More adventures in cooking

Well, this weekend I’m going to try something.

On the trip a few weeks ago to Fredericksburg, I had lunch at a café off of Main St. It didn’t look all that promising, but it was the only place without a major line, and I was at the point where if I didn’t eat something I was going to pounce on a passing tourist and delicately gnaw off one of their arms. Cannibal curiosity not withstanding, I’d rather have a hot meal that I don’t actually have to bring down myself. So, what the heck?

The kid waiting tables was one of those tall, fuzzy-headed, white, college-dude types who didn’t feel it was at all amiss to seat diners while wearing reflective lens aviator sunglasses. And he was much more interested in teasing the kitchen staff into teaching him Spanish (clearly audible over the partition that hid the kitchen). The menu was pretty limited, even for a tiny 5 table café. A few sandwiches, a soup of the day and, intriguingly, chicken enchiladas. I’m in.

I don’t think exquisite is too strong a word. Delicate stewed chicken folded lovingly into a corn tortilla, dressed with a piquant verde sauce, and accompanied by flavorful, homemade black beans and rice that was, well, just rice. But let’s get back to that tortilla. It was handmade. Fresh. Pliant. Flavorful. Nearly fluffy. If all you’ve ever had is those plasticky, bland, dead-on-arrival corn tortillas from the supermarket, and up until then that’s all I’d had, you just don’t know. Not just something that holds the filling together. These were a hearty, toothsome centerpiece to the enchilada. A dozen of these, and a passing tourist, and you have a meal to remember.

So now I want to try making tortillas. I am under the impression that there is both art and science to the process. It is a mystery that only the most humble and patient of acolytes might master. I’m neither patient nor humble. But it’s masa and water and a hot skillet. What could go wrong? Plenty. I know. But for that superb flavor, I’m willing to give it the old college try.