Sunday, August 6, 2017. El Paso Mexican Grill.
I like the name of this new Louisiana-based chain. It comes right out and says that the place is Tex-Mex, without having to get into that impossible business of authenticity. It admits that the food is right on the border. The Marys join me for dinner there. ML is on the North Shore with her dog Bauer, who likes to go swimming. He will also allow himself to be tied up outside a restaurant if he may park right next to the table. The Marys both like Mexican food, and I think I have them intrigued by El Pasoi. This is my second visit to the new El Paso in Mandeville. What was just a possibility the first time was a proven fact now. El Paso cooks molé poblano--my favorite dish in all of Mexico. It comes to the table atop enchiladas of cheese and chicken, with a flow of the molé in just the right amount. The flavor--which involves bittersweet chocolate, chile peppers, and many spices--is as fine a version as I've had anywhere. [caption id="attachment_55571" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Mole sauce over enchiladas with cheese and chicken.[/caption]
I don't know why the stuff is such a hard sell. The Marys are much less excited about it, and they are not the only ones. There is decidedly a learning curve for appreciating it. Getting more people to try it is one of my crusades. It is not. But it has been suggested by my correspondents that this is my way of trying to influence other people for my own satisfaction. I do think I'm doing people a favor by turning them on to this treat. Which, by the way, is very well liked throughout Mexico (especially in Pueblo and Oaxaca) and in American border states. Plenty of it in Texas, especially in Houston and San Antonio.
[caption id="attachment_55572" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Queso dip with chorizo sausage.[/caption]
I think I will play around with Creole dishes that involve the use of molé ingredients. In one of his television appearances, John Besh threw a few chunks of bitter chocolate into a red wine sauce for beef. I tried that myself in a different dish and liked the outcome greatly.
The radio show that ran before the Marys and I went to dinner as tilted by the crisis of flooding around town. When a major news item takes over the attentions of listeners, I have to decide whether to stay with the food-and-wine focus or to take calls about the flood. Although WWL is the definitive local emergency station, it seemed to me that our reporters in the news department had the flood well covered.
After Katrina, I faced this same matter, and found that most people who called me were more interested in bringing their lives back to normal than in figuring out whose problem the flood was. They wanted to know which restaurants, food markets and other food sources were back open.
Today, I told the story of T. Pittari's, the famous restaurant on Claiborne Avenue that went through three major floods before throwing in the towel and closing. The people who called in about this talked more about Pittari's unique food than the floods.
