So I was told about a little Mexican Restaurant called Dona Maria in La Canada. The recommended dish was the Enchilada Yucatan. And if you know me, how could I turn down a killer enchilada? So I of course took the challenge with my wife. We both ordered it. This is what it looked like:
And here was our meal...
Everything was good. From the picture you can see we got complimentary salsa. Their house salsa was a mix of a pico de gallo and traditional tomato salsa. This was really fresh and had great flavor. One thing that caught me by surprise was the amount or fresh jalapeno in the salsa. The cuts are mixed in size and ended up having some larger pieces. Need less to say, one bite caught me by surprise and I teared up. I'm convinced there may have been a stray habanero in the batch. The second salsa they brought us (the more orange one in the picture) was their house made habanero salsa. And it lives up to its name. Nice, fresh, and with a great kick to the pants! I tried both and had both on my enchiladas.
Now for the meal. Everything tasted great. This is what we ended up with our plates looking like:
Now if you want a professional opinion on the meal continue reading. If not then enjoy Dona Maria and grab yourself an enchilada and some fresh chips and salsa.
Disclaimer
This is mearly my opinion and my point of view from a professional chef perspective with regards to proper cooking techniques and flavoring. Take everything I say like a grain of salt. You can tell I enjoy the dishes because I eat them and post them in a positive light. This is just some notes for those who want to know what I feel, as a professional in the industry, see.
The rice had nice flavor but was overcooked. This is very common because they make rice in large batches and hold it during service. As fir the beans, they too had good flavor but lacked a bit in the seasoning department. There wasn't a build up of depth of flavor. It was more in your face and left no after thoughts or tastes. Now for the main dish...the enchiladas. They were stuffed with cheese and carnitas. I was impressed with the fact that the carnitas were almost cooked properly. I personally like it when they shred the pork a bit more rather than have larger chunks in the enchiladas. This makes it a bit hard if u get a larger chunk of pork. I like to enjoy smaller bites to get the full flavor. Another issue that could have helped is if they slow roasted the pork a bit more and in a flavored liquid. The pork was a bit dry and you can easily tell by the larger chunks. It was wasn't as soft as it could have been if it was properly roasted. Over all the enchilada was built properly but dry. There was a lacking of cheese. I like my enchiladas to have enough cheese in every bite and when I cut into it I like the strings to show me what they got. The tortilla was also dry, due to the lack of sauce for it. A nice added touch was they brought roasted peppers to the table. We received 2 roasted jalapenos and a yellow pepper. Also a slice of lemon. They are close to what you would find on the street but lacked the overly strong salt flavor I like. The peppers were also light roasted. They were still a little to firm. I'm pretty sure they drop them in the fryer to get it going and that's it. Again, a common trick we use in the restaurants. They also had a big kick at the top. Aside from that, the service was merely so so. It was a busy night and we waited a good 5-8 minutes for menus. Also a bit on refills of water and chips/salsa. Overall I would rate the food as a 6 and service a 5.
And here was our meal...
Everything was good. From the picture you can see we got complimentary salsa. Their house salsa was a mix of a pico de gallo and traditional tomato salsa. This was really fresh and had great flavor. One thing that caught me by surprise was the amount or fresh jalapeno in the salsa. The cuts are mixed in size and ended up having some larger pieces. Need less to say, one bite caught me by surprise and I teared up. I'm convinced there may have been a stray habanero in the batch. The second salsa they brought us (the more orange one in the picture) was their house made habanero salsa. And it lives up to its name. Nice, fresh, and with a great kick to the pants! I tried both and had both on my enchiladas.
Now for the meal. Everything tasted great. This is what we ended up with our plates looking like:
Now if you want a professional opinion on the meal continue reading. If not then enjoy Dona Maria and grab yourself an enchilada and some fresh chips and salsa.
Disclaimer
This is mearly my opinion and my point of view from a professional chef perspective with regards to proper cooking techniques and flavoring. Take everything I say like a grain of salt. You can tell I enjoy the dishes because I eat them and post them in a positive light. This is just some notes for those who want to know what I feel, as a professional in the industry, see.
The rice had nice flavor but was overcooked. This is very common because they make rice in large batches and hold it during service. As fir the beans, they too had good flavor but lacked a bit in the seasoning department. There wasn't a build up of depth of flavor. It was more in your face and left no after thoughts or tastes. Now for the main dish...the enchiladas. They were stuffed with cheese and carnitas. I was impressed with the fact that the carnitas were almost cooked properly. I personally like it when they shred the pork a bit more rather than have larger chunks in the enchiladas. This makes it a bit hard if u get a larger chunk of pork. I like to enjoy smaller bites to get the full flavor. Another issue that could have helped is if they slow roasted the pork a bit more and in a flavored liquid. The pork was a bit dry and you can easily tell by the larger chunks. It was wasn't as soft as it could have been if it was properly roasted. Over all the enchilada was built properly but dry. There was a lacking of cheese. I like my enchiladas to have enough cheese in every bite and when I cut into it I like the strings to show me what they got. The tortilla was also dry, due to the lack of sauce for it. A nice added touch was they brought roasted peppers to the table. We received 2 roasted jalapenos and a yellow pepper. Also a slice of lemon. They are close to what you would find on the street but lacked the overly strong salt flavor I like. The peppers were also light roasted. They were still a little to firm. I'm pretty sure they drop them in the fryer to get it going and that's it. Again, a common trick we use in the restaurants. They also had a big kick at the top. Aside from that, the service was merely so so. It was a busy night and we waited a good 5-8 minutes for menus. Also a bit on refills of water and chips/salsa. Overall I would rate the food as a 6 and service a 5.
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