seems to hate – Chretin's Mexican Restaurant in Yuma:
At Yelp, somebody from New Jersey called the food "Crappy Mexican. Like east coast crappy." At Yahoo, a poster who "came up on mexican food in denver co and sandiego cal" reports "fake mexican food that was just sick we did not eat or food nor ask them to re-make it or refund it." Many others agreed.
For me, on the other hand, Chretin's is like an old friend — maybe no longer your favorite person — but someone you are comfortable with, someone whose good qualities (and shortcomings) you know very well.
My first Mexican meal in Yuma was 25 years ago at Chretin's original location in a ramshackle building in the middle of an old residential district. All I remember is that I enjoyed it. Many times after that first visit, I would come to Chretin's with Mary Emma and her late husband Don, who loved the old school food, atmosphere, and waitstaff. Years later, I still eat at Chretin's occasionally, and I usually enjoy it.
These days, Chretin's occupies a fancy new building at a major intersection (Arizona and 16th St.), and perhaps customers expect the food to be the standard Mexican food that can be found at "nice" Mexican restaurants throughout most of the United States. The Mexican equivalent of ABCDE restaurants. Instead, Chretin's is a Yuma standard, serving some of the same dishes that introduced Anglos in southwest Arizona to "Mexican food" two or three generations ago. Is it authentic Mexican? Ehh, probably not. But it is authentic Yuman.
The new building is both a blessing and a curse. Centrally located, with a huge parking lot, the restaurant with its main room, side rooms, and bar has plenty of space for customers:
At the same time, 2007 was not a good year to relocate a business. And the restaurant was overwhelmed initially. Everyone in town wanted to try the new location, and numerous passers-by and freeway refugees stumbled onto the place and added to the chaos. While I have never had poor service (though I do adjust my standards to Yuma norms), I'm sure some online posters were not well treated.
But the real big whammy for the new location is the seemingly endless widening and repair of 16th St, so that Chretin's seems to be located in a war zone in some third world country:
So amid all that could go wrong, how do I have a good meal at Chretin's? Sometimes, I start with a Mexican beer (Pacifico and Bohemia are my favorites) or the first-rate margaritas turned out by the bar:
Some people like the sweeter flavored margaritas (such as the strawberry one in this picture), but my favorite is on the rocks without salt:
I also savor the thin corn chips and the decent salsa:
Though certainly not the spiciest in town, the salsa here has all the right flavor notes: tomato, chile pepper, onion, with a touch of black pepper and a slight sour tang. The guacamole is also the real thing. The puréed avocado is enhanced with touches of spice and citrus :
A truly great appetizer is the incredible Sonoran cheese crisp (called the toasted cheese tortilla here):
Even my friend Charles knows of none better, in fact, none even close. The flour tortilla is truly crisp and crunchy. The amount of cheese is absolutely perfect, enough to cover but not overwhelm the tortilla. And the balance between the mild creamy white cheese and the sharper yellow is perfect. Top with some salsa and it's heaven.
Another reason to like the restaurant are the lunch choices; you can take advantage of several excellent specials, order items à la carte, or choose the reasonably priced buffet on week days (currently $5.99).
The buffet usually has a salad section, condiments choices, a tostadas area (with ground beef and refried frijoles), mass-produced tamales and enchiladas, decent chicken fajita-style, and ample giant flour tortillas.
Just to illustrate, my friend Dave put together the following concoctions on a recent visit there:
I'm usually content to roll up a couple chicken fajitas burritos with or without extra condiments:
Other lunchtime favorites are bowls of green chile, chili con carne ($5.25), or albondigas, tender meatballs in a rich vegetable based stock ($4.99):
You can also get a lunch size taco salad – beef or chicken:
My only complaint about the taco salads is that there is not enough true salad. Both of the meat choices, beef or chicken, are flavorful, the guacamole and sour cream are abundant, the beans and cheese add their richness, but I have to give up eating when things get too gloppy:
One of my very favorite lunch specials is a single chile rellano, fried perfectly crisp, with rice and beans:
Most of the time, that chile rellano will be the best you've ever had, a fresh green chile amply stuffed with a flavorful blend of white and yellow melty cheeses, wrapped in a thin egg batter, and fried to brown crunchiness. Inside it looks like this:
Another luncheon favorite of mine is the Chile Verde burrito, enchilada style:
I have already written about Chretin's unique version of green chile stew (mutant green chilies in Yuma), but I can't resist showing you another close-up of the insides of a Chile Verde burrito:
This dish also illustrates the unique nature of some things at Chretin's. One specialty of this restaurant is serving burritos and chimichangas enchilada style — covered in sauce and cheese, making them clearly knife and fork food. Of course, I can't claim that this is an invention by this restaurant. Perhaps Chretin's version simply reflects the culinary traditions of the old time Sonoran families in Yuma. But in any case, this style of "wet" or "saddle" burrito is very common around here, but I honestly don't know why that is.
What I do know, however, is that Chretin's serves the only green sauce that tastes a lot like Thanksgiving turkey gravy with merely a hint of green chile flavor. Is this use of flour in the sauce a family secret that goes back to a 19th-century Abuela? Or does it reflect what an entrepreneurial Mexican-American family in the 1940s and 50s believed would sell to Anglo residents and servicemen? Not sure. I can understand how some people could hate this mild chile flavored gravy sauce, but for myself, I love its taste and uniquity.
Other folks are passionate about Chretin's chili con carne, tender bits of beef stewed in an old-school dried red chili sauce:
A bowl of this chili was always Don's favorite lunch, and for good reason. It always reminds me of the best aspects of the canned chili that I ate growing up. I mean that as a compliment — no chili in cans was ever this good, rich and flavorful.
The chicken machaca is a dish not common in Yuma. The chicken (boiled? Or maybe roasted) is stirfried with vegetables and it's full of poultry goodness:
The carne Asada here is also different — a thin, juicy, steak, topped with the roasted fresh green chile — a flavor combination common in Sonoran cuisine. The steak itself is tender, moist, and beefy, touched with a bit of Worcestershire marinade:
I like the carnitas plate even more. This guy could be the poster boy for carnitas. The pork ranges from crispy crunchy to moist and tender. All of it tasting of the pig. And the condiments it comes with — chopped cabbage and pico de gallo — are just perfect. The meat rolls up into two good-sized burritos with plenty of leftovers:
Also outstanding is the chile rellano dinner, pictured here, enchilada style, covered with green chili gravy:
This time made with a very spicy dark poblano:
Anyway, a person can have excellent meals at Chretin's. This is not standard Americanized Mexican food, not always what you expect, and some old time Yumans will tell you that it was better in the old location — but for me, Chretin's is a perfect embodiment of an old-style independent restaurant, a place that sticks to its traditions. I hope they are around to serve future generations this unique version of frontier Sonoran/Arizonan food.
In memory of Don Berkey. Thanks, Don. And we still miss ya!
Chretin's, 505 E. 16th St., Yuma AZ 85364, 928-782-2224
