Posted by What can you do when confronted with the perfect taco? James Beard semi-finalist Emiliano Marentes has lived and breathed the essence of corn tortilla from Ciudad Juarez and brings a deep respect to his creations. We delved into his craft at Elemi, and were quite frankly blown away by the subtlety of the esquites, full of earthy flavor from the Mexican white corn, lime aioli, cotija and pequin. When we complimented the server, he said “just like you can get on the street by walking across the bridge to Juarez.” But the tacos….
….tinted a dark and gorgeous blue from the corn, the love, the joy in producing the best tortilla ever, and stuffed with perfectly prepared pork and pico de gallo, or confit beef, salsa, onion and cilantro, or duck, pineapple, cilantro….we ordered two. Then we ordered two more. We were strongly tempted to return the next night and do it all over again.
Memorable flavors and a change in the way I craft my food going forward – now THAT’S a travel experience!! (Jen)
