At Taqueria Mixteca in Dayton, they serve up authentic Mexican dishes from the state of Jalisco, in central Mexico. The restaurant is owned by Mexican native Martha Guzman and managed by son Francisco Mejia. We asked Guzman and Mejia to provide their suggestions for diners looking to be more adventurous when they eat Mexican. Mejia served as translator for Guzman.
Not all of the dishes suggested below will be available at other restaurants, but consider checking in at your local favorite and viewing its menu with a fresh eye. Ask your server for suggestions or simply try something that’s new to you.
Sauces
Many Mexican restaurants will leave the job of making the food spicy to the customer. At Taqueria Mixteca, they have squirt bottles filled with sauce that diners can use on their own dishes. “Maybe 95 percent of the food we serve here will not have any spiciness,” Mejia said. At Taqueria Mixteca, green and brown sauce is mild, while the orange is hot.
Appetizers
Taquitos are a popular appetizer. They are small corn tortillas filled with meat, deep fried and topped with lettuce, sour cream and jalapenos.
Camarones asados are medium-sized shrimp, grilled with butter and seasonings and eaten with hot sauce. It’s a popular snack for residents along the Mexican coast. In Mexico, Guzman said the women of the house will often make these for snacks when everyone gathers to watch soccer games. Mejia said they go great with beer.
Creviche tostada is made with fish that is marinated and cooked in lime and served on a flat, hard shell corn tortilla.
Entrees
Whether you are ordering tacos, burritos, chimichangas or sandwiches, Mexican meat choices can stretch beyond the typical American comfort zone. At Taqueria Mixteca, they offer 10 options, including a few beyond the expected pork, chicken and ground beef.
Barbacoa is steamed beef that is cheek meat from a cow or bull. It is a bit fatty and very tender. Suadero is basically fat with a bit of meat, sautèed with onions and seasoning. Lengua is cow tongue boiled with a lot of spices. Tripe is cow’s intestines.
“Here, we prep it ourselves. We boil it and fry it on the griddle, where it gets very crunchy,” Mejia said. “It’s so good. It tastes like bacon.”
Guzman likes to recommend tamales to customers who are unsure what to order off of her menu. Tamales are made of corn dough, called masa, and stuffed with either pork or chicken. They are wrapped in a corn husk and boiled for an hour. Although it arrives on your plate still wrapped in the husk, don’t make the mistake of trying to eat the husk.
Pork tamales come in a red sauce, made with dry pepper, and chicken comes in a jalapeno-flavored green sauce. The chicken version is spicier.
Tortas are Mexican sandwiches. If a guest is trying to decide what to order, and says he likes hamburgers, Mejia will recommend a milanesa, or breaded steak sandwich, although they offer sandwiches using any of their 10 meats. A sandwich can come piled with refried beans, avocados, jalapenos, lettuce, tomato and sour cream, so prepare to be stuffed.
Tripe soup is a hearty stew, a little on the spicy side, made with cow stomach and foot. A breakfast food in Mexico, Mejia said it’s a good cure for a hangover. At Taqueria Mixteca, they only make it on the weekends.
Goat soup is another option. In Mexico, the first step to making this soup is to bury an entire goat in a hot pit with agave leaves. In Dayton, Guzman makes it in a pot, boiling the goat in spices, including oregano, cilantro, lime and roasted chili peppers.
Chicken mole is a dish traditionally made for special occasions, including weddings and birthdays. The mole made by Guzman has 15-different ingredients, including peanut butter, almonds, bananas, avocados and dried pepper. It’s a paste-like sauce, scooped with a spoon, and eaten with tortilla.
Drinks
Ordering a Coke may not seem that adventurous, but if you see Mexican Coca-Cola on a menu, give it a try. Mejia thinks it tastes different from the American version because it is made with cane sugar and not corn syrup.
Jarritos is a carbonated Mexican soft drink brand which comes in numerous fruit flavors, including pineapple, tamarind and guava.
Horchata is a soft drink that is very popular in Mexico. It is made from rice flour, cinnamon and sugar. “It tastes like a cinnamon bun,” Mejia said.
Desserts
Pastel tres leches, which translates roughly to “three milk cake,” is sponge cake dipped into three kinds of milk: condensed, evaporated and regular. At Taqueria Mixteca, they fill it with peaches or strawberries and serve it with whipped cream.
Contact contributing writer Susan Dalzell at dalzell.susan@yahoo.com or @susandalzell on Twitter.
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