Thursday, March 20, 2008
Restaurants A tale of two stuffed poblanos
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Twenty years ago, you couldn't get a decent chile relleno in our city. When you found it on a menu, it was invariably made with a bell pepper, instead of a poblano pepper. We won't even discuss the Velveeta-esque cheese typically used. That has changed and now the usually mild, slightly stinging poblano is ubiquitous.
Quality, on the other hand, ranges all over the place. Here's a case in point. The classic chile relleno (top photo) at the new, gringo-oriented Holy Taco (1314 Glenwood Ave., 404-230-6177) beats the chile relleno at the "authentic" El Rey del Taco (5288 Buford Hwy., 770-986-0032) by a mile (right).
In El Rey's version, the chile is over-cooked and stuffed with tasteless baby shrimp, then submerged in a tomatoey sauce. Holy Taco's version, lightly battered and filled with white cheese is just right.
Other experts with poblanos are Eddie Hernadez of the defunct Sundown Cafe and Lucero Martinez-Obregon of Zocalo. Both have on occasion served chiles en nogada — a stuffed poblano topped with white walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds.
Comments (1)
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This place sucks! Worst service from people who do not care about their customers. We were told we would have to wait 30 minutes before we could put an order into the kitchen, because they were slammed (although there were many empty tables in the restaurant). After 30 minutes, she then proceeded to tell us that we were lucky to get our order in. When asked why, she replied "Just trust me, it's better this way". I did not trust her. Chips were oily; salsa was flavorless. Service, from Kiki, was horrible. She would rather roll silverware instead of replenishing our EXPENSIVE non organic margaritas or our tap water. WE WILL NOT BE GOING BACK.
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