If you’ve never had mole, let me give you a little background: while the term is just a blanket for several unrelated types of sauce, here in ‘murca it generally refers to a thick cocoa-based sauce with hints of cinnamon, ground nuts and all sorts of other things. While the main ingredient is cocoa, it’s far from chocolate (despite what you might hear in tonight’s video), and it really isn’t sweet.
So I first went to Guelaguetza in college. A girl from Cinema 190 asked me out, and somehow we decided on this place. If you had asked me if I liked mole back then, I would have said no - I wasn’t much of a fan of chocolate (don’t shoot me!). And while what I had was ok, the date ended up being a total bust, further cementing my (misguided) dislike for all things mole.
What I did take away from the date was that goat wasn’t all that bad. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that the highlight of my date was the goat. Pretty sad, right?
I should also mention that at the time, they used to have a massive basket of dried crickets in their little shop section. Thinking it would impress my date (it didn’t), I tried one - my very first experience eating bugs! To this day I still have trouble getting the taste out of my mouth.
Sadly (I’m not shedding any tears over it), they no longer have the basket of crickets. I do recall them being similar in texture to an M&M, and similar in flavor to a salted pistachio mixed with brine.
The real draw here is this famous chocolate sauce. And the goat! So, without further ado, the video!
I had been told that their Horchata was top-notch, and when it arrived I didn’t even know how to react… Covered in roasted nuts, with a layer of pink juice on top and chunks of melon floating on top. It looked more like a milkshake or a sundae than horchata…
Well that pink layer? Fresh cactus juice.
Frankly, this was the tastiest and most refreshing beverage I had had in a long while. While it was sweet, it wasn’t overpoweringly so, as is fairly common with horchata. And the cactus juice gave it a whole other dimension… It was liquid happiness, and it didn’t even have any alcohol!
If you’re in the area of one, you owe it to yourself to make a detour just to pick one of these suckers up.
So to start things off, we opted for a cactus salad because… Well. It’s cactus.
I’m not sure what I had in mind when I ordered it, perhaps something much more cartoon-like. The salad is essentially a salsa fresca with green strips in it. The cactus has the consistency of overly-cooked green beans, with a hint of their waxiness and without any particularly strong flavor. It’s very refreshing, albeit not the most amazing thing. Certainly not bad, though.
Next up were the Black Mole Chicken Tamales, ordered by our guest star Richard Elfman. He was pretty much done with them before we even started our goat, so I think that stands as a testament to how they taste…
The black mole is god. It’s real good. It’s hearty and thick, and extremely rich… This one is the closest thing to chocolate you’re going to have, and it almost feels like you’re eating very dark chocolate. The tamale is not massive, and I understand why: any more of that sauce and you’ll end up collapsing on the floor. It is undeniably delicious, though.
The Tamale itself is as good as anywhere else, wrapped in a big banana leaf and cooked just right. It serves mainly as a platform for the mole, which is the real star of the dish. Highly recommended if you can handle the richness.
Of course then it came time for the real deal, the goat in red mole sauce.
God bless flash photography, right?
So anyway, the red mole is much thinner, definitely lighter and less on the chocolate tip of cocoa. It is quite similar, texture-wise to an Indian curry, and the flavor is ever so vaguely evocative of one.
First thing that jumps to the palate is how tender the goat is. It really falls apart like slow-cooked ribs, butwith a slightly more firm quality to the meat, like beef.
The flavor, as Richard put it, is gamey, although not overpoweringly so. Similar to lamb, but much bolder in taste. Given the relative subtly of the red mole, the dish works together flawlessly, making for a truly enjoyable dining experience. The rice keeps everything in balance, because both the sauce and the meat can be a bit intense on their own.
If you’re not big on mole but curious to try the goat, I do recommend the goat burrito, which I had enjoyed on that fateful date night so many years ago.
So if you’re hankering for an authentic taste of South of the Border, and an especially awesome horchata, then by all means head on over to Guelaguetza. They have 4 convenient locations to serve you.
I leave you with a sorely disappointed Englishman in front of pudding, a name he strongly disagrees with:
Guelaguetza
3337 1/2 W. 8th St.
Los Angeles, CA
(213) 427-0601
$
Photos by me for Cityzine
Subscribe to our RSS Feed And checkout our coffee competition to win a $30 gift voucher to your favourite coffee shop : click here
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
3 responses so far ↓
1 Richard Elfman // Mar 6, 2008 at 1:15 am
Aha! You concede that it’s CHOCOLATE sauce–although with zero sugar, it does not resemble a candy or desert in any way. But were where the damned crickets? I want a bunch of crickets the next time we eat Oaxacan.
2 Mahatma Kane Jeeves // Mar 6, 2008 at 1:32 am
Did you know that Pinocchio was based on a true story of a Swiss toy-maker named Geppetto, who set up shop in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, where crickets are eaten in the manner that North Americans eat peanuts or pocorn. Apparently he consumed too much Oaxacan 140 proof mescal tequila and was in his shed munching on fried crickets when he tripped over a pile of wooden puppets and broke his neck. Passerby’s heard the poor delirious fellow crying out from the shed, “Jiminy Cricket! Jiminy Cricket! The puppets are talking! The puppets are talking!”
3 nesoxochi // Mar 6, 2008 at 9:28 am
guelaguetza is one of the best restaurants i have ever been to in california, and may be my favorite mexican restaurant of all time.
Leave a Comment