Have you ever eaten a sandwich that can taken a bite out of you?

O.k....that's a line from the Simpsons when Grampa puts his false teeth in a hamburger bun so that he can liven up his job at Krusty Burger. Unfortunately his teeth sandwich gets wrapped up and served to a drive through customer. And it does bite the customer.

I did not try to eat a false teeth sandwich but I did try lengua this past weekend! Lengua is tongue and it is popular in Mexican dishes. Presumably, the taco could taste me...right?? I had a taco that looks very similar to this one:

It was good! It surprised me that it was gray which almost constantly reminded me that it was not a "regular" meat to me but a special meat. And that specialness was the fact that it was tongue. If you looked closely at it, you could also see the tastebuds but I tried not to look too closely.

It was very tender and tasted like chicken but a very tender chicken. The taco pictured above is pretty much like it was served: lengua, cilantro, onion on a flour tortilla. I'm not a big fan of cilantro so I took large chunks of it off but I kept some of it.

My advice is to try it! But if you can't get past the gray color (and it was really hard for me), I suggest mixing it into your rice and beans or covering it with salsa. I couldn't finish my meal so I saved it as a leftover and mixed it was my chalupa fixin's. When I couldn't see the grayness, I ate it readily. I could have not cheated but it was much easier to eat both items (chalupa and lengua) all mixed together.

I have heard that some lengua is served in a sauce so if you try it in a different restaurant, you might see something not gray. Or it might be cooked differently and not look the same. Any way you try it, try it! It's worth a trip out of your comfort zone :)

Oaxacan Tamaleo: a review

Mr. Wonderful and I decided to try out another Farmer's Market favorite: Oaxacan Tamaleo.

This place hardly needs more publicity (a quick Google search yielded many hits from foodies of a professional and amateur nature) but when I'm impressed, I'm impressed. And I can't keep my mouth shut.

Tamaleo's story is a feel-good, only in America type story with a happy middle (which I hope is what is occurring right now). It's family run with local food and authentic flavor. We were greeted by Leo's stepson greeting us and her husband taking orders from the other tables. It's small and only three people were working on Wednesday night (no dine and dash for this place!). But the reason everyone loves Tamaleo?? The food! My God, the food.

I had a chicken mole tamaleo. Tamaleos are Leo's specialty. It's a tamale, made with less lard and some other things her stepson told me but I have forgotten :(, wrapped in a banana leaf. The banana leaves are huge and I asked her stepson if I was supposed to eat it. He said "no, it's indigestible" and we all laughed at my ignorance. Hey, I was willing to try anything!

Mr. Wonderful had lamb barbacoa. Fall off the bone wonderful!

We both got rice and beans and they were as flavorful as the meal. My only regret was that I did not order two tamaleos with my dinner. I thought they would be really big but they weren't incredibly huge. Next time: I'll order two.

The great thing about this place is that it's authentic. I couldn't put my finger on it but everything is flavorful and simple. I feel like Tex-Mex is too much sometimes, especially compared to this. Like they have to outdo themselves by deep frying this and refrying. Tamaleo didn't need to do that. It is perfectly able to let each item taste magnificent in it's own way.

I highly recommend Oaxacan Tamaleo. It's less than the price you would pay for Tex-Mex and you feel better after you leave it. Not only do you eat some outstanding food, you just supported a local business!!

Special note: Mr. Wonderful doesn't like rice and beans. He ate every last scrap of the ones at Tamaleo because he enjoyed the flavor so much :0)