Thursday, March 14, 2013.
Tacos And Sushi, Together At Last.
Mary Ann is fascinated by Saul Rubio. (Pronounced "sah-OOL.") He is the owner of La Carreta and a few other restaurants whose locations center on Hammond. (And not to be confused with Carreta's Grill, with which there is no connection, even though they too are headquartered in Hammond.)
Her interest in Saul has its roots in the Mandeville branch of La Carreta. She and (to an even greater extent) Mary Leigh are devotees of that Tex-Mex restaurant, rarely letting a week or more pass between visits. Mary Ann likes selling the advertising in our website only to restaurants she likes (we have that in common), so she has been putting the full-court press on Saul for a couple of years. Saul knows about us because we eat at La Carreta so often that it too frequently shows up in this diary. (I have kept my distance lately to keep from boring my readers with repetitions.)
Saul has wanted to get together with us to discuss, among other things, my thought that La Carreta desperately needs molé poblano added to its menu. To that end he asked his chef and his mother each to make molé sauce, and us to come over and try them. We did this with a large table of people, including Saul's mother, sister, niece, top managers, public relations lady, and even a writer from the Ponchatoula newspaper.
I don't often go along with plans like that. But this had an intriguing aspect. Saul wanted to do the dinner at Rox, a new restaurant across from the railroad tracks in Ponchatoula. He and some former partners bought the building (from Tom Benson, of all people) a couple of years ago. They remodeled it extensively, converting a popular restaurant called Rockefeller's with a sort of Copeland's look into a much brighter, more visually interesting restaurant.
With a unique menu.
A long time ago, a restaurant in Metairie called the Cosmopolitan served both Mexican and Greek food, from the same menu. I long used it as the most strident possible example of restaurant absurdity. How far we have come! Now that doesn't sound so strange. Even less so since my dinner with Saul and his family at Rox.
Because this night we had a meal that combined sushi and Mexican food in successive courses. We could have had oysters Rockefeller, too. All that is on the menu. So is crepes Suzette, to add a classic French touch to this globe-spanning menu.
It was a very enjoyable meal. It started with a tortilla soup so delicious that I must have been gobbling it. I wanted another shot of it, but by then the ceviche was en route. That was superb, too. And now, the sushi. Beyond reproach, imaginative, fresh and beautiful. My favorite was the big roll at the rear of the photo. It's the Mexican roll: tuna, escolar, jalapeño, cilantro, avocado, chipotle mayo, ponzu sauce and habanero masago. That certainly does combine the flavors of both Japan and Mexico. Saul said he dreamed that one up himself.
The peak moment was the arrival of the dueling molés. Saul's mother's molé was the better of the two, being more rustic in appearance and much hotter in the flavor. (She is native Mexican.) Saul's chef's version was a shade too sweet from the chocolate (which shouldn't have been sweet at all, if you ask me), and too smooth. It wasn't until I didn't have any left of either that I had the idea of mixing the two together. I'll bet that would have been perfect.
The company was fascinating, too. The mix of family and business associates made for a wide-ranging conversation. Saul moved in and out as if he discussed everything in his life with both his mom and his general manager. (Not a bad idea, when you think about it.)
Mary Ann is now even more interested in Saul, his business philosophy, and his success. And in Rox, which she a) likes the looks of and 2) thinks ought to buy some ads from her. She's less sanguine about sushi, but she doesn't touch that anywhere.
Rox. Ponchatoula: 147 NW Railroad Ave. 985-370-0930.
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