Field Trip – Tex-Mex In Florida? (part 2)

 With little time to squeeze in another meal in Deland this weekend, our mid-afternoon flight out of Orlando on Sunday allowed us to enjoy lunch at Penacho’s Mexican Grill. Located in downtown Deland, their web site describes authentic interior Mexican cuisine which includes ancient Aztec recipes. In fact the name Penacho is the word for the feathered head dress worn by the Aztecs. Made from the feathers of the Quetzal bird, native to the forests of Central America, the Aztec tribal cultures considered their green iridescent tail feathers more valuable than gold.

With most cities, buildings in the downtown area are older and tend to have a little more character. This holds true for Penacho’s which is located at 128 Woodland Blvd. in downtown Deland. Out front is a covered walkway where there are several tables for sidewalk dining.

Upon entering, I’m reminded of the layout of many clubs along Sixth Street in Austin – long, shoe-box shaped rooms with brick walls and old textured metal ceilings. The restaurant occupies two of these spaces with an archway connecting them. One room provides tables and chairs with a large window looking out to the sidewalk. This room was bright, while the room with the entrance was a bit darker with booths on each side.

We settled into a booth and were greeted by a young girl asking for our drink order. Besides drinks, we also ordered guacamole and chips. Guacamole is a weakness of mine. I love it and have gotten quite good at making it, though my friend David (also from San Antonio) says it’s a birth-rite and is a normal skill for anyone born in SA. So it seems logical to measure a good Mexican restaurant, at least partially, by its guacamole.

Our Booth

When our drinks arrived, I asked the waitress if we could sample their mole sauce and she said it was no problem. She returned shortly with our guacamole in a bowl surrounded by chips that appeared to be a ‘whole grain’ version of the tortilla chips I’m accustomed to. The chips were quite good. The guacamole was nice and chunky and was darn good as well except that there was a bit too much lime taste for my liking. I can’t fault them much on this since I’ve had a batch or two where I added a bit too much. Lime is the ingredient that keeps the avocado from turning dark too quickly and it would make sense to add more of it for larger batches – the trick is balancing the flavor.

It was still good guacamole, though my wife still likes mine better.

Our waitress returned with a small cup of mole sauce which was thick and very dark, very much like the mole from our previous excursion. It too was tasty and even a bit less sweet than what we’d sampled a day earlier. There was another flavor present but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, so I asked our waitress who said it might be cinnamon. I happen to like the sweet flavor so I prefer the mole at our previous stop, but I would still order this mole over Fonda San Miguel or Manuel’s in Austin.

The waitress came around and asked which of the three salsas we’d like and without saying a word, she knew we wanted all three. The mild salsa was basically pico de gallo without jalapeno, while the medium salsa was a green tomatillo sauce that was very tangy with a nice, light after-burn. The hottest salsa was a tomato based sauce with a good solid burn without being too hot.

An Aztec Penacho

Our entrees took a while to arrive so we took in the surrounding décor during our wait. The walls in this room were a bright peach color (almost orange) applied with the ‘sponge technique’ and there were Aztec and Mayan activities depicted in the framed art. There was even an actual Penacho on display on a shelf on one wall – well, maybe it was a replica but it was still impressive. Anyway, the ambiance did have an authentic, Central American feel.

Our entrees arrived and it’s obvious the chefs take pride in the presentation of their food. My wife ordered chicken Enchiladas Verdes with black beans and Calabacitas (Yellow Squash with Corn) on the side. The enchiladas were covered with an ample amount of verde sauce with diced tomatoes and sliced lettuce – not iceberg lettuce, but the leafy part of romaine perhaps – all lightly drizzled with sour cream.

The Calabacitas is something I’ve never tried before. It appeared to be diced seasoned squash that’s skillet fried with corn and it had an interesting flavor. The enchiladas were tasty but the verde sauce was not nearly as tangy as I like. I think the medium salsa might be a better topping to ramp up the tomatillo taste a bit, but I have to remember that I’m in Florida, not Texas.

Enchiladas Verdes

Much to the surprise of my wife, I ordered Chicken Tostadas, which was listed on their menu as one of their signature dishes. For those who don’t know, a ‘tostada’ in California is a ‘chalupa’ in Texas (Taco Bell doesn’t count and is NOT Mexican food in this case).

Anyway, I decided on the Tostadas and they were beautiful. They arrived on a plate with a little orange colored drizzle accent on the plate, which was a mango flavor that would be a great sauce for something – maybe pork (yum!). The base was a thin, crisp flat tortilla that was surprisingly easy to pick up without breaking.

I should point out that I like to eat my tostada (chalupa) like a slice of pizza – the problem is keeping them from falling apart.

Chicken Tostadas

The layers were black beans, chicken, lettuce, diced tomato and again drizzled with sour cream. They were good, but were much more flavorful with the addition of the various salsas (medium and hot).  I can only guess that the palette of the typical Floridian is not geared toward spicier fare so that the original entrée is served so you can spice it up to your taste.

All in all, I was very satisfied and would love try other dishes on the menu. It’s extremely difficult to judge any restaurant by one entree but I feel certain that I would be a regular patron of Penacho’s.

For me to live anywhere outside of Texas, I would need a minimum of two or three good Mexican restaurants to survive (we’re not talking about those burrito chains). The fact that I found two good ones in one weekend is a very good sign. However, I spoke with Horacio Dominguez (see part 1) on the phone last week and he walked by Penacho’s recently and not only was their sign was gone but the space was being remodeled.

That’s too bad – I’d loved to have tried a few more of their dishes but I kinda liked Los Dos Compadres food a bit better

So at this point, I can’t say I would be able to survive in Deland, Florida and right now, it looks like Horacio Dominguez is the King of Deland Mexican food. If for some bizarre reason I had to live the rest of my life here, I’d probably eat three times a week (minimum) at Los Dos Compadres.

It’s good to be King, isn’t it Horacio?

Field Trip – Tex-Mex In Florida? (part 1)

Great Egret

 The average Texan doesn’t know much about Florida except for its general location. Of course we’ve heard of places like Miami by way of Miami Vice and that CSI show on television. We also know a little about Tampa and Jacksonville, only because our Dallas Cowboys sometimes travel there to beat up on their football teams. If it wasn’t for NASCAR’s big race, we probably wouldn’t know where Daytona was located – not that we know its exact location now.

So when I mention Deland, Florida, its not surprising that the usual response from a Texan is a blank stare. Of course, if you or someone close to you attended Stetson University, you’d have more of an advantage because the University is the major attraction in Deland. Located about an hour north of Orlando, I would have absolutely no reason to be there, except that my wife graduated from Stetson. 

Come on in Texas boy - the water's fine!

 Actually, it’s a nice little college town with plenty of watering holes for the student body as well as rivers and lakes close by for outdoor recreation. Of course, the whole state is just barely above sea level so swampy rivers and lakes are abundant throughout Florida. Unlike Texas however, you don’t want to swim or water ski here because of the snake and gator population.

In preparation for this trip, I jumped on the web to see what kind of Mexican restaurants might be in the area and was surprised to find six listings in Deland alone. Comparing menus and web page hype, I decided on the three places I’d like to visit if time allowed. As it turned out, the reunion festivities (including a road rally and two evening meals) filled most of our time there, but I was able to visit what I thought were the top two choices based on my research. 

In reading the menu for Los Dos Compadres on the internet, there was a photo of their Nachos de Asada and I knew I wanted to hit this place. This was not a pile of chips with the other components dumped on top (ala El Mercado in Austin). Each chip was individually layered with beans, meat (chicken or beef), cheese and jalapeno, and then baked – the way nachos should be made. 

Also listed were standard Mexican entrees like various enchiladas, chimichangas, burritos and many sea food offerings. The menu included several mole dishes which peaked my interest because mole recipes are fairly complex and vary greatly from one family to the next. Since I love some moles and hate others, this will be a subject we will revisit often. 

We had a light lunch one day and went for some nachos a few hours before our reunion dinner. Located in a strip-center, Los Dos Compadres’ exterior is fairly understated except for neon beer logos and signs in the windows announcing various specials. Inside had a Mexican feel and the service from Leticia was warm friendly. We ordered a couple of Dos XX drafts and scanned the menu.

The Mild Salsa

Plenty of kick!

The beer arrived in frozen mugs and the pre-meal chips came with two salsas served in large bowls. The red sauce was the milder of the two while the green tomatillo sauce was tangy and had the extra kick I like – both had diced onion and cilantro mixed in.

  We ordered the Nachos de Asada with chicken and asked if I could get a small sample of their mole sauce. When Leticia started explaining that each dish was created from scratch and they didn’t pre make anything, a man who was busing tables interrupted her and said he’d be happy to whip some up for us.

This man was the restaurant owner, Horacio Dominguez and he delivered the thick, dark sauce fairly quickly. It looked like the mole I prefer and had a rich taste that was almost as good as my all-time favorite. This sauce was just a little less sweet but still quite good – in fact I’d order this over the mole served at Fonda San Miguel or Manuel’s in Austin, but again I stress that my preference might not be what others like. 

The nachos arrived almost as pictured – the individually layered chips were arranged around the outer edge of a large, oblong plate with shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole and sliced jalapenos in the middle. The guacamole was thick and chunky with tomatoes & diced onion, the way I like it and was very tasty. My wife thinks these were the best nachos she’s ever had. They were indeed scrumptious and my only suggestion would be to add a little more of that tasty guacamole and some more pepper slices – at least one per chip. 

Carne de Asada (Chicken) Nachos

While chatting with Mr. Dominguez we discovered that he comes from Tolucca, Mexico and many of his family members are involved in the restaurant – in fact his mom makes the mole. He said mole sauces were usually associated with weddings in Mexico – so much so that when you inquired about a young couple getting married, you’d ask, “When will we eat mole?”   

He said that many states or regions of Mexico have their own particular style of mole and that he also doesn’t care for some recipes. Many make the sauce too sweet while others make it a bit oily, which is consistent with my limited experience with moles in Austin. He said the complicated nature of the recipe is why mole might soon be removed from the menu. While some of his Hispanic customers will order it from time to time, the Anglo population in Florida just doesn’t seem to appreciate it. 

In our brief conversation, I learned a little more about this thick, savory sauce and left wishing I could try his enchiladas verdes because something tells me they’d be really good – the nachos were great! If for some reason I had to live in Deland, I know I’d eat here often and I’m confident that Los Dos Compadres is a place where my gluttonous appetite for good Mexican food would be satisfied.