Avery well-known authority in regional Mexican cuisine, multi-nominated James Beard chef Silvana Salcido Esparza owns Barrio Cafe in Phoenix. Opened since 2002, Esparza continues to be recognized for her innovative cooking style. She pushes the boundaries of what authentic Mexican cooking is thanks to her Le Cordon Bleu training. Silvana also is very serious about her agave cocktail program, with approximately 200 bottles of tequila.
Avery well-known authority in regional Mexican cuisine, multi-nominated James Beard chef Silvana Salcido Esparza owns Barrio Cafe in Phoenix. Opened since 2002, Esparza continues to be recognized for her innovative cooking style. She pushes the boundaries of what authentic Mexican cooking is thanks to her Le Cordon Bleu training. Silvana also is very serious about her agave cocktail program, with approximately 200 bottles of tequila.
Silvana comes from a long line of bakers. The Salcido family’s heritage dates back to medieval Spain, when they were the official pastry chefs for King Ferdinand. The family migrated from there to Mexico in the 1600s then arrived in Los Angeles shortly after World War II. Chef was raised in Merced, Calif., and grew up in the family bakery.
The family frequently drove to Mexico to get hard-to-find Mexican staples and offered it for re-sale in their retail bakery. As the migrant workers from Mexico flocked to the Merced area, their store with all those Mexican staples became a very popular place to shop for the migrant workers.
Homemade is the buzz word at this restaurant, from syrups in the bar to house-made chorizo sausages.
We were in Phoenix to visit friends who brought us to the Barrio Cafe and had a wonderful Sunday brunch there.
The Barrio guacamole is refreshing and simple with thick chunks of avocado, tomatoes and topped with pomegranate seeds.
Leonor, which is lemon-marinated beets, queso de cabra, citrus supremes, topped with red onions and Yucatan-style pico de gallo, was ordered as a salad course. Queso de cabra is goat cheese.
For the soup course, we all had posole verde, pork hominy, roasted tomatillo and poblano soup topped with shredded cabbage, sliced radish and diced onion and served with tortillas de nixtamal. The soup had wonderful flavors and great combinations of textures.
I ordered the huevos con huitlacoche. Huitlacoche, or corn smut, is a pathogenic fungus (Ustilago maydis) that forms on maize and teosinte. In Mexico, it is a delicacy used as a filling in quesadillas and soups. In my dish, it was mixed with scrambled eggs.
Jim had the enchiladas suizas, which was imported queso menonita-filled nixtamalized corn tortillas topped with a delicate tomatillo cream sauce then topped with an over easy egg. The queso menomita is a soft white cheese and is called by that name because of the Mennonite communities of northern Mexico that first produced it. It also is called queso chihuahua as it is now produced in the state of Chihuahua. It is similar to white cheddar or Monterey Jack and is a great melting cheese. The nixtamalized tortilla refers to the process in which the maize is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled.
The pescado poblano was pan-seared halibut in a roasted poblano, crema de pinon and house-made chorizo.
After all that wonderful food, dessert was tres leches, three milk-soaked sponge cakes topped with berries, crema chantily and pecans.
For dinner, Barrio Cafe has a prix fixe menu for $42 consisting of an amuse bouche or bite-sized hors d’ oeuvre. Curso uno, or course one, is hoja Santa envuelta, or hojo Santa herb, quesillo Oaxaqueno, roasted pepper, salsa de aceite de cacahuate. Curso dos, or second course, is jicama aguachile, or raw diver scallop, cucumber, red onion, avocado, jicama, orange and salsa verde cruda.
Curso tres, or third course, is huarachito de chicharron, or pork belly chicharron in chipotle black bean huarache, pickled white onion, salsa de chile de arbol and queso fresco. Curso cuatro, or course four, is pescado en xoconostle, or pan-seared halibut, xocontole y guayabo, white wine reduction and xoconostle salsa de molcajete. Curso Cinco, or course five, is costilla de cordero huitlacoche trufa niega, or sous vide lamb with a saute of huitlacoche and Italian truffles in a creme demi.
Curso postre, or dessert, features chocolate mousse with Ancho Reyes tequila in mezca shaked berries, imported Oaxaca chocolate, crema chatilly and toasted pecans.
You can see by the menu that Silvana has a creative mind, and it is no wonder she has been nominated four times by the James Beard Foundation for her excellence in cuisine.
Foodie bites
• Hawaii Community College’s The Cafeteria is open 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. through Friday. Call 934-2559 for specials and take-out orders.
• This Sunday is the Japanese Chamber of Commerce’s Taste of Hilo from 1-3 p.m. at Hilo Hongwanji’s Sangha Hall. Support this worthy fundraiser as it benefits Hawaii Community College.
• The fourth annual Lilikoi Festival is 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 15) at Makuu Market. There will be a cooking contest, vendors, entertainers, keiki activities, food, cookbook sale and a silent auction.
• An institution in New York City, Carnegie Deli — famous for its Woody Allen, a 4-inch-high pastrami and corned beef sandwich on rye — will close its doors forever Dec. 31. Owner Marian Harper Levine, 65, has dealt with an illegal gas leak, a lawsuit by a federal court for back wages and a reduction in her restaurant space.
But according to an article in the New York Post, a bitter divorce from her ex-husband, Sandy Levine, who had a long-term affair with a former waitress and then allegedly stole Carnegie’s pastrami and cheesecake recipes that are now being used in the girlfriend’s family restaurant in Bangkok, really did her in.
After the end of this year, there will only be Carnegie Delis in Bethlehem, Pa., and Las Vegas. Carnegie Deli is a fun place to eat, with each waitress having an interesting personality. It will certainly be missed.
UPDATE: A former dishwasher, Samuel Musovic, who worked at Carnegie Deli for more than 30 years and now owns several Manhattan restaurants such as Selena Rosa, a Mexican eatery, plans to round up investors and offer Levine $5 million and a percentage of the profits. Stay tuned.
• Happy birthday to my husband, Jim, today.
Email me at audrey wilson808@gmail.com.