Best Non-Sonoran Mexican Restaurant
La Parrilla Suiza
READERS' PICK: La Parrilla Suiza, a Mexico City chain, specializes in chilango (native-Mexico City) favorites like chilaquiles, strips of tortilla chips coated in cheese and tomato sauce; enchiladas suizas; and grilled meats. Both locations are always hopping, reflecting the good food and service and the reasonable prices.
2720 N. Oracle Road
5602 E. SpeedwayREADERS' POLL RUNNER UP: OF THOSE SERVING foods of Mexico in Tucson, Café Poca Cosa (at the Park Inn downtown) most pointedly takes Mexican cuisine to the level of art. Look once at these stunning platters of fresh greens and fruit, meat and masa, mole and peppers, changing daily to meet the season and availability of quality stuff. Look and you gain some sense of the complexity in Mexican cuisine.
On any day, choose from a dozen or so entrées listed on a chalk board brought to the table. Among these, you may find carne asada, marinated skirt steak grilled over flame, with brilliant red sweet peppers and onion; pastel de elote, a custard-smooth rendition of fresh corn masa with melted cheese, and green and serrano chiles; or skinless chicken breast, not cut, but in pieces as they've fallen from the bone, cooked to take up the subtleties of molé verde.
The broad variety of pesto-like mole sauces may be the true and rare talent of this kitchen. Chef Suzana Dávila makes frequent use of the mole verde, which she makes from pistachios and almonds with cilantro, sesame and serrano chili; also pipián, of pumpkin seed, with raisins, chili pasilla and chili guajillo, cinnamon and a touch of dry sherry; or cacahuate, peanut with chilis making earthy fire.
The ciruela mole may be found no place else. For this, chef Dávila takes plums sautéed with a bit of onion and red wine, finely ground almond, cocoa bean and sesame seeds. It is a ruby dark, sweet, slightly acrid wonder that glistens, to change a simple piece of chicken into a slowly relished meal.
At Poca Cosa, you'll also find familiar chiles rellenos. But Dávila, who spent much of her youth traveling throughout Mexico, takes a chile anchos rellenos de queso from Puebla, and from Mexico's center, chile rellenos de picadillo, with chopped beef or chicken mixed with olives, raisins, garlic, tomatoes and cilantro.
Each plate holds stock-cooked rice and a salad of fresh greens and tomato wedges, accented with slices of orange, lime, pineapple and pale green cucumber. A large bottle of vinaigrette, whole dried red peppers floating atop the oil, is to dress the greens.
In the kitchen is a knowing and artistic hand at work, guided by a keen and innovative sense of taste combination. Café Poca Cosa's kitchens make meals no little thing. They are both simple and beautifully grand.
--M.F. Munday
