We have been hearing for some while about a new Mexican restaurant that opened in New Bedford within the last year. National Club retained the name of the dive bar that had been in its location previously, along with the mid-century signage. But inside it was all new, gloriously decorated with high-concept Mexican food and great service. It was perfect for James' birthday -- allowing us a Mexican restaurant fix as close to Cinco de Mayo as we could get, without actually being caught up in the national holiday of Corona brewing.
And it allowed James to have poblano peppers two days in a row! The chile relleno at National Club was wonderful -- the cheesy kind, not the walnut kind. It is good to get a restaurant dish that we do not do well at home. James does, however, do mole pretty well. And after years of using mole mainly in Champandongo (under various spellings), it was time to go a bit more traditional for this Cinco de Mayo (Battle of Puebla) day. As I write, we have an organic chicken roasting in the oven, with a mole sauce based loosely on the mole sauce recipe on All Recipes. By "loosely" following this, I mean that I added most of the ingredients it mentions, but did not blend them as the recipe calls for. Next time -- and there will be a next time -- I will do that, because a chunky sauce is a bit difficult to apply to an upright chicken. I note that the Nahuatl-speaking women who made mole the first time I had it used a giant clay cauldron and now blender!
Star-crossed lovers Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl,
with the mountains that bear their names.
Yes -- I am roasting this chicken in a ceramic dish made for upright roasting -- the well below the chicken cavity is filled with Negra Modelo to maximize succulence.
No comments:
Post a Comment