At Taqueria Antojitos Yucatecos, 465 S.E. 102nd Ave., dishes from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula include salbutes (shown here), panuchos and tamales. (Mark Graves/Staff)
Dutch cheese, turkey, bitter orange juice – when you think of Mexican food, you might not think of these ingredients, but they all help to tell the compelling culinary story of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula.
The Yucatán, which juts northward into the Gulf of Mexico and eastward into the Caribbean Sea, was part of the ancient Mayan empire and later a target of European trade and colonization, resulting in culinary influences that resonate today.
You can thank the Mayans for having cultivated corn, chiles, beans, cacao, tomatoes and avocados. They also domesticated a type of indigenous wild turkey, so roasted pavo therefore commonly appears in many dishes with Mayan origins.
The Spaniards who sought to conquer the peninsula had a tradition of marinating and preserving their meats in vinegar. In the Yucatán, they used the abundant citrus fruits, like the bitter orange (naranja agria) and bitter lime (lima agria) instead.
Eventually Dutch traders arrived, swapping New World goods for Old World cheese, as in queso relleno, a steamed ball of Edam cheese that is hollowed out and stuffed with minced meat and aromatic vegetables. Even 19th-century Lebanese immigrants made their culinary mark on the peninsula, contributing kibbeh, the herbed bulgur wheat ground beef fritter (kibis), and a distinctly non-halal version of schwarma (al pastor) which is beloved across Mexico.
Yucatecan cookery also features spice pastes known as recados, which are often made with achiote, the red ground annatto seed used to color cheddar cheese orange. Recados are made in a colorful array of flavors, which brine and season meats and fortify sauces. In recado rojo, which is used to prepare cochinita pibil, achiote is combined with other aromatic spices, vinegar and citrus juices to add an earthy sourness to the roasted pork.
In Portland, the most common Yucatecan dishes you'll find are panuchos, salbutes and cochinita pibil.
Ricardo Martin at Taqueria Antojitos Yucatecos. (Mark Graves/Staff)
Salbutes are essentially hand-pressed tortillas which puff when fried. They're topped with lettuce, roasted turkey or chicken, pickled red onions, tomato and avocado.
Panuchos take salbutes to another level. The puffed tortilla is sliced open, stuffed with a decadent lard-fortified black bean puree spread, and then re-griddled.
Both salbutes and panuchos are best enjoyed with a shot of freshly made habanero salsa. (In the Yucatán, some will insist that the only "correct" topping for a panucho is turkey or chicken, but in Portland it's a panucho topping free-for-all.)
The pit-roasted pork dish cochinita pibil results from the Mayans' desire to preserve meat as provisions during a hunt. A whole small pig was slathered in achiote and bitter orange juice, wrapped in banana leaves and slowly roasted over coals in a buried stone pit. Unfortunately, the only way you're likely to taste it prepared this way is if you're invited to a friendly Yucateco's backyard roast, but the dish is still delicious when the meat is oven-roasted.
Here are four places in Portland that may convince you to book a flight to Mérida.
The tamales at Taqueria Antojitos Yucateco are steamed in banana leaves rather than corn husks. (Mark Graves/Staff)
Taqueria Antojitos Yucateco
Prior to opening this cart in 2009, Ricardo Martin got his relleno blanco, cochinita pibil and panuchos from an industrious pillar of the expat community, a Yucatecan woman who prepares dinners for homesick Yucatecos in Northeast Portland. "Back then, it was much harder to find the food from home, so I started cooking it myself," Martin said. Eventually he developed a menu of panuchos, salbutes and cochinita pibil.
However, the real reason to seek out his cart is for his tamales. Instead of corn husks, Yucatecan tamales are steamed in banana leaves, which are first run over a flame to release their fragrant oils and make them more pliable. The distinct aroma infuses itself into the tamal with a vaguely herbal, musky essence. Martin's chicken tamal, tamal vaporcito de pollo, has a smooth, somewhat bouncy consistency.
His tamal colado, an occasional off-menu item due to its labor-intensive preparation, is truly special. It's essentially a polenta fortified with lard and thickened into a delicately quivering, impossibly soft consistency. This is ladled into a banana leaf and layered with onion, tomato and shredded chicken in a red achiote tomato sauce, then eaten with a spoon. When tamal colado is available, Martin announces it on his Facebook page, or you can call in a special order.
10175 S.E. Stark St., 503-867-2328.
Orden de poc chuc. (Adam Levbarg)
Loncheria Los Mayas
Of all the Yucatecan dishes available in Portland, panuchos might be the most popular. My vote for the best panuchos in town goes to Manuela Interian and Freddi Castillo, the sprightly, joyous couple who run the Loncheria Los Mayas cart in the parking lot next to Yonder.
Of course the stuffed tortillas are freshly made — you can't buy these from your local tienda. The joy of eating this panucho is in the gestalt of the thing: the simultaneous chewiness and crispness, with a hidden, savory cache of earthy, salty black beans inside; the soft pull of the shredded chicken against your teeth; the acid bite of the pickled red onions; the fresh brightness of the tomato; the creamy vegetal flavor of the avocado; the final punch of vinegar and habanero heat as it hits the back of your palate.
Loncheria Los Mayas is also notable as one of the few vendors in town that cooks the modern Yucatecan dish poc chuc, traditionally charcoal-grilled citrus marinated pork. I found it a bit dry and lacking smoke, but the black beans brightened with the fresh tomato salsa were absolutely delicious, and the habanero salsa was excellent — roundly hot and pungent without being vinegar-heavy.
4636 N.E. 42nd Ave., 503-754-3059.
Pavo en relleno negro. (Kim Chen)
Taqueria La Mestiza
The first thing you notice when you stare into the depths of an inky bowl of pavo en relleno negro is the sheer blackness of this stew. Relleno negro is essentially a rich pork and turkey broth soup, filled with shredded turkey, a hardboiled egg, and thick slices of an oversized pork meatball that has been stuffed with a bright-yellow hardboiled egg yolk which shines at you from the murky blackness as if it were the sun itself.
The distinct color of this soup comes from the chile paste recado negro, a luscious concoction of blackened arbol chiles, allspice, black peppercorns, garlic, cloves, cinnamon and the ever-present achiote. The result is a richly flavored stock that is deeply satisfying, and is eaten with warmed tortillas served on the side.
La Mestiza's owner, an affable Yucateco who goes simply by Tivo, says that it's delicious if you ask for it as a topping for your salbute. He is not incorrect about that. Pavo en relleno negro is available only on weekends, but panuchos, salbutes, a tender, slightly citrusy poc chuc and cochinita pibil are available all week.
8525 N.E. Fremont Dr., 503-572-8595.
Sopa de lima. (Kim Chen)
Nuestra Cocina
Let's get one thing off the table: Nuestra Cocina is not a Yucatecan restaurant, but it does prepare the best iteration of cochinita pibil that I tasted in Portland.
What Chef Benjamin Gonzales and his wife, Shannon Gonzales, have been doing at Nuestra Cocina since 2004 is emphasizing classic interpretations of dishes from all over Mexico. Their three Yucatecan dishes are terrific.
The cochinita is brined and marinated for a full day in pineapple and orange juices, which approximates the fruity and acidic flavors of the hard-to-get naranja agria. The roast takes on a distinctly brilliant orange color from the achiote , which deepens as the pork roasts slowly into tender submission. Sadly, the requisite habanero salsa was missing; I'd have loved to have added this dimension of flavor and heat to elevate this already excellent dish.
Also outstanding was the Yucatecan half-roasted chicken, on the menu as pollo asado en achiote, arroz blanco y salpicón. Juicy and tender with a smoky char, it is rubbed with achiote and habanero and served with a dollop of a fresh red onion and tomato salsa similar to pico de gallo.
Nuestra Cocina is the only restaurant in town which makes the essential Yucatecan soup sopa de lima, a brothy tortilla soup traditionally made from turkey stock and the floral, sour lima agria. In Portland this fruit is available seasonally and in limited quantities (you can find it occasionally at the marvelous La Tapatia supermarket in Gresham). Gonzales' version is made to order from a housemade chicken stock reduction and standard Persian limes.
A regional variant of panuchos occasionally shows up as a special, made with a thin slice of hardboiled egg inside the fried tortilla alongside the black beans. I'll be sure to return to try it.
2135 S.E. Division St., 503-232-2135, nuestracocina.com
Adam Levbarg on Twitter: @MisterTaster
Ad Choices