Summary
The Yucatan lies at the southeastern tip of Mexico; its flat, jungle terrain and Mayan history give it arguably more in common culturally with Central America than more northern areas of its motherland. Its situation at the southern end of the Gulf of Mexico guarantees a reliance on seafood, as well as influences from such other Gulf locales as Cuba and New Orleans. Though in the last three decades the once-demure fishing village of Cancun has suffered the lure of developers and high-rise resorts, much of the area - specifically its capital Merida - has retained a charming Old World feel, dating vividly back to the era of Spanish colonialization. Marinated meats, fresh fish and corn-tortilla encrusted niblets are generally the lay of the land in the Yucatan - something El Rey-Pakal certainly reflects in its authenticity.
Our party started with the Delicias Rey-Pakal ($15.50), an appetizer sampler featuring tamales, panuchos, salbutes (panuchos without the blackbean stuffing), codzitos (fried taquitos, basically) and empanadas (corn dough stuffed with ground pork). Based on this platter, we quickly came to realize what a major role corn dough plays in the cuisine; everything was either wrapped in it or sat upon it in one form or another. Corn dough/ tortillas, dryer by nature than their flour-based cousins of more prominent Mexi-American restaurants, caught us slightly off guard at first. So keep in mind: this ain't Chevy's Fresh Mex.That being said, the appetizers pleased us down to a person. One in our group particularly lauded the mini-tamale, finding it moist and saying the shredded chicken and masa dough had a "melt-in-yourmouth" quality. A lot of what we liked were the refreshing, if small, changes from more commonplace Mexican dishes: the emphasis on black beans; simple garnishes of tomato and avocado; the sweetness added by pickled red-onion toppings. We also tried the Brazo de Reina ($8.50), a meld of spinach corn dough slathered with tomato sauce, which held together with what someone in our party described as "a comforting thickness and heft." The only item that remained on the appetizer platter when our server cleared up was one empanada that, frankly, suffered something of a "corn bread" comparison - fine on its own, but slightly heavy during a big meal.See the full content of this document
Extract
Maya Gulpa
Maya gulpa
El Rey-Pakal offers Mann a taste of the YucatanThe southeast corner of the Montecito Shopping Center is developing a reputation as the place to find not-so-obvious ethnic cuisine in a county not known for its international culinary adventurousness. Since the early 1990s, Bamyan Afghan had been Marin's lone non-Ind...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
