May 2023 by Bob S.
This is not to be confused with a restaurant of similar name in a town not far away. I happened on this when I was just driving aimlessly around, which is when I do my best work and i do it a lot in this town. In this case i was torturing myself wondering how to ever get out from under the weight of family responsibility. There are good things about family life I'm sure many of you will say, but if I had my choice in the matter I'd much prefer to have been grafted somehow. That seems like the only way to avoid long term association with members of a nuclear, animal family who no longer share your interests, location or recent history. Dogs do it better, seems like to me. Anyway, it may not be easy for most to understand why I find Mexican food to be such a relief at times like this. Carne asada is better than 'script drugs to kick the blues when thinking existentially in the abstract as I seem to do a lot, especially here. Tranqs, ssri or whatever they're giving you now to up your dopamine, latest fad drugs hawked by psychopharmacologists, wouldn't put a dent in the downer that comes from being in this area of texas. You'd need a dose of snow if that was your direction. Still, with a brother in the local hospital scheduled for some fairly serious carving to be done on him in a day or so, finding a new place to review in this miserable town was a real and much needed upper. That it was a never reviewed newish Mexican joint made it manna from heaven (wondering now that i mention it why no restaurant has ever made a signature dish of "manna" whatever that is or was. Somebody please do a search and let me know, i'm game for it). So this place almost didn't look open at 3 pm, only two other patrons there plus a crew of women doing whatever. the largish dining area had many empty seats, and the room isn't well lit. Two of the crew seemed beat to me, one by way of example was not even wearing shoes. Downtrodden from recent arrival here, and maybe a bit shy as their english was still a work in progress. So the menu is in one of my photos, the only copy being pinned to the wall and no others to distribute or take home, or at least none was presented to me. Simply walk up to the window in back and place your order. Up front there is a more colorful version on the wall but it's not where you place your order nor are there any serving people in the front.Today's special was "caldo de res" better known in california as "cocido" for farmworker lunches, or in some cases it might even be birria if it were dinner. Short ribs in broth with a chunk or two of carrot, cabbage, potato. I can always go for a bowl of cocido due to its elegant simplicity, which is not all that easy to replicate by the way. But then I noticed mole de pollo on the permanent list, and i asked if the mole was ground back there in the kitchen: answer, si and that was that. nothing better than to compare one homemade mole with others I have known before, how much and even what kind of bitter cocoa beans, level of chili heat, any unusual aromatic spice besides the usual cinnamon clove cumin, nuts?, how sweet, maybe citrus juice vs vinegar, etc etc. if it weren't mexican, mole could in my opinion compete with many other culinary high pedigree sauces to accompany chicken or pork, maybe even beef. but no, it's "just" mexican. a real enthusiast could probably raise the stature of mole if more focus were made on its origins which are pre-columbian. works for all kind of pottery after all. so as usual after all this there's not much i have to add about the food itself. there is this, however: for one, the price of this entree was only $9. And two, there are as usual the incomparable touches that only a sparse and get down to it restaurant run by recent folks from latin america can offer. there's an incredibly interesting speaker in the rear corner that is just such a touch. (i have an mp4 that would add multimedia to this review but so far i can't upload it
