Chichen-Itza! This caterer/restaurant is owned by the Cetina family and is located near the Mexican Consulate right next to MacArthur Park. They specialize in authentic Mexican food, especially on dishes originating from the state of Yucatan. Their menu is to die for! Plus they stay very true to their Mexican roots. Yep, and by that I do mean that sour cream, cheddar cheese, and tomato chunks aren't smothered all over your plates. Choosing these guys was an easy task... choosing what dishes to serve was the challenge. After hour long discussions, a couple food tasting sessions (yum!), and full tummmies, we made our final selections. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, allow me to introduce... our dinner.
During the cocktail hour, besides your choice of Mexican beer and tequila-based beverage, the following hors d'oeuvres will be wandering around tempting your taste buds to savor their deliciousness: fish ceviche, brochetas de pollo en mole, and bocaditos de cochinita pibil. Fish ceviche is a citrus-marinated fish served with veggies. The acidity of the lime juice actually cooks/pickles the raw fish into a chewy ceviche that is commnly served on a tostada (i.e., fried tortilla). The brochetas de mole are chicken skewers sauteed in mole sauce, which is like chile/chocolate based curry. Spicy and sweet! And, the cochinita pibil is a pork based plate that is also marinated in citric juices and slow roasted for a whole a day before actually eating it. I don't know if many of you have seen the movie "Once upon a time in Mexico", but if you have Johnny Depp's character (the doode that shoots everyone down while blind) orders this plate all the time. Automatically makes this plate pretty badass. Below are some pictures of the hors d'oeuvres :D
Fish Ceviche
Brochetas de Polle en Mole
Cochinita PibilFresh jicama/mango salad.
Chiles en Nogada.
Chipotle chicken, cazamiento, and platanos fritos.
The salad is pretty self explanatory, but the chiles en nogada will require some background. This plate is considered the Mexican national plate, mainly because it's based on the tri-color flag: red, white, and green. Just like a chile relleno, this plate is founded on a large [green] chile pepper, but instead of stuffing it with cheese, this one is stuffed with ground beef, fruits, and nuts. The chile is then topped off with a nut-based cream sauce [white] which adds to the sweetness of the meat. The plate is finally garnished with pomegranate seeds [red] to finally complete this very patriotic dish that is all in all deliciously sweet, sour (the seeds), and fiery! Yum! [Note: pomegranates were out of season when we had our tasting, so our caterer had to use unripe pomegrantate seeds. The seeds should be red for our wedding.]
The chipotle chicken is also self-explanatory, chicken bathed in chipotle sauce. The cazamiento (translates as "marriage" from Spanish) is what happens when rice marries black beans. Instead of serving a side of rice and one of beans, many cultures decide to mix them up for you. How considerate! And the platanos fritos are just fried plantains, as found in Cuban food, Guatemalan food, Salvadorean, and about every other Latin American country's food.
We will also have aguas frescas.
[Foto source]These are just natural juice waters that are served instead of soda. The best known agua fresca is horchata (rice based water), but there are also tamarindo, jamaica, watermelon, limeanade, and strawberries. Horchata and jamaica have been invited to our wedding and will be served traditioanlly as well, in plastic barrels and served into your cup from a large cauldron spoon. Oh man! I seriously can't wait!
Do any of you want to share traditional foods that show up mostly in weddings or other special days? Please make us hungry!
1 comment:
Oh my gosh! My fiance is from Yucatan and took me to that restaurant in LA to try some of their traditional foods since there aren't restaurants like that near us. How funny! Your food will be deelish! =)
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