El Naranjo

I attended the Foodways of Mexico: The Culinary Birth of a Nation: Gastronomy and the Making of Mexican Identity with Chef Iliana De la Vega (owner of El Naranjo formerly in Oaxaca, now gracing us with its presence on Rainey Street) on September 9th at the MACC and left captivated, truly inspired and so proud to be Mexican!! Following her super interesting and funny talk, we had the opportunity to sample her Chiles en Nogada (btw, my grandma's are still the best)and Mole Poblano. What a tease!!! I, of course, wanted to try her entire menu immediately!!! 

So, the other night my LWers and I went to El Naranjo to have ourselves a mini-feast. 
I had such a hard time picking just one item... so I chose two, ok, maybe three, and then poked my fork into everyone else's food :). 


I started with the infamous Molotes Veracruzanos- plantains, black beans, and cheese mixed into the masa. They top them with crema and queso fresco and give you a generous side of salsa. This is like the Mexican mozzarella stick, only this one is ridiculously good. 


Then I moved on to my Tacos de Nopales- cactus with tomatoes, cilantro, and lime topped with queso fresco. Yummy yummy! These were really good and healthy-ish... I had corn tortillas, so I'm going to call it my serving of veggies for the day, ok? 

Morritow and Huemasita told me I was going to need more food, guess they know me well, so I ordered the Tacos de Tinga Verde- chicken in green sauce. They were tangy, spicy, and delicious. We also tried the Gringas (basically a quesadilla with al pastor meat) and the Cochinita Pibil tacos. Ok, the Gringas were good, but the Cochi has a long way to go. If you want good Cochinita, go to La Condesa.


Morritow got one of the specials- Tacos de Cecina Adobada. They were very good, the adobo was amazing and the meat was tender. Ro got the other special- Tacos de Tasajo. Holy crap, the meat was tender, thin, juicy, delicious, perfectly seasoned... it was so good. The tortillas were ok, but fell apart easily and didn't taste like they came straight from the comal.


While the food was awesome and the conversation was interesting, the mosquitoes biting our legs were a little more than ANNOYING! 
Apparently they're trying to move into the house (If you haven't been there, the trailer is on the drive way of a cutie patootie house that is still under renovation) by January.

 If you love Mexican food, you'll love El Naranjo. She knows a thing or two about this stuff... after all, she did give a 'talk' on Mexican culinary history! I even learned how Mole was accidentally invented by a nun in Puebla.


*Note: The taco specials for the night are the only ones served with beans and rice*

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