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Excerpted
from Central PA magazine, May 2008
La Cocina Real
French food is more than crème brûlée and heavy cream-based sauces. Italian
cuisine is not just spaghetti and meatballs. And Mexican food simply cannot be
pigeonholed as a ground-meat taco and a bottle of Corona — especially on
a holiday that seems bent on doing so.
During the month of May, Cinco
de Mayo specials flood area Mexican eateries, touting everything from mariachi
bands to discounted beer menus. The challenge? Don’t fall for the hype.
Instead, eat like a true Mexican on the fifth of May — and the rest of
the year, too.
Maria Marroquin knows the food of her
culture. Born and raised in Mexico, she has spent the past 20 years in business
in Central PA, first as the owner of the premier Mexican grocery store in the
area, and now as the owner of Herby’s El Mexicano restaurant, both
located in Steelton (717-939-0624).
“I used to work for a lot of American
restaurants,” says Marroquin. “When I started working in the store, I would
cook for my kids there, and customers started coming and saying, ‘That smells
good.’” As a result of those comments, she decided to take the plunge and open
her own Mexican eatery.
Most Americans, she’s found, compare
Cinco de Mayo to the U.S. Independence Day. In reality, it’s less Fourth of
July and more Battle of Gettysburg. The holiday celebrates La Batalla de Puebla
on May 5, 1862, when the French occupying Mexico were defeated. It was a major
victory and a foreshadowing of the eventual removal of French forces in 1867.
Still, “they don’t celebrate it in Mexico like they do here,” Marroquin says.
Marroquin always offers Cinco de Mayo
specials at Herby’s, but they’re prepared the same way as all her other dishes:
simply, with fresh ingredients and very few “must-measure-everything” recipes.
Instead, she relies on her taste buds to guide her when introducing a new dish:
“I try it myself, and if it’s something I like, I know the customers will like
it.”
That’s why you can usually find Marroquin
in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. “I’m there every day,” she says, preparing
everything in-house, fresh when it’s ordered.
“I try to vary authentic dishes,” she
says, including those offered around Cinco de Mayo. Each year, she tries
something new, and this year, she’s debuting a “shrimp a la Mexicana” dish:
jumbo shrimp cooked in olive oil and topped with a light sauce of onions,
tomatoes, garlic and jalapeño peppers. A second dish, “chicken a la Monterey,”
combines grilled chicken breast with broccoli, zucchini, green peppers and
onions with a ranchero sauce made from tomatoes, black pepper, garlic, green
tomatoes and onions — all topped with cheese. And she won’t settle for a
run-of-the-mill margarita: this year, Marroquin is offering the cantarito, a
refreshing mix of lime, lemon, orange and grapefruit juices, Mexican grapefruit
soda and tequila.
“It’s very simple, but very tasty,” she
says, which is the hallmark of real Mexican food. “The point is, everything is
fresh; that’s why people come and eat it.”
Still, when you’re in an authentic
Mexican restaurant like Herby’s — whether on Cinco de Mayo or any other
day — Marroquin suggests sampling one of the dishes that a native Mexican
would be most likely to choose.
One combo, for example, includes a sope
(a fried tortilla with refried beans, a green sauce, onion, cilantro, salsa and
steak), two flautas (crispy tortillas rolled and filled with chicken), a
quesadilla (a tortilla filled with lettuce and cheese) and two tamales (seasoned
meat wrapped in dough and baked in corn husks). Sounds pretty standard, perhaps
— however, all the dough is made with corn flour instead of the white
bleached flour whose taste Americans recognize more readily.
“The corn tortilla is a little harder,”
Marroquin says. Still, it’s not greasy or heavy, so you’ll be full without the
food sitting on your stomach, and the cotija cheese used in many of the more
authentically Mexican dishes is salty without being the only flavor. (Marroquin’s
store sells cotija, along with tortillas, chorizo, Mexican soft drinks and
other ingredients.)
And you may want to think twice about
covering your food in salsa or sour cream. Instead of spices and heavy sauces,
genuine Mexican cuisine uses vegetables and herbs such as tomatoes, onions,
garlic and cilantro to create flavor that shouldn’t be smothered in condiments.
The Mexican border may be some 1,800 miles away, but true Mexican cuisine is
nearby — whether you’re looking to eat out or cook in. And you don’t have
to wait till the fifth of May to find it.
Recipes to go!
Mexican Shrimp (Shrimp a la Mexicana)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
½ teaspoon jalapeño peppers
2 bay (laurel) leaves
2 lbs. peeled shrimp
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Salt to taste
Heat the olive
oil in a large pan and sauté onion and garlic for about 2 minutes until they
become transparent. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the
peppers and laurel. Cover and cook another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, sauté the
shrimp in butter in another pan on a very low temperature. Add the sauce from
the first pan and cook on high for 3–4 minutes. Add the cilantro and
season with salt. Serves 6.
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
¼ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon oregano leaves,
crumbled
1 teaspoon freshly snipped
cilantro
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon white pepper
¼ lb. Monterey Jack cheese
Combine chicken
with olive oil, oregano, cilantro, garlic salt, black pepper and white pepper
in a small bowl. Marinate the meat for 2 hours. Cook the chicken on the grill.
Serve with grilled broccoli, green peppers, onions and zucchini. Add cheese on
everything when ready to serve. Serves 4.
1 lemon wedge
1 lime wedge
1 grapefruit wedge
1 orange wedge
1 shot tequila
1 cup grapefruit soda
Mix together and
serve over ice. Serves 1.
Recipes courtesy
Maria Marroquin, Herby’s El Mexicano Restaurant
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