Mexican

Dish Tease: Sombra Mexican Kitchen

Enchilada Trio

Dish tease posts are short clips about new restaurants or specific dishes from places I’ve already written about. You can view all Dish Tease posts by selecting the category on the Post Subjects drop down menu.

Halloween isn’t over yet and Sombra Mexican Kitchen is already bringing up Christmas.

Actually, their reference to Christmas is the red and green sauce poured over enchiladas, which are offered on the menu year-round. Usually premature holiday celebrations are slightly annoying, like seeing a pink heart Valentine’s day explosion the day after Thanksgiving, but I’ll let this slid by on a technicality. (I kid!)

On a Friday night I met up with some girlfriends at The Township at Colony Park for dinner at the new Sombra Mexican Kitchen. They have been open for a mere three to four weeks, but we were eager for Mexican food.

We immediately ordered a round of House Margaritas, dove into the bowls of chips and salsa, and shared a cup of cheese dip. The margarita is maybe the best I’ve ever had, made with fresh, natural ingredients including lime juice, agave nectar and premium tequila. The salsa has a good consistency and spicier kick than what most people are used to. We scraped the cup of cheese dip clean.

For my entree I had the traditional Mexican Enchilada trio, one of each filled with chicken, beef and spinach covered with Christmas sauce, served with beans and rice. Everything looked and smelled delicious, but the flavors could have used more depth. Maybe I was unfairly expecting a more cheese laden Tex-Mex style dish, which is contrary to the authentic Mexican feel they are striving for.

My friends had a variety of dishes, the Black Bean and Goat Cheese Tamale (hardly touched), Tacos al Carbon (decent) and a Chimichanga (great). We decided we would definitely come back for the margarita, get a bowl of dip and try different entrees such as fajitas or table-side tortilla soup.

Don’t delay to try Sombra for yourself, Christmas is just around the corner.

Sombra Mexican Kitchen
The Township at Colony Park, Suite 102
Ridgeland, MS 39157
Phone 601-707-7950

http://www.sombramexicankitchen.com

Dish Tease: Babalu

Chicken Enchilada Special

Dish tease posts are short clips about new restaurants or specific dishes from places I’ve already written about. You can view all Dish Tease posts by selecting the category on the Post Subjects drop down menu.

During the previous week I had eaten at Soulshine, Georgia Blue, Babalu, Walker’s and attended wine school at Table 100. I ate a lot of good food and had a couple new experiences. It was a full five days.

Needless to say I have a lot of draft posts regarding these meals. Until I find the time to fully develop the stories, here are three gratuitous photos of two dishes from Babalu’s menu.

On this night I resisted snapping more shots of the infamous guacamole, but couldn’t help myself when it came to the Street Corn or Chicken Enchilada Special.

The Street Corn is a delicious starter with a spicy kick, slathered with mayo and rolled in cotija cheese. It’s available on a stick or cut off the cob, for those who might worry about neatness. Since I’m not one to shy away from the possibility of getting messy (it’s inevitable), I opted for the stick.

The Chicken Enchilada Special was bathed in a green chili and tomatillo sauce which gave it a distinct tang. The fresh salsa topping included pineapple which made the flavors a little too sharp because I couldn’t eat it all. I would order the pork enchilada special over the chicken.

Read my previous story about Babalu.

Babalu Tacos & Tapas
622 Duling Avenue
Jackson, MS 39216
Phone 601-366-5757

http://babalums.com

Dish Tease: Taqueria La Guadalupe

Empanada Insides

Dish tease posts are short clips about new restaurants or specific dishes from places I’ve already written about. You can view all Dish Tease posts by selecting the category on the Post Subjects drop down menu.

As much as I enjoy eating out, there are instances when it’s difficult to try new dishes.

We frequent a handful of restaurants and I have a habit of sticking to what I like, ordering the same thing over and over again. This way I won’t be disappointed, I’ll be satisfied and know exactly what I’m getting. Those are probably the same reasons why vanilla is repeatedly the most popular ice cream flavor.

Nevertheless, at our latest dinner at the Taqueria La Guadalupe I went wild and tried the empanada. The same caution was thrown to the wind at my brother’s wedding when we tasted Maple Bacon ice cream. Craaazy. 

The empanada was freshly fried, piping hot and plump. It was stuffed with pieces of beef, rice and a few vegetables. I was expecting a spicier ground beef filling but it was more reminiscent of beef stew.

Unlike Maple Bacon ice cream, I see more empanadas in my future.

Read my previous story about Taqueria La Guadalupe.

Taqueria La Guadalupe
6537 Old Canton Road
Ridgeland, MS 39157
Phone 601-206-7776

Babalu

The infamous guacamole

Being out of touch is a great motivator to be spurred into action.

In the past few weeks I’ve managed to get a car inspection sticker (apparently it’s a Mississippi requirement), upgrade to a smart phone (hellooo 2011) and drink my first Baba-rita.

Now I can avoid a hefty ticket violation, play Words with Friends, and not be quite so un-hip in casual conversation because Babalu pops up as often as the paparazzi shadows Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Babalu opened late last year and is one of the newest additions to the ever expanding Fondren area. I don’t know why it took me so long to get there. Paying a lot of money for a little meal had me balking at the idea of tapas, but mostly the opportunity hadn’t presented itself.

Thankfully, the perfect occasion finally arrived when my co-workers and I recently celebrated a friend’s retirement. Our large group slowly filtered into the restaurant on a Friday evening after work.

Entering the door you are greeted by “I Love Lucy” episodes projected on a large wall, separating the main dining room on the left, from the bar on the right. It has a clean, industrial feel and due to the cavernous space sound echos easily. We settled in next to the Babalu branded wall, ordered our first round of drinks and the infamous guacamole.

People gush over the guacamole like a newborn baby. They coo about it. They can’t get enough. It’s made table-side (!), a concept I find amusing considering I cook fewer than five feet from our kitchen table most every night.

Nevertheless, the show is part of the fun and we observed as a server brought out a tray of various sized silver bowls and got to work. Their version includes sun-dried tomatoes which is the only slight variant from a traditional recipe. It’s good guacamole but the accompanying fresh, thick chips make it fantastic.

In addition to the guacamole, I had received many dish recommendations on and off-line prior to our visit. Ben and I narrowed our selections to Carne le Vaca Tacos, a Pork Enchilada of the day, and the Braised Beef Short Rib tapa.  Friends were also kind enough to let us taste their Tamales and Garlic Shrimp tapa.

His favorite dish was the Carne le Vaca Tacos (2) which features tender flat iron steak and a spicy kick from the salsa roja. I kept going back and forth between the enchilada and the short rib. The enchilada was filled with smokey meat and covered in bubbling cheese. The short rib was falling apart at the seams into a pool of savory grits.

Each dish we nibbled on was great but also grew saltier as the night went on. The Baba-rita had a salted rim, the chips were generously sprinkled and salt nearly overwhelmed the enchilada. Maybe they compounded on each other.

Initially I was worried we didn’t order enough knowing how tapas can be such small plates, but the richness of each dish contributed to our fullness. If you’re hungry, bring a well padded wallet because our meal for two people was around $60.

Babalu is unique. Go there for drinks, to soak up the fun atmosphere with friends, and nosh on a bite or two. Don’t go expecting to order one item as a full meal, traditional Mexican/Tex-Mex food, or a quiet dining room.

In the meantime, if you crave Babalu’s guacamole the recipe has recently been featured in Mississippi Magazine, which was re-posted by The Hourly Reporter and The Free Library website.

Babalu Tacos & Tapas
622 Duling Avenue
Jackson, MS 39216
Phone 601-366-5757

http://babalums.com

Tony’s Hot Tamales

The Tamale Dinner hurt so good

As a side product of my coupon habits, in the morning I excitedly check my inbox  for two daily emails.

The magic words are: LivingSocial and Groupon.

Companies are jumping on this sales platform bandwagon like pioneers on the Oregon Trail. AOL has Wow.com, AT&T has ShopAlerts and Google has Google Offers (to name a few). These websites focus on specific cities and offer a discounted deal each day, for example you could pay only $5 for $10 worth of frozen yogurt at Sweet Tree.

I admit, it’s kind of addicting.

A local newspaper was searching for people who frequently buy these deals and then forget or neglect to use the voucher. I am the exact opposite of this and cannot wait to run out to cash in on my half price fro-yo or pedicure or lunch. These coupons burn a hole in my purse, pocket, hand, whatever.

We used two LivingSocials deals last weekend I had previously purchased, one for Brent’s Drugs and one for Tony’s Tamales.

I’ve always enjoyed the food at Brent’s (read about Brent’s here) and thankfully the service has greatly improved.

And although we’ve had Tony’s Tamales at a friend’s Christmas party (for which he orders them by the dozen), we’ve never eaten at the restaurant. For dinner on Friday we drove the El Camino to Tony’s restaurant off Woodrow Wilson.

Upon pulling into the parking lot we spied a sign taped to the window that states something like, all orders after 2 p.m. must be placed through the drive-thru. It was 7 p.m. I’m not sure if you can then take your food inside to eat, but we brought our take-out back home.

We had a LivingSocial for $15 worth of food and ordered two tamale dinners (six tamales covered in chili and cheese), half a dozen plain tamales and two lemonades. You have the option of getting hot (spicy) or mild tamales, and we got the hot ones.

The tamales were as good as ever, moist, seasoned with a slight kick and wrapped in corn husks. The tamale dinner tasted good going down, but eventually caused a small stomach ache. It could have been all that cheese or raw onions or chili…

We still haven’t eaten “at” the restaurant, but I’d take a carry-out tamale any day of the week.

Now, I’m just waiting for Tony’s to show up on Groupon.

Learn more about the local tamale history and tradition on the Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail website.

Tony’s Hot Tamales
230 West Woodrow Wilson Avenue
Jackson, MS 39213
Phone 601-366-9591