EAT drink
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FOrk + center By IAN MCNULTy Email Ian McNulty at mcnulty@cox.net
putting everything on the table what
Salsas Por El Lago
where
124 Lake Marina Drive, 286-3057
when
Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat.
how much Inexpensive
reservations Not accepted
what works
An impressive array of salsas, oddly compelling atmosphere
what doesn’t
Sizzling platters are small, presentations are spare
War and piece (of pizza)
Picking which pizzeria to visit can boil down to habit and convenience, but a promotional contest now under way in New Orleans challenges locals to branch out and take a critical look at a wide variety of pizzerias around town offering different styles of pies. “I feel like New Orleans is actually paying attention to pizza now, and I want people to see what’s happening in this city,” says local restaurateur Jeff Baron. He’s an owner of three players in the scene — the Crescent Pie & Sausage Co. (4400 Banks St., 482-2426; www.crescentpieandsausage.com), the Dough Bowl (1039 Broadway, 861-2200), and Pizzicare (3001 Tulane Ave., 301-4823; www.pizzicare.com) — and in February he helped launch Pizza Wars to promote some of these restaurants and highlight the change in the scene. Pizza Wars continues through April 15. Participants will eat at 10 different pizza restaurants and vote on their favorite, which will enter them in a drawing for prizes (see details on the Pizza Wars Facebook page). Participating pizzerias are Ancora
check, please
A former taco truck operator sets up shop on the Lakefront
Salsa Lessons By Ian McNulty
O
ne of the pleasant distractions in New Orleans in the days following Hurricane Katrina was exploring the new diversity of Latin American food that arrived soon after the workers who came to help rebuild. Those first taco trucks did not announce their locations via Twitter, so finding them meant scouting flood-wrecked neighborhoods at lunchtime and parking lots at home improvement centers. Since then, authentic taquerias have cropped up at familiar addresses, but it’s still a bit surprising to find Salsas Por El Lago inside a former burger joint in West End. It sits at the strange crux of development and floodwalls where New Orleans meets the lake — along a road mostly traversed by people headed to condo towers or marinas. But this is the part of town that proprietor Sandra Garay knows best, and she had been cooking in the area years before opening the restaurant in 2009. A Chicago native of Mexican heritage, Garay landed in New Orleans in 2006 in a taco truck she dubbed Taco Loco (not to be confused with Taceaux Loceaux, a truck serving Korean chicken tacos and such outside Uptown bars). This Taco Loco set up shop in the parking lot of a ruined shopping center on Robert E. Lee Boulevard, where there were scant options for a hot meal. Salsas Por El Lago expands on the typical taco truck menu with fajita-style platters, fried fish and cheese-smothered en-
WinE OF THE week Yartiza Amador, Claudia de la Pena and owner Sandra Garay serve Mexican fare at Salsas Por El Lago. PHOTO By CHERyL GERBER
Questions? Email winediva1@earthlink.net.
2008 Vina Zaco Tempranillo chiladas, but the bedrock fare of burritos, tamales and $2 tacos are the best bets. The meats are generally good, especially the desebrada, with a taste and texture like debris-style roast beef, and the barbacoa, which has a lusciousness akin to short ribs. The tortilla soup and the menudo, a formidably spicy tripe soup, are large and very satisfying as well. The real treat of this restaurant, though, is referenced in its name. The kitchen makes a dozen types of salsas. Some are unusual — like the creamy, cilantro-strung Lulu — and many bring intense heat, like the otherwise innocent-sounding Lala. In January, Garay opened a second restaurant, called Salsas Dos (1325 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, 309-7742), which specializes in breakfast burritos. But part of the appeal of the original Salsas is its offbeat environs. In a mashup of cultural totems, pinatas of Corona bottles hang beside a Ms. Pacman arcade game in a room that has the contours of a fast food restaurant but a large, almost tiki-esque bar sporting rifle-shaped tequila bottles. The clientele includes contractors and office types by day, and at night it’s occupied by couples and maybe some Lakeview women chatting over margaritas and salsa at the bar. There are never many of them, but in the way they point out menu changes and chat with the always-upbeat waitresses, it’s clear many are regulars. Maybe some have been eating this food since the days when it came from a taco truck.
Rioja, Spain $11-$15 Retail
This bottling is from one of Bodegas Bilbainas’ oldest vineyards in the Rioja Alta subregion. The medium-bodied, 100 percent Tempranillo wine was aged nine months in French and American oak. It offers aromas of black and red berries, a gamey, leathery quality and hints of vanilla and spice. On the palate, taste concentrated flavors of black plum, black cherry, espresso, an earthy character and firm tannins. It is ready to drink now, but it will continue to develop in the cellar. Decant an hour before serving. Drink it with tapas, bold meat dishes, lamb, roasted vegetables and aged manchego or other hearty cheeses. Buy it at: Cork & Bottle, Dorignac’s and Rouses in Covington. Drink it at: RioMar, NOLA, Barcelona Tapas, The Court of Two Sisters and Pravda. — BRENDA MAITLAND
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > march 6 > 2012
A Lakefront taqueria carries on a post-Katrina tradition.
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