Viva Alta Cocina!
My neighbor approached the subject gingerly. ” I thought I saw you on TV last night when I couldn’ t sleep, but I wasn’t sure it was you.” It was me, with ill-advised teased and highlighted hair, orange capris and a matching orange maternity sweater clinging to my ample belly.
Burrito de Langosta.
Ten years ago, my then boss at OC Weekly, former Editor-in-Chief Will Swaim asked if I wanted to film a piece for KOCE. They were looking for a food critic to shoot eating in a restaurant on a feature about how the brain processes sensory information.
I was a pregnant food columnist. Eating for two doesn’t adequately describe the massive amounts of calories that I was ingesting on an hourly basis. And they were using Taco Mesa as the backdrop restaurant. I waddled at the chance.
There I sat, take after take, mauling calamari tacos and blackened yellow tail with orange achiote butter, happy as a (giant) clam.
I had reviewed Taco Mesa for OC Weekly well prior to that shoot. At the time, los hermanos Calderon were the only ones doing alta cocina on a paper plate with the prices to match. Since then they’ve continued and expanded with pretty Taco Rosa, their upscale counterpart.
Certain items are always hits: calamari tacos, fish entrees and agave nectar margaritas. Others, (dry, underwhelming taquitos) are misses. Then there are the burritos. Specifically, the Burrito de Langosta.
Snowy hunks of lobster meat are sauteed gently with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and red onions, swaddled in an extra large tortilla and bathed in a delicate tequila lime cream sauce. It comes with epazote-infused black beans and the arroz del dia. They charge a paltry $9.99 for this obra maestra. I’ve paid nearly as much for a # 5 Del Taco combo meal. No lobster included.
