Call and Response

It’s hard to avoid the incredible, tempting bounty of San Miguel restaurants (SMA is blessed with over 150 restaurants by one count in the surrounding Centro Historico area); they are on every street, around every corner, and this doesn’t include the food carts spread out all over town. Just across the street from us there is a very popular “tacoria” that serves up assorted meats, salsas, and fresh verduras. Also, next to the food vendor is a guy who sells fresh squeezed juices of all kinds: Me gustaria tener jugo de naranja, por favor! He’ll slice up the oranges and use a hand squeezer to make your juice. In fact, every place we’ve eaten breakfast and ordered juice, it has been fresh squeezed. Oh yes. Our most recent discovery is Doña Diabla, a superb Mexican restaurant that specializes in Oaxacan style Mexican cuisine. Nondescript
from the outside, but once you step inside you sense immediately that this is an unusual restaurant. Jackie was a bit skeptical at first: it was virtually empty with only one person in the entire restaurant; the menu had no more than about five items written neatly on a chalk board. But Jackie was immediately charmed by the waiter/chef and we stayed. We went for Oaxacan style tamales. These are not your common Mexican style tamales; these are made of mole negro (we learned, in fact, that there are three kinds of mole: negro, rich, dark; amarillo, more red than yellow, sweet, spicy, rich; and verde, subtle, full of flavor and white beans. I, unfortunately, have not had that many authentic tamales, but Jackie noted right away that these were different: the dough is thin and spread over a banana leaf. In the center, chopped chicken is drowned in a spoonful of superb black mole and served atop of opened banana leaf. We promptly tasted this magnificent culinary masterpiece. Says Jackie, “These are truly the most marvelous tamales I have eaten in my life.”