Best Salsa
Café Poca Cosa
88 E. Broadway
READERS' AND STAFF PICK: Our select panel of food experts has
determined salsa to be one of the most perfect foods ever made--and
Café Poca Cosa has the best version of any in our
salsa-laden town. Few salsas are too far off the mark. Maybe it's
the fresh taste of tomato and cilantro. Perhaps the pungency of
garlic or onions. Or the hot zing that happens to your tongue
and taste buds from the peppers. It's a utilitarian food, too,
because it has no fat, is high in vitamin C and fiber, goes on
almost anything else you eat, or can be consumed as a meal in
its own right (at least for those of us for whom chips and salsa
constitute a meal). Salsa keeps you cool in the summer and warm
in the winter. At Café Poca Cosa, the salsa is not only
all of the above, it may just be the food of the gods. The finely
minced salsa has a perfect balance of cool vegetable flavors and
spicy heat, of body and soul.
READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: El Charro, 311 N. Court Ave.
CAT'S MEOW: No, a tomatillo is not a little tomato, nor is it
a little green tomato. They are little and green, however, and
from the same family as the tomato. Tomatillo salsa is one that
is rarely found in our Sonoran-style restaurants, but is a staple
(along with two other excellent choices) at La Parrilla Suiza,
5602 E. Speedway and 2720 N. Oracle Road. This smooth, mild
salsa is fresh tasting, with lots of garlic and cilantro, and
just a taste of bitterness. With this and the endless bowls of
tortilla chips, the majority of dinner usually ends up in the
takeout container.
