MUCHO MAS LIVES UP TO ITS NAME GET YOUR MONEY'S WORTH AND MORE AT NORTH HOLLYWOOD'S MEXICAN VETERAN.Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic THERE'S AN obvious difference between poquito and mucho. Poquito Mas is a well-known mini-chain of fresh-Mex, self-service cafes with locations in the Universal/Studio City area, North Hollywood, Burbank, Sunset Strip/West Hollywood, West Los Angeles
Mucho Mas, on the other hand, is a solo, free-standing, 20-plus-year-old independent restaurant in an interesting-looking North Hollywood building where the tequila tequila Distilled liquor, usually clear in colour and unaged, made from the fermented juice of the Mexican agave plant. (See agave family.) It contains 40–50% alcohol. flows, mostly via margaritas, and the food is traditional, old-style Mexican. They are not, by the way, related. Mucho Mas lives up to its name with hefty portions. In fact, you'll rarely see any unfilled space on a plate brought to your table. You get a basket of good, old-fashioned, slightly oily tortilla chips and a bowl of thick, scoopable, pretty good red salsa after you're seated in the dark, woody, tiered dining room. The south-of-the-border interior features plenty of wrought iron wrought iron: see iron. wrought iron One of the two forms in which iron is obtained by smelting. Wrought iron is a soft, easily worked, fibrous metal. It usually contains less than 0.1% carbon and 1–2% slag. , and diners will notice a dominant velvet painting of a rugged mestizo mestizo (māstē`sō) [Span.,=mixture], person of mixed race; particularly, in Mexico and Central and South America, a person of European (Spanish or Portuguese) and indigenous descent. with a bronzed Lee Marvin-type face. A decent-tasting margarita Margarita (märgärē`tä), island, 444 sq mi (1,150 sq km), in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela. With many smaller islands it constitutes the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta (1990 pop. 263,748). on the rocks in a bowl-shaped glass costs $4, and one can sip and enjoy it while perusing the typical cantina-style Mexican menu. But don't hesitate to pick a soup as a starter. Both the sopa de tortilla and albondigas recipes, often included in the price of your dinner, are excellent. There are the expected combination platters here of tamales, tacos, enchiladas and chile rellenos, with all four available as single-item small plates priced at $6.95 each. There are no choices on accompanying beans, though. You only get regular refritos here topped with a daub of cheese. No boiled beans. And no black beans, either. These are the traditional, well-oiled beans of good, hearty taste. Yes, they definitely please the palate better than the wimpy Wimpy sloppily dressed comic strip character; always “forgets” to pay for hamburgers. [Comics: “Popeye” in Horn, 657–658] See : Irresponsibility , new, lard-free style does. And with the heap of rice and hot tortillas on the side, whatever you order, you certainly won't go hungry at Mucho Mas. Forget your cholesterol numbers or any calorie counting. Just figure on getting your money's worth on a hot oval plate. Respectable combinations of two items are $7.95, three items $8.95. Best of them is the house rendition of chile relleno. Don't look, however, at dinner time for a former house specialty of chicken breast sauteed in butter and wine and then slathered in a bright green mint jelly sauce in a dish called ``gallina en salsa verde'' ($10.75). The waiter one evening said they had had some trouble cooking it properly, so it wasn't being served anymore. But it was, surprisingly, available at lunchtime a day later. Never having seen this recipe before, curiosity got the better of me, and I couldn't resist ordering it. I think a green sauce Green sauce is the name of several different sauces containing mainly herbs, namely the Italian salsa verde, the French sauce verte, and the German grüne Soße or Frankfurter Grie Soß (Frankfurt dialect). from cilantro and/or tomatillos would have worked a lot better. There was a cloying sweetness in the mint jellylike saucing that wasn't particularly welcome. A spicier, more savory mixture would seem to make more sense. Yet the chicken was moist and correctly cooked in both this and the traditional arroz con pollo Noun 1. arroz con pollo - rice and chicken cooked together Spanish style; highly seasoned especially with saffron chicken and rice - rice and chicken cooked together with or without other ingredients and variously seasoned entree ($10.50). More on green food. The Mucho Mas menu, which promises a guacamole dip boosted with chopped green chiles, onions, tomatoes and assorted spices ($6.15) sends out a hefty bowl of the popular avocado dip, that somehow looks a brighter green than normal. But a chipful or two immediately suggests that a stirred spoonful or more of the house salsa is needed to give the otherwise bland dip some of the promised peppery pep·per·y adj. 1. Of, containing, or resembling pepper; sharp or pungent in flavor. 2. Vigorously sharp-tempered: a peppery sales clerk. 3. , spicy life. I like one ``green sauce'' dish, that of chile verde Chile Verde is a Mexican and Mexican-American stew or sauce usually made from chunks of pork that have been slow cooked in chicken broth, garlic, tomatillos, and jalapeños. Sometimes the sauce is made with poblanos instead of or in addition to the jalapeños. ($9.25), here that's hardly green at all. It satisfies quite well in a hearty pork stew kind of way. On the seafood side, most of the offerings here are shrimp, a couple of them actually designated as ``fresh shrimp,'' which is questionable because ``fresh'' usually means Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. shrimp. Because such shrimp are more expensive than the frozen ones, they're rarely seen in moderately priced Mexican restaurants like this one. But Mucho Mas should be congratulated for naming the crab in its crab enchiladas as ``imitation.'' There are still too many restaurants that use surimi su·ri·mi n. Minced, processed fish used in the preparation of imitation seafood, especially imitation shellfish. [Japanese : suru, to process, mash + mi, meat.] or other imitation crab meat and don't reveal it to their customers. Meanwhile, if you like a spicy shrimp dish, be devil-may-care and try the camarones a la diabla ($12.45) here. If it's a bit too hot, a gulp An unspecified number of bytes. of icy cold margarita will cool everything down in a hurry. Ole! Ole! MUCHO MAS Food: Two and one half stars. Service: Three stars. Where: 10405 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. Hours: Open for lunch, dinner, snacks and cocktails from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily. Recommended items: Albondigas and tortilla soups, chile relleno, chile verde, arroz con pollo, camarones a la diabla. How much: Starters from $2.50 to $8.15, entrees from $7 to $12.45, desserts $3 each. Full bar. Major credit cards. Reservations: Taken only on Friday nights. Call (818) 980-0300. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Mucho Mas in North Hollywood offers atmosphere along with hefty portions of traditional Mexican fare. Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion