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[knowpalito]

OUR ANIMAL PROTEINS AND EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEM

Sydney Schoenfield put together this information for us

Our menu is long; our recipes are varied and complex. That being said, they’re not that hard to understand and learn by heart if we break them down by larger food groups, rather than trying to memorize one dish at a time. Let’s focus on this idea by considering our various recipes for dishes featuring animal proteins.

For each recipe, ingredients are italicized, and those that are common allergens have also been underlined. Whether our guest is allergic, on a diet, or just doesn’t like something, it’s important to understand these groups of foods.

POLLO - CHICKEN

Each and every piece of chicken served at Nopalito starts as one of many whole chickens delivered to us regularly which we first brine in water overnight with salt and sugar. From there, the various recipes diverge:

We braise some of the whole chickens with onion, garlic, bay leaf, black pepper, and cilantro -- we then remove the breasts, thighs, and legs. This meat is shredded and mixed and ultimately served in our:

ENCHILADAS (mixed with mole poblano

CALDO CON POLLO

CHILAQUILES

TACOS DORADOS CON POLLO (our current recipes mixes the shredded chicken with a sauce of guajillo, cascabel, and arbol chiles)

CHICKEN QUESADILLA

The remaining braised chicken carcasses are slow-cooked with onion, garlic, carrot, cilantro, and bay leaf  in water to create our chicken consommé for our caldo.

For our panuchos, the whole brined chickens are wrapped in achiote paste (a combination of ancho chiles and aromatics including garlic as well as white vinegar) and braised with roasted tomatoes, orange juice, lime, salt, a banana leaf, and olive oil.  

For our mole manchamanteles, just the breasts with drumette are removed from the brined whole chicken. These are seared to order before being topped with the mole sauce (Pork fat, ancho chiles, guajillo chile, peanuts, garlic, onion, tomato, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, marjoram, oregano, thyme, piloncillo).

PUERCO - PORK

Another huge component of our menu is pork, which includes carnitas and their various incarnations, but let’s not forget that we make and serve several other pork recipes as well.

Our pork dishes are primarily made with shoulder:

We make large batches of carnitas daily (this means pork shoulder braised with manteca (lard), piloncillo, onion, garlic, milk, dark beer, orange, cinnamon, and salt), and it is served in 3 main ways:

1. simply plated as carnitas tacos for lunch - CARNITAS larger entree on the dinner menu

2. in our quesadilla roja, wherein the meat is more finely shredded and mixed with salsa cascabel (guajillo and cascabel chiles, onions, garlic, tomatillo, salt)

3. on our Torta de Chilorio (at our Broderick Location), where it is stewed in an adobo of chiles, cilantro, parsley, spices and garlic

The taco arabe meat is also pork shoulder that is marinated in a paste of parsley, oregano, thyme, onion, lime, olive oil, and spices before being sliced and grilled.

Our chorizo rojo is pork shoulder and pork butt (the latter being a specific part of the shoulder -- not the area at the rear of the animal which we instead refer to as ham) that is ground in-house and mixed with a paste comprised of chiles, various herbs and spices, apple cider vinegar, and salt.

The pork in our pozole is shoulder that we dice and stew in water with onion, garlic, cilantro, and bay leaf, to which an adobo of mulato chile, garlic, cilantro, oregano, bay leaf, cumin, and salt is eventually added.

We do also serve meat from the belly of the pig in the form of bacon (which generally refers to cured and smoked pork belly -- ours is cured for 7 days in salt, brown sugar, black pepper, and chile flakes and then smoked at Nopa) as well as our chicharrones which are the skin from the belly sliced and dehydrated in the oven.

RES - BEEF

Our beef dishes are slightly more complicated than other proteins: we utilize several cuts of the animal, and their respective recipes don’t overlap. Because of this, it may be more difficult to remember “hidden” allergens in our beef dishes, so please look this over even more carefully than the others.

We are currently ordering five different cuts of beef for five separate dishes on our menu:

For our carne asada, we order skirt steak (a cut from the plate of the cow) and marinate it very simply in lime juice/zest, garlic, olive oil, and salt.

Our birria is chuck roast rubbed in an adobo of chiles, garlic, various herbs and spices, sesame seeds, white vinegar, and beer and then stewed in water with tomatoes and cascabel chiles.

The empanada is filled with beef shoulder that has been braised with onions, garlic, guajillo chile, and bay leaves and then mixed with a salsa of tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, and serranos.

The gorditas are actually a mixture of brisket and chorizo (see chorizo in the pork section; this mixture of 2 meats is what the name campechanas refers to): our brisket is braised with milk (i.e. our gorditas can never truly be dairy-free!), cinnamon, bay leaf, onion, garlic, and salt.

Our huarache is currently topped with lengua (beef tongue) that has been braised with onion, bay leaf, garlic, black pepper, and cilantro stems and then mixed with caramelized onions.

PESCADO - FISH

And lastly, our 4 current seafood recipes are also pretty distinct. We receive deliveries from TwoxSea and/or Gulfish most every day, except for Sunday — have you ever noticed that we are that much more likely to 86 fish tacos or ceviche on Sunday nights? Our sous chefs choose from a list of the most recently caught fish for these deliveries which become our fish tacos and ceviche. Check out this calendar for reference on seasonality of various seafood.

When TwoxSea delivers our daily choice, chef butchers it and either fillets it for fish tacos (the 2 ounce portions are marinated in an adobo of dried chiles, jalapeños, garlic, spices, fresh herbs, cilantro, and white vinegar) or slices it into strips for ceviche (the raw strips are marinated in lime juice for 5 minutes to “cook” before being mixed with the remaining ingredients to complete the recipe).  

TwoxSea delivers trout to us, sustainably farmed from McFarland Springs (if you’ve never seen this video before, please watch it!), and chef cuts the trout into 6 ounce portions that we marinate in arbol chile oil (arbol chiles, olive oil, garlic, lime).  They also deliver calamari to us (in case a guest is ever confused, calamari/squid is NOT shellfish) which we clean, portion, and blanch for use in our ceviche recipe.

Gulfish delivers seafood caught in the Gulf of Mexico; this includes the shrimp for our machaca (which is prepared with tomato, onion, garlic, and jalapeño), and, as we all know from our ever-present addition of tostadas, red snapper.

while we’re on the subject, let’s review allergen groups

We’re all probably pretty aware of what constitutes as dairy: in our restaurant, it’s mostly cheese, milk, cream/half-and-half, and yogurt/crema -- basically any milk-derived product (note that sheep’s/goat’s milk often contain less lactose than that of a cow, which may help those with a lactose sensitivity or intolerance).

Fun fact: eggs are NOT dairy (obviously, as they come from birds rather than mammals)! They are, of course, an animal byproduct and therefore not eaten by vegans. They can also be a distinct allergen for some.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat and a few other grains. At Nopalito, its presence is essentially confined to our torta bun, the flour tortilla used for the taco arabe, and the beer that is added to the braises for our carnitas and birria. Note that nothing containing gluten is ever dropped into our deep fryer.

An allium allergy precludes someone from eating onions (yellow, white, red, or green), garlic, shallots, chives, and leeks. Our menu is allium-heavy in its base preparations...so what can someone with a true allium allergy eat at Nopalito?

Nuts and seeds: please be aware of the distinction between the two, as well as the fact that peanuts are technically a legume and are therefore often a separate allergy from that to tree nuts (such as almonds, pecans, and cashews).

Cilantro certainly can be a true allergy, and requests for its absence should be taken seriously -- though we might politely clarify when taking orders if cilantro cooked in a braise or rub is fine, because an aversion to cilantro’s raw flavor shouldn’t be offended by, for example, almost every single one of our chicken dishes.  

Nightshades

are a group of food including tomatoes, peppers and chiles (dried black pepper is a distinct fruit not included in the same group as nightshades), white potatoes, eggplants, and tomatillos. Those with autoimmune disorders often cannot eat nightshades. Avoiding chiles can be a challenge at Nopalito, but it’s certainly not impossible.

And though rice is not a super common allergen, let’s not forget that almost all of our food is cooked in rice bran oil.

[knowpalito]

MEXICAN CUISINE

Recently other cuisines of the world have acquired popularity in Mexico, thus adopting a Mexican fusion cuisine. For example, sushi in Mexico is often made with a variety of sauces based on local ingredients like mango or tamarind and very often served with serrano-blended soy sauce, or complimented with habanero and chipotle peppers. The large immigration of Middle Easterns, Africans, Asians, and Europeans in Mexico has influenced Mexican cuisine as well, but the most influential is the Spanish cuisine. For example, Paella, Dates, Tacos Árabes and dolma have their origins in Arab cuisine.

Mexican cuisine, a style of food that originates in Mexico, is known for its varied flavors, colourful decoration and variety of spices and ingredients, most of which are native to the country. The cuisine of Mexico has evolved through thousands of years of blending indigenous cultures, with later European elements added after the 16th century.

Elements 

The staples of Mexican foods are typically corn and beans. Corn is used to make masa, a dough for tamales, tortillas, gorditas, and many other corn-based foods. Corn is also eaten fresh, as corn on the cob and as a component of a number of dishes. Squash and chili peppers are also prominent in Mexican cuisine. Mexican cuisine is considered one of the most varied in the world, after Chinese and Indian.The most frequently used herbs and spices in Mexican cuisine are chiles, oregano, cilantro, epazote, cinnamon, and cocoa. Chipotle, a smoke-dried jalapeño chilli, is also common in Mexican cuisine. Many Mexican dishes also contain garlic and onions.

Regional cuisine - Mexican food varies by region because of Mexico's large size,local climate and geography, ethnic differences among the indigenous inhabitants and because these different populations were influenced by the Spaniards in varying degrees.

NORTHERN MEXICO

The north of Mexico is known for its beef, goat and ostrich production and meat dishes, in particular the well-known arrachera cut. When the Europeans arrived, they found much of the land in this area suitable for raising cattle, goats and sheep. This led to the dominance of meat, especially beef, in the region, and some of the most popular dishes include machaca, arrachera and cabrito. The ranch culture has also prompted cheese production and the north produces the widest varieties of cheese in Mexico. These include queso fresco (fresh farmer's cheese), ranchero (similar to Monterey Jack), cuajada (a mildly sweet, creamy curd of fresh milk), requesón (similar to cottage cheese or riccotta), Chihuahua’s creamy semi-soft quesomenonita and fifty-six varieties of asadero (smoked cheese). The north has seen waves of immigration by Chinese, Mormons, and Mennonites, who have influenced the cuisines in areas such as Chihuahua and Baja California. Most recently, Baja Med cuisine has emerged in Tijuana and elsewhere in Baja California, combining Mexican and Mediterranean flavors.

OAXACA

The cooking of Oaxaca remained more intact after the Conquest, as the Spanish took the area with less fighting and less disruption of the economy and food production systems. However, it was the first area to experience the mixing of foods and cooking styles, while central Mexico was still recuperating. Despite its size, the state has a wide variety of ecosystems and a wide variety of native foods. Vegetables are grown in the central valley, seafood is abundant on the coast and the area bordering Veracruz grows tropical fruits. Much of the state’s cooking is influenced by that of the Mixtec and, to a lesser extent, the Zapotec. Later in the colonial period, Oaxaca lost its position as a major food supplier and the area’s cooking returned to a more indigenous style, keeping only a small number of foodstuffs such as chicken and pork. It also adapted mozzarella, brought by the Spanish, and modified it to what is known now as Oaxaca cheese. One major feature of Oaxacan cuisine is its seven moles, second only to mole poblano in importance. The seven are Negro (black), Amarillo (yellow), Coloradito (little red), Mancha Manteles (table cloth stainer), Chichilo (smoky stew), Rojo (red), and Verde (green).Corn is the staple food in the region. Tortillas are called blandas and part of every meal. Corn is also used to make empanadas, tamales and more. Black beans are favored, often served in soup and as a sauce for enfrijoladas. Oaxaca’s regional chili peppers include pasillaoaxaqueña (red, hot and smoky), along with amarillos (yellow), chilhuacles, chilcostles and costeños. These, along with herbs such as hojasanta, give the food its unique taste. Another important aspect to Oaxacan cuisine is chocolate, generally consumed as a beverage. It is frequently hand ground and combined with almonds, cinnamon and other ingredients.

YUCATAN

In the Yucatán, a unique, natural sweetness (instead of spiciness) exists in the widely used local produce along with significant use of achiote seasoning. The food of the Yucatán peninsula is distinct from the rest of the country. It is based primarily on Mayan food with influences from the Caribbean, central Mexico, European (especially French) and Middle Eastern cultures. As in other areas of Mexico, corn is the basic staple, as both a liquid and a solid food. One common way of consuming corn, especially by the poor, is a thin drink or gruel of white corn called by such names as pozol or Keyem. One of the main spices in the region is the annatto seed, called achiote in Spanish. It gives food a reddish color and a slightly peppery smell with a hint of nutmeg.  Recados are a seasoning paste based on achiote and used on chicken and pork. Recadorojo is used for the area’s best-known dish, cochinitapibil. Pibil refers to the cooking method (from the mayan word p'ib, meaning "buried") in which foods are wrapped, generally in banana leaves, and cooked in a pit oven. Various meats are cooked this way. Habanero chilis are another distinctive ingredient, but they are generally served as (or part of) condiments on the side rather than integrated into the dishes.

One prominent feature of Yucatán cooking is tropical fruits such as tamarind, plums, mamey, avocados and bitter oranges, the last often used in the region's distinctive salsas. Honey was used long before the arrival of the Spanish to sweeten foods and to make a ritual alcoholic drink called balché. Today a honey liquor called xtabentun is still made and consumed in the region. The coastal areas feature seafood, especially esmedregal, a type of fish, which is fried and served with a spicy salsa based on the x'catic pepper. Other fish dishes include spicy chili pepper sauces as well as those in achiote paste .

MEXICO CITY

The main feature of Mexico City cooking is that it has been influenced that those of the other regions of Mexico as well as a number of foreign influences.This is because Mexico City has been a center for migration of people from all over Mexico since pre-Hispanic times. Many of the ingredients of this area’s cooking are not grown here, such as tropical fruits.

Street cuisine is very popular, with taco stands, torta (sandwich) shops, and lunch counters on every street. Popular foods in the city include barbacoa (a specialty of the central highlands), birria (from western Mexico), cabrito (from the north), carnitas (originally from Michoacán), moles (from Puebla and central Mexico), tacos with many different fillings and large sub-like sandwiches called tortas. There are eateries that specialize in pre-Hispanic food including dishes with insects. This is also the area where most of Mexico’s haute cuisine can be found.

WESTERN MEXICO

West of Mexico City are the states of Michoacán, Jalisco and Colima as well as the Pacific coast. The cuisine of Michoacan is based on the Purepecha culture, which still dominates most of the state. The area has a large network of rivers and lakes which provide fish. Its use of corn is perhaps the most varied. While atole is drunk in most parts of Mexico, it is made with more different flavors in Michoacán, including blackberry, cascabel chili and more. Tamales come in different shapes, wrapped in corn husks. These include those folded into polyhedrons called corundas and can vary in name if the filling is different. In the Bajío area, tamales are often served with a meat stew called churipo, which is flavored with cactus fruit.

The main Spanish contributions to Michoacán cuisine are rice, pork and spices. One of the best-known dishes from the state is morisquesta, which is a sausage and rice dish, closely followed by carnitas, which is deep-fried pork. The latter can be found in many parts of Mexico, often claimed to be authentically Michoacán. The town of Cotija has a cheese named after it.

The cuisine of the states of Jalisco and Colima is noted for dishes such as birria, chilayo, menudo and pork dishes.Jalisco’s cuisine is known for tequila with the liquor produced only in certain areas allowed to use the name. The cultural and gastronomic center of the area is Guadalajara, an area where both agriculture and cattle raising have thrived. The best-known dish from the area is birria, a stew of beef, mutton or pork with chili peppers and spices. One important street food is tortasahogadas, where the torta(sandwich) is “drowned” in a chile sauce. Near Guadalajara is the town of Tonalá, known for its pozole, a hominy stew said to have been originally created with human flesh. The area which makes tequila surrounds the city.

On the Pacific coast seafood is common, generally cooked with European spices along with chili peppers, and is often served with a spicy salsa. Favored fish varieties include marlin, swordfish, snapper, tuna, shrimp and octopus.

VERACRUZ

The cuisine of Veracruz is a mix of indigenous, Afro-Cuban and Spanish. The indigenous contribution is in the use of corn as a staple as well as vanilla (native to the state), and herbs called acuyo and hojasanta. It is also supplemented by a wide variety of tropical fruits such as papaya, mamey and zapote along with the introduction of citrus and pineapple by the Spanish. The Spanish also introduced European herbs such as parsley, thyme, marjoram, bay laurel, cilantro and others which characterize much of the state’s cooking. They are found in the best known dish of the region Huachinango a la veracruzana, a red snapper dish.

The Afro-Cuban influence is from the importation of slaves through the Caribbean, who brought the peanut with them, which had earlier been introduced to Africa by the Portuguese. African ingredients often found in the state include plantains, yucca and sweet potatoes. As it borders the Gulf coast, seafood figures prominently in most of the state. The state’s role as a gateway to Mexico has meant that the dietary staple of corn is less evident than in other parts of Mexico, with rice a heavy favorite.

CHIAPAS

Like elsewhere in Mexico, corn is the dietary staple and indigenous elements are still strong in the cuisine. Along with a chili pepper called simojovel, used nowhere else in the country, the cuisine is also distinguished by the use of herbs such as chipilín and hierbasanta. Like in Oaxaca, tamales are usually wrapped in banana leaves (or sometimes with the leaves of hojasanta), but often chipilín is incorporated into the dough. As in the Yucatán, fermented corn is drunk as a beverage called pozol, but here it is usually flavored with chocolate. The favored meats are beef, pork and chicken (introduced by the Spanish), especially in the highlands, which favors the raising of livestock.

Street cuisine

Mexican street food is one of the most varied parts of the cuisine. It can include tacos, quesadillas, pambazos, tamales, huaraches, alambres and food not suitable to cook at home including barbacoa, carnitas and, since many homes in Mexico do not have ovens, roasted chicken.One attraction of street food in Mexico is the satisfaction of hunger or craving without all the social and emotional connotation of eating at home, although longtime customers can have something of a friendship/familial relationship with a chosen vendor.

The best known of Mexico’s street foods is the taco, whose origin is based on the pre-Hispanic custom of picking up other foods with tortillas as utensils were not used.The origin of the word is in dispute, with some saying it is derived from Nahuatl and others from various Spanish phrases.Tacos are not eaten as the main meal; they are generally eaten before midday or late in the evening. Just about any other foodstuff can be wrapped in a tortilla and in Mexico it varies from rice, to meat (plain or in sauce) to vegetables and cheese. Preferred fillings vary from place to place with pork generally found more often in the center and south, beef in the north, seafood along the coasts and chicken in most of the country.

Another popular street food, especially in Mexico City and the surrounding area is the torta. It consists of a roll of some type, stuffed with several ingredients. This has its origins in the 19th century, when the French introduced a number of new kinds of bread. The torta began by splitting the roll and adding beans. Today, refried beans can be still be found on many kinds of tortas. In Mexico City, the most common roll used for tortas is called telera, a relatively flat roll with two splits on the upper surface. In Puebla, the preferred bread is called a cemita, as is the sandwich. In both areas, the bread is stuffed with various fillings, especially if it is a hot sandwich, with beans, cream (mayonnaise is rare) and some kind of hot chili pepper.

In the 20th century, US influence has been strong. One example of this is the appearance of the hot dog, but prepared Mexican style. They are usually boiled then wrapped in bacon and fried. They are served in the usual bun, but the condiments are usually some combination of tomatoes, onions and chili peppers.

MODERN CUISINE

Recently other cuisines of the world have acquired popularity in Mexico, thus adopting a Mexican fusion cuisine. For example, sushi in Mexico is often made with a variety of sauces based on local ingredients like mango or tamarind and very often served with serrano-blended soy sauce, or complimented with habanero and chipotle peppers. The large immigration of Middle Easterns, Africans, Asians, and Europeans in Mexico has influenced Mexican cuisine as well, but the most influential is the Spanish cuisine. For example, Paella, Dates, Tacos Árabes and dolma have their origins in Arab cuisine.

*** Multiple Sources - Wikipedia