Viva Cocina Auténtico!
For a lot of people, Mexican food often means only one thing: a frozen-margarita-soaked romp through a chain-restaurant chimichanga, beans refried and refried again. (Hey, you get what you pay for.) Even Mexico is not without it’s Señor Frog’s. A recent trip to Puerto Vallarta, a busy town nicely rebounding from last year’s empty-hotel-room woes, yielded surprising and truly authentic Mexican food at El Arrayán.
Leading the Slow Food movement in the area and consistently voted Best Mexican restaurant by VirtualVallarta.com, this gem, just up a side street from the famous Malecón boardwalk, features distinct cocina tracicional, or traditional dishes, from the state of Jalisco. Surrounded by colourful decor and art, local diners and tourists alike are rewarded with a seamless and outstanding meal, with unusual recipes founded on quality local ingredients. “We are still recreating some old or family recipes as specials,” says owner Carmen Porras. “And we feel blessed to have such a happy team working with us, people who make this possible every evening.” Tables ring a central open courtyard featuring a lone arrayán tree, which bears the fruit that infuses the restaurant’s subtle trademark margarita.
Pre-Hispanic ingredients (chili, corn, cactus paddles, beans and avocado) are mixed with European staples (meat, cheese) for the makings of a special night. Getting down to business, three salsas accompany the (first) basket of corn chips, which certainly don’t last long. Black bean plantain empanadas with asadero cheese melt in our mouths, and velvety shrimp ceviche on corn tortillas leave us silent for several minutes. Crispy duck legs in an orange-arrayán sauce are moist and tender, with potatoes fried, without doubt, in the same duck fat. But the highlight of the main courses is a not-too-hot dried ancho pepper stuffed with sautéed shrimp, tomatoes and guajillo pepper. A dangerously sweet caramel flan makes a fine finishing touch.
Live entertainment on Saturday nights is local and – you guessed it – authentic but not in an in-your-face mariachi sort of way. (Leave that to the more raucous Pipis down the street!) And while Puerto Vallarta can appear to be peopled solely by tourists in certain spots, El Arrayán is also a favourite with the city’s avid foodies. On the night of our visit, our ears perked up to a particular voice in the crowd. It turned out to belong to the dive master, a prominent marine biologist, from the previous afternoon’s SCUBA adventure, who was dining out with her husband and friends.
Don’t leave without checking out the gourmet ingredients in the corner for a jar of the exquisite salsa negra.
El Arrayán
Allende 344 esq. Miramar
Col. El Cerro, 48304
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
52-322-222-7195
Doug Wallace
Bottomless pit. Hollow leg. These descriptors are two great reasons (well, really just the one) why most Saturdays see Doug Wallace making his fridge look beautiful, prepping for an afternoon of alone-time in the kitchen, and getting blissfully lost in the process. Thankfully, after all those years waiting tables, some kitchen smarts actually rubbed off. A Toronto-based magazine Editor-for-Hire and an independent Public Relations Consultant, Doug, 47, first began writing about food with a stint reviewing restaurants for Toronto Life magazine. He now spends quality hours throughout the year travelling and eating, weighing in on everything from Maui’s beachside Fish Tacos to Edinburgh’s gourmet Pork Sandwiches to Shanghai’s Hundred Year Eggs. A few of the many kitchen staples include 35 percent cream, Korean black garlic and a laptop. That jar of Baconnaise in the back of the refrigerator is merely a guilty pleasure. A carnivore in the purest sense, he slaves weeknights preparing delicious fare for his vegetarian partner. Ah, the sad, sad ironies of life. His friends call him Duck.