Tres Leches – Wong Eats

Some time ago, I posted on a Pan-Latino restaurant located in the Dupont Circle area (read blog), serving tantalizing dishes hailing mainly from the lower half of Latin America, notably Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela. But another Pan-Latino restaurant had been on my mind for some time, making its presence on my radar for quite a while even before writing on the above locale. Since a former colleague lived in that neighborhood and had invited me there for lunch a couple of times, I paid a few visits to this establishment for dinner before writing this blog.

Samantha’s Restaurant is located on the traffic-laden University Boulevard, the congestion further exacerbated by its location on perhaps the busiest intersection in Silver Spring/Takoma Park, an area renown for its immigrant population especially from Central America. But it is very easy to miss the restaurant’s location due to its shotgun building, compounded by its storefront sign blocked by a verdant healthy-looking tree. But unlike Café Citron which was featured in the above-mentioned blog, Samantha’s menu focuses on dishes from Central America and Mexico, primarily dishes from El Salvador. Here are some of their offerings.

One senses the place’s Central American identity off the bat from its drink offerings. The usual regional drinks can be found here including Horchata (made with almond, milk and cinnamon), Tamarindo (a sweet tamarind drink), Maracuya (Passion fruit juice) and Marañon. The last item is made from the Cashew fruit which is popular in El Salvador, a juice not heard of from the region in Asia that I hail from even though only the Cashew nut is widely consummed. The flavor is a bit tart with tannin-like qualities, leaving behind a slight camphor-like aftertaste that reminded me of nutmeg juice that I tasted last year in Malaysia. I have to admit that I enjoyed this juice with each sip playing a guessing game on my taste buds due to the novelty of its flavors. This glass of fruity sip was what I needed to set the tone for my meal as it whisked me away to another world of flavors.

With a sizable Salvadorian presence in the DMV region for some time now, Pupusas have made its foray into the local diet, both to non-Salvadorian Latinos and the Gringo. For the uninitiated, it is basically a grilled stuffed tortilla. Here, there is a wide offering of Pupusas stuffed with either cheese, beans and cheese, meat and cheese, meat, zucchini, chicken, spinach, seafood, or Loroco. The latter is a flowering bud that grows on vines commonly found in El Salvador and Guatemala. A bite into my order was a complete revelation: the Loroco leaf exuded a smokiness that astounded me for being a flower that was capable of piquing my curiosity, while the mild yet creamy cheese played a complementary background partner, encased by the moist and fresh tasting corn masa harina exuding its hominy notes. The pickled cabbage, chili and carrots strips, curtido, was the necessary acid relief to the starch and diary. Another order made with seafood was equally eye-opening for this diner, having savored it for the first time in this restaurant. The stuffing was a combination of mild creamy cheese, fresh shredded crabmeat and studded with pieces of small shrimp. My tastebuds were impressed by this combination which beckoned the diner to anticipate another plateful of the same order in future visits. My friend’s order made with zucchini was equally satisfactory for her. Pupusas are definitely the strong suit in this house.

Another Central American and Salvadorian favorite offered here is Tamales. The versions that I have eaten in other locations have usually been a bit disappointing due to its dryness and compact dough which made only a few bites the necessary quota for its tasting. However, what landed on my plate at Samantha’s was au contraire. This version was wrapped in banana leaves which exuded its vegetal aroma while imbedding its leafy goodness into the dough. Each bite into this concoction only brought me a wider smile with its silky smoothness as well as the dough’s lightness, tasting savory from the use of stock and strips of moist chicken. This well-made rendition reminded me of those prepared by the grandmother of a Salvadorian friend whose tamales are a hit in her Gaithersburg community. Well, this version here definitely hit the right notes for me.

During a visit for dinner, a companion’s order was Chuletas de Puerco. Two pieces of fried pork chops arrived slathered with a light tomato-based sauce coating sauteed pieces of tomato, onion, and green pepper. Cutting into a piece of his meal, I could taste that the chops were marinated and seasoned well, hinting of notes of soy sauce which is popular in some Latin American cuisines, which added to the right Umami savoriness to the meat. The pork was well-cooked without the tough leatheriness one finds in other versions. However, the porcine flavor in each bite was a bit strong for me, which seems to be a common reoccurring theme with this meat in this country. But such inherent flaw did not deter my friend who enjoyed every bit of his dish.

For my order, I decided to try the Stuffed Chicken with Spinach and Mushroom. A huge piece of chicken arrived on my plate which seemed rather daunting on first impressions. But cutting into it revealed its true nature: a piece of chicken breast had been pounded very thin wrapping a stuffing of spinach, mushroom, onions, and bits of green pepper. The piece of poultry was still rather moist (amazing for sauteed breast meat), lightly seasoned with a hint of cumin in the seasoning mixture. But what really grabbed my attention was the filling consisting of fresh spinach leaves (thank goodness not the frozen kind), woodsy mushrooms, sweet onions, and vegetal notes from the green pepper. The thin coating of a lightly creamed spinach sauce added the necessary moisture and savoriness to the whole mix, which made for a rather quick disposal of my portion of this dish. This was definitely a light and tasty poultry dish worth ordering.

Another companion’s dish was Zarzuela Andaluza. A bowl arrived with pieces of seafood gently stewed in a yellowish sauce and topped with strips of roasted red pepper and the unnecessary green pepper ring which was purely decorative – basically, a seafood paella dish without the rice and saffron, an obvious tribute to La Madre Patria, Spain. What impressed me about the dish was the pieces of scallop, salmon, and shrimp that tasted fresh and cooked just right without getting tough. The stew soup was very savory tasting of a good seafood stock made creamy from a hit of diary. However, after a few spoonfuls, the hot liquid did start to taste rather one-note and it was crying for some herbal notes. My friend did complain about the mussels and clams that appeared anemic to my eyes, which was not exactly tempting for this reviewer to give them a try. Fortunately, with no casualty from my friend’s health the following day, I can confirm that the mollusks were just fine, just a bit sad-looking and beyond their prime. The ubiquitious Paella is also on the menu, if you are in the mood for more Iberian-inspired cuisine.

For dessert, one of my dining companions went for his perennial favorite – Tres Leches. A taste of this standard Latin dessert revealed a skillful hand in its making. It was incredibly light, sweet without its usual cloying quality, a bit heady from a good hit of vanilla, and creamy rich without the stodginess. The above qualities of this uber-cake totally defied the nuclear potential that this sweet bite possessed, and the other diners, including me, were tempted to dig more into the sweet square, if were not for the protection of the orderer of his prized finale. My motto of “Desserts should only be consummed when the calories are worthwhile” holds true here, albeit the caloric count is in the thousand. But this is probably the best Tres Leches to this day, and worth every morsel of it.

Samantha’s Restaurant stands above the usual Central American eateries for its offering of standard fares with a level of culinary skill not usually found in most places of this cuisine. The simple and humble Pupusa and Tamal are elevated to something exciting by the inventive addition of seafood as well as proper attention to their making. Even the main dishes of Pork Chops, Stuffed Chicken, and Seafood Stew showed a level of refinement that elevated these rather simple dishes, notwithstanding some minor flaws. The ending dessert of Tres Leches only confirmed that the kitchen knows what it is doing and that there is a knowledgeable hand in there. Looking around the dining room, you sense that the customers are locals who frequent this establishment. The decor maybe incongruent with its large Art Deco Italian/French posters but the smart and efficient service makes up for it. Ah, not to mention the cooking and the dishes that would tempt most diners to go back for more of their delicious offerings.

OK, I hear you loud and clear, and I get it – at least, from some of you. After posting Elevation Burger in the last blog (see blog) and attempting to balance my postings with those on establishments offering a scant number of vegetarian and vegan dishes, a couple of Facebook friends quickly shot back comments requesting me to write on more eateries that focused on a meatless and vegan lifestyle. Furthermore, a fellow Buddhist on my mass email list also responded by asking herself to be removed from my notices as she stated that her diet had “changed”, which I was not sure exactly what she was alluding to, perhaps a reaction to the photos of meat dishes that could have been “offending” her sensibilities. I guess for some, Meat Means Murder!

Being a practising Buddhist, I frequently try to aspire towards the ideal of following a vegetarian diet, albeit a mere recommendation and not a permanent personal practice as of yet (the Buddhist thinking is that strict rules/commandments will only create some form of issues around such restrictions or make one even develop a rebellious attitude). So, when an online offer popped up on my computer for a Mexican eatery that offered both separate meat and vegan menus, I bought both coupons and decided to explore their meatless selections first. In addition to the lack of a vegetarian/vegan restaurant on my site, I decided to kill two birds with one stone (oops, that doesn’t sound very Buddhist) by penning my first blog on a Latin American establishment.

Casa Oaxaca touts itself as a Modern Mexican Restaurant, located in the busy DC neighborhood of Adams Morgan where the streets are literally jam-packed with different eateries that offer a wide variety to entice the roaming palate. This area went through what I called the “Adams Morgan effect” in which ethnic eateries managed to keep the level of authenticity in their kitchen only for a short moment before losing its identity due to the hiring of non-native cheap labor. Like everything in life subject to the process of natural selection (or customer selection, in this case), the fittest restaurants survived and they continue to offer high-quality cooking, as in La Churreria de Madrid (see blog) around the corner. Perusing Casa Oaxaca’s website, I was looking forward to savoring and writing about the vegan dishes offered by this Mexican locale.

The restaurant is divided into two floors, and on my visit, I had to enter through the bottom floor into the rather cavernous space. Knowing that such dark space would not produce flattering photos for the blog, I requested permission to eat in the upper part which was still closed. The manager, Joana, was gracious enough to open up the upper floor for my needs. While waiting for the manager to invite me up, I ordered a typical Mexican drink that I am rather fond of, Horchata. This version is made with almonds, rice, and rice milk (not the usual with cow’s milk), which make it a vegan thirst quencher. It was rather sweet for me on the first few sips, but the diluting ice cubes brought it to the correct level after a few minutes. The pieces of almonds and a hit of cinnamon added the right notes to this rice milk concoction. A satisfying slurp, indeed.

For the opener, I decided on the Timbal de Nopal. It consists of layers of fresh tomato, grilled cactus, and vegan cheese, slathered with some Pico de Gallo. The round of cactus was a bit too crunchy despite the grilling and a bit too smoky from the charring – maybe a short stay in boiling water would make it more fork tender. The fresh salsa packed some heat punch (perhaps from chile serrano), coupled by the chile ancho oil pool around the plate. Even for this chile aficionado, it was borderline overwhelming. Unfortunately, the vegan cheese was lost in the dish due to the piquancy and the overall acidity. This definitely was an appetite opener but I was hoping for a bit more subtlety.

My first main course was a Mexican classic, Chiles Rellenos. A roasted Poblano pepper is stuffed with pieces of zucchini, carrots, grilled corn, spinach, soy meat, and pumpkin seeds. This concoction was muy delicioso as the various elements were well-balanced by the sweet vegetables and the mild vegan protein, which I would have preferred it a bit more seared (my meat-loving instincts crying out here). The slightly sweet and spicy green pepper is perfected complemented by a delectable orange tomato sauce that is moderately spiked by chile guajillo. The accompanying refried black beans was perfectly executed with enough flavor even without the customary lard as its base. The topping of vegan cheese on both beans and roasted chile even had the distinctive parmesan-like aroma that one can get from the non-vegan version, which lent some further richness and complexity to both items. The side of Mexican rice was fluffy and equally flavorful. I truly enjoyed this dish especially that perfect tomato sauce that made this dish sing, of which I lapped every drop on the plate.

For the second main, I ordered a trio of bites called Quesadillas Tricolor. This really colorful dish is made with pastel-hued Non Genetically Modified (Non GMO) soft tacos stuffed with squash blossoms, mushroom cooked in a guajillo salsa, and corn cooked with the exotic corn fungus, huitlacoche. I enjoyed the subtlety of the mild squash blossoms, the meatiness of the sautéed mushrooms, and the interesting note brought by the slightly sour and musty corn fungus on the yellow corn kernels. But what tied the elements together was the very tasty vegan almond cheese whose savoriness blew my taste buds away especially for not being dairy – I could not get enough of this stringy “creamy” cheese that made these some mean and fulfilling quesadillas. The ring of chile ancho oil provided the necessary heat without overwhelming or complicating the flavors.
.

To end the meal, I wanted to order a dessert made with papaya, an exotic fruit that I grew up on in the tropics. Unfortunately, the kitchen was out of it and I elected for the Pastel Tres Leches. A dairy-free cupcake has been soaked in coconut milk served on a sauce of coconut milk and berry sauce, topped by non toasted coconut flakes. This dessert was decent but it lacked the unctuousness of the regular version made with milk, condensed milk, and rich whip cream – I guess the original flavors of some desserts cannot be adequately substituted by vegan ingredients. However, my grandmother did make some heavenly vegan desserts with this tropical nut and its creamy milk, so it is possible to come up with a good alternative. Perhaps the papaya dessert or the mango sorbet will be my selection on the next visit.

Casa Oaxaca stands out among the plethora of Mexican-style and Tex-Mex eateries that tend to dilute the integrity of this rich cuisine. What this establishment brings to the table is a level of sophisticated cooking while recognizing the authentic tradition that shape the unique flavors and ingredients, exemplified by the charred cactus paddle, the pairing of grilled poblano pepper and the perfectly made tomato-guajillo sauce, and the satisfying corn kernels and corn fungus quesadilla stuffing along with that heavenly tasting almond cheese. If the vegan offerings at this establishment look and taste this good, I’m looking forward to my next trip to try out the non-vegan dishes. I get a feeling that I will not be disappointed and will leave with a big smile and satisfecho.