Today we went to a little grill restaurant with amazing traditional flavors and fun, bubbly staff.
Hello, again. My dad and I, and sometimes my mom comes along too, have been going out on the town to find some of the best not so well known cheap eats, mostly family-owned, restaurants that we can find. We go out almost every day, finding some new little place, or big place, to tell you about and review the food and prices.
So, it’s been a little while since I’ve written any food reviews, so of course once I got some time, me and my dad were more than excited to go out a find a new place to eat. And, of course, we did. The place is small, but the flavors are so great, and it is such a nice little restaurant. It’s called El Chinelo Grill, and is located on Calle España 282 in Díaz Ordaz, and the latitude longitude location is 20.639236466695394, -105.22778773068525. They used to be located on Francia, and remained for about a year, but then they changed locations.
El Chinelo Grill features all pre-Hispanic flavors from Yecapixtla, and more specifically from Morelos. And I mean everything, from the tacos to the traditional specialty dishes to the salsas. As I was talking with the owner he said that his food and recipes are pre-Hispanic flavors, though not 100% pre-Hispanic, because if you wanted that he would simply serve you a tortilla, maybe a little nopal. But, back to the food and salsas. They have three salsas, one of them that has serrano and chile de arbol, one with habanero and jalapeño, and one with chile de arbol and morita. Now, morita is very similar to chipotle, and my dad even thought the sauce we tasted was chipotle, but it’s also different. Both chipotle and morita are smoked and dried jalapeños, but morita is smoked for less time, so it keeps some of it’s tenderness and slight fruity flavor. So, you can imagine why the morita sauce is quite unique, and very good.
To eat I got an Itacate del Rey, which is constructed like a triangle-shaped sandwich made with a thick top and bottom made out of yellow corn, with a texture somewhere between corn bread and a tortilla. It has either pork or beef meat (I chose pork,) melted cheese, avocado, nopals, and onions. The meat is called longaniza, and it’s cooked in a similar way to chorizo, and has a similar taste too, though it’ only made out of leg meat, so it is much better quality. But back to the dish. The name itacate is from a triangle shaped lunch bag that used to be used very commonly, and wives would use them for their husband’s lunches so they could take them to work. And, well, after some time people started calling the dish itacate, and the name stuck!! And boy are they good! Normally I don’t like nopals because they are slimy, but the meat covered up the slimnynes, and it still had a bright green and unique flavor that you could ever-so-slightly taste.
My dad originally had originally gotten Chinelo tacos, but then he saw the owner, who was also his friend, walking by with flor de calabaza. He jumped up and asked for his previous order to be stopped, then got two quesadillas, one with huitlacoche and one with the squash flowers. I know, it sounds weird, but then again so is my dad and he loves to try new things. Now, if your wondering that huitlacoche is, it’s basically rotten corn. Yep, just good ol’ rotten corn, yet it’s a delicacy, and my dad very much enjoys it. He calls it a fungus, which is technically what it is, and says it adds to the flavor, but I just call it mold. My dad really enjoyed it, and said it was super fresh and good, yet I don’t see how mold could be fresh or good. Anyways, the quesadilla with flowers I did try and it was realllly good. A little weird, I must the say, and the texture was like wilted lettuce, but it had a good, strong flavor. The flavor was very organic and sweet, and tasted like the scent of flowers, though it didn’t have a green flavor.
El Chinelo Grill is kind of a small place, but it’s definitely worth a visit. Not only is the food great, you get to try some very traditional food, and it’s fun. And it was also fun to talk to the friendly elderly waitress, who has the personality of a young person. She’s actually the mother of the owner, and she has a passion to work there side-by-side with her son!!
If you enjoyed this article, and would like to recommend a place that you know about, then please let me know. Or, if you are an owner yourself of a place that you would like to see written about, contact me.
And to see the rest of my food reviews go to the Dining Out section here in Vallarta Bay Times.