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Right before her visit from New York, I received this email from our friend Abby:
Mike,
I will be in LA next week and, if time allows, I would like to request a restaurant adventure for your blog. A few ideas to explore:
fish tacos
tasty vegetarian
finger-licking BBQ
pasta porn
A few things you should know about Abby right off the bat:
1. She is an extremely good planner. In fact I got that email a full 2 weeks before her arrival. Goes to show CSOM’ers always prosper. (sorry non-BC folks for the inside joke)
2. Abby has been at the same accounting firm for the past six years! Here’s a woman not afraid of commitment!
3. Apparently she knows what pasta porn is…I’ve never heard of it, but I can already tell I want to go to there.
I sent Abby the list of pLAtes left (all 83 of them, oy vey) and she picked out a few options. I of course ignored those options and picked out a dinner at Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger’s Border Grill.
Me – “Jessie, it’s springtime!”
Jessie – “Right….”
Me – “That means it’s green corn tamales season!”
Jessie – “I don’t think I’ve seen those at the seasonal farmers market…”
Jessie, Abby and I met John and Kelly at the original Border Grill near the Santa Monica Promenade (a new outpost has opened up downtown) for a fun Friday night dinner.
When it comes to rating Mexican restaurants, I take 3 important factors into consideration: Margarita, Salsa and Guacamole. For example, El Compadre has great margaritas (that they light on fire), but the salsa is terrible. Marix has amazing guacamole, but their frozen Margaritas become watery too quickly. Meanwhile, El Coyote is just crappy all around.
Here at Border Grill, the salsa must have been a hit with everyone because we ran out of our two baskets of (extra thick) chips before the guacamole even came out!
Kelly – “This guac is good, but I like Chiptole’s a little better.”
Abby – “What is this weird piece of lettuce for?”
Jessie – “Hmm…maybe use it as a chip?”
Me – “That’s an awfully big chip!”
The aforementioned Green Corn Tamales (and the reason we came) are served as an appetizer and come in orders of three. We opted to get two servings so everyone would be able to have their own. As the steaming corn-husk-wrapped tamales arrived, there were more than few puzzled looks around the table.
Me – “What is this?”
Jessie – “I dunno it’s your pLAte.”
John – “I feel like I’m opening a present”
Kelly – “How many presents have you ordered that steam comes out of?”
John – “You don’t want to know.”
As we carefully unwrapped the neatly tied corn-husk wrapping paper (predicted to be all the rage this holiday season), inside was a
generous serving of a sweet corn cake of sorts. If creamed corn came in a slightly more solid form, that would be what this dish tasted like.
Kelly – “It’s like a deconstructed corn bread.”
Me – “So Top Chef of you Kelly!”
Still steaming hot minutes later, everyone devoured their individual tamale in quick fashion. The mushy texture and melt in your mouth sensation coupled a sweet kick has me thinking about heading back for another order.
Abby – “I’m gonna try something crazy. Green Corn Tamale on a tortilla chip!”
Jessie - “That’s it! You’re cut off!”
Kelly – “I wonder what else you can cook in a corn husk?
Jessie – “It’s like saran wrap for Mexicans!”
While the tamales were an instant hit, a few of the main dishes fell somewhat flat. I decided to order the Chicken Chilaquiles, which was described as a Mexican version of lasagna. Sounds like a dream come true right?!?
Sadly, most of the cheese wasn’t melted and none of the flavors really stood out as unique components.
Meanwhile, Abby’s fried pepper wasn’t quite as crispy as she would have hoped. However the cheese blend was a “delight”.
Jessie’s pork was good, but the best parts were the burnt pieces buried deep underneath the heaping pile of meat.
Abby – “So how does this all work, you write it up and we see it on the blog in a few days?”
Me – “Yea, in theory.”
John – “More like a few weeks.”
Me – “So Abby, getting back to that noodle porn…”
Jessie – “Insert noodle joke here.”
Border Grill
1445 4th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401
