Taqueria Mi Pueblo is on Dix Highway in Detroit.  A traditional Mexican restaurant in the heart of the Hispanic section of town, Mi Pueblo has been serving the community for years and doing it well, too.  Upon entering, the first thing I noticed was the clientele – all Hispanic/Mexican/Latino.  Usually when an ethnic restaurant is filled with people of the same ethniticity, it is doing something right. Second, the menu was in 2 languages – another good sign.

I’ve been looking forward to try Mi Pueblo ever since Rico’s Market on Gration closed down.  Rico’s made excellent tongue tacos and I was at a loss for finding other places that served them.  A tip from a friend who used to live next door to me pointed to Mi Pueblo.

We’ll get to the tongue tacos eventually, but first we start with the shredded pork botana. 

The pork was seasoned perfectly – slightly spicy, but not too much for Heather and Laila, who both like mildly spicy foods.  It was fall apart tender as well.  As mentioned above, I’m not a huge fan of slathering cheese on top to hide imperfections.  In this case, the cheese was a welcome addition and it didn’t overwhelm the dish.  The veggies were all fresh, except the jalapenos, which were pickled.  This is a pet peeve of mine – I love fresh jalapenos, but it is extremely rare to see them served in Mexican restaurants.  Why don’t more places serve fresh peppers? Imagine fresh jalapenos, serranos, and habaneros at your local taco place – that would be incredible.

My dinner plate consists of pig stomach, beef tongue, chopped onion and cilantro, spanish rice, and refried beans.  Notice there is no cheese on the plate, rather a lime is on the plate to cut the richness of the meats.  This was my first time trying pig stomach and I was delightfully surprised.  The texture is definitely not for everyone – it is kind of like a steamed bacon so slimy and chewy with a very faint pork flavor.   The tongue was supremely tender, much more so than Rico’s ever was.  Very beefy and rich, tongue is a decadent treat and the lime, onions, and cilantro make for perfect additions to the taco.  A pleasantly spicy hot sauce was also served with this dish. We also ordered 3 varieties of tamales as a side dish.  Puerco, pollo, and fresca – puerco had pork and chile verde, pollo had chicken with red mole sauce, and fresca was strawberry with pineapple chunks.  All were good, but the strawberry one wins the prize for odd color. The rice and beans were also very good and could stand up on their own as a main dish.  If there is one flaw in the dish, it was the tortillas.  They were soggy and tasted reheated.  A small complaint given the absolute lusciousness of meats.

Speaking of luscious, what followed was quite possibly one of the finest desserts I’ve ever had.

Tres Leches cake is a yellow cake that has punctured and then has 3 kinds of milk (whole, condensed, and evaporated) poured into it.  It is tremendously moist and dense.  Mi Pueblo’s version has a wonderful caramel flavor and a perfect consistency.  I was absolutely amazed at how wonderful this cake is. Even though I was full from dinner, I still found room to put away half of a very large piece (and finished the rest later in the evening at home).

A couple additional notes: I ordered horchata (a Mexican rice drink) to drink.  It tasted like rice pudding, but had the consistency of skim milk.  It was actually quite refreshing and was a nice foil to some of the heat present in the dishes.  The wait staff was very friendly and helpful.  Our waiter asked me after he brought my plate out if I was sure that I wanted what I’d ordered.  I assured him it was fine and I was overjoyed to be eating there.

Overall, a wonderful experience – one that I fully intend to revisit many more times in the coming months.

It’s cold in Michigan.  Brutal, in fact.  My beer drinking changes with the seasons.  Like the seasons, distribution and availability fluctuates as well. For example, Bells distributes Oberon from roughly April through Mid November.  Oberon is for days where the sun is out and the weather is warm(er).  A summer wheat beer with a golden sunshine like hue – Oberon is summertime.  But, as I said before, it’s COLD in Michigan so we can’t have an Oberon.

Nope. Tonight I poured a North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.  Dark as night. Big, rich, flavorful, warming.  On a cold night there is nothing more comforting than a chocolately warmth of a good imperial stout.  Old Rasputin is a good one, too. Rich, creamy – vanilla, coffee, heavy on the roasted malt and on alcohol (over 9%).  Stouts should be drunk at around room temperature – not a rule, but my preference.  I feel like the colder a stout is, the less complexity can be tasted.

The seasonality of beer is the perfect marketing tool.  There is nothing wrong with drinking  an Oberon in December, but a guest might think that your Oberon isn’t fresh since “that is a summer beer.”  Marketing tells us what our tastes should be – dark stout = winter/golden wheat = summer – even Bell’s Winter White looks like snow.  We then situate each beer with a particular moment, which can be comforting.  There is a feeling of relief that comes over me when I see the first batch of Oberon on the shelf – summer is coming, I think.

Seasons revolve around beer.  Nothing wrong with that.

Discussions of beer & wine can sometimes be confusing and needlessly opulent. We have veered away from describers like delicious, refreshing, and gross towards words like piney, tannic, and earthy. Not saying the latter words are not helpful, but for someone whose interest is just beginning these words are hard to swallow (pun intended).

Let’s take a step back and remember that beer tasting is a totally subjective experience. What I claim is good or bad might not be to the next person, meaning no one should be afraid to respond honestly to the question, “What beer/wine/any product would you recommend?” We are not experts by any means, but sometimes guidance is requested. Don’t be afraid to share your recommendations.

The idea, then, is to come to some sort of agreement on what to expect from beer. Beer is a fermented beverage brewed with barley, wheat, corn. Many times the fundamental flavoring agent is hops, which can also function as a preservative. For example, India Pale Ales (IPA) are usually very hoppy (read: bitter). When someone says, “I like hoppy beers,” an easy recommendation to make is with an IPA (specifically – Bells Two Hearted, New Holland Mad Hatter, or any beer labeled IPA). Conversely, when you hear, “I don’t like bitter beers,” avoidance of IPAs is important with a push toward beers with less (or no) hops. For example, Simpler Times lager is all malt, meaning it is very smooth with very little bitterness. Additionally, Bells Amber, Trader Joe’s Vienna, and Gila Monster are all good examples of beers with very little bitterness.

Still uncomfortable? Try some beers.  Buy a bottle of 2 or 3 different kinds and take notes on what you taste, smell, see, etc.  Look the beers up online at http://beeradvocate.com and compare notes.

Until next time, keep on drinking.

Here’s a quick introduction to pairing.  Trader Jose’s Premium Lager is nearly identical to Corona, Tecate, Pacifico, or any other Mexican style lager.  Therefore, the flavor profile of Trader Jose’s matches those of its predecessors, which is to say there is a strong corn and citrus profile.  Therefore, Trader Jose’s is an ideal beer to drink very cold with a wedge of lime served along side our Marinated fish tacos and refried beans. A quick breakdown of the pairing:  the corn & citrus from beer complement the corn tortilla and citrus used in the salsa and fish in the tacos. If there are any beer questions you want answered in this column, shoot me an e-mail at montageman@gmail.com and I’ll answer them next time.

Tonight I went back to Terry’s for round 2 and to get a sandwich for Heather.  Steak and cheese (above) sounded good to me.  Heather went with the Turkey Club.  Aside from the jalapenos (which I added), everything on my sub was really great.  The steak was actually steak, the mushrooms were large and flavorful, the onions were grilled well, and even the American cheese was a welcome addition for its creaminess.

Heather’s club was equally impressive.  Roasted turkey, honey ham, bacon – all good quality – the bacon was even crispy! Lettuce and pickles were also fresh.  We added Annie’s Organic Honey Mustard at home since we didn’t want the bread to become too soggy before eating.

Terry’s is a great little sandwich shop.  High quality food that someone is proud to be serving.  A welcome change from the norm, we’ll be going there more and more to be sure places like this don’t fade away.

At Trader Joe’s we have a number of lagers: Heineken, Stella Artois, Trader Jose’s Mexican lagers, Vienna lager, Bohemian lager, Winterfest Double Bock, Edison Light, Frugal Joe’s Ordinary beer, and others that I’m missing. Given the lager’s status as such a popular beer, that also means that the price point can be kept low to attract all consumers. The peak price of a 6 pack in the above mentioned examples is $8.99 with the mean price somewhere closer to $6 per 6 pack. Essentially, this means that these are “everyday” beers that can be paired with virtually any meal. Additionally, the lower alcohol by volume of these beers (usually around 4-6%) makes them ideal to pair with spicy foods. Higher alcohol beers will tend to exacerbate the spiciness of Mexican, Thai, or Indian food, so a lower alcohol lager makes an ideal pair. I am not advocating the pairing of a Bud Light with a good plate of Tandoori Chicken or Pad Thai, but rather the seeking out of a Bell’s lager to pair with that dish. As an aside, that same Bell’s lager is tremendous with Detroit style deep dish pizza!

The lager is the most accessible style for the beginning beer drinker who does not have access to many craft brews. This is, however, a double edged sword because the most readily available lagers are not the best examples of the style. Nothing against Budweiser or Coors, but as beeradvocate.com argues regarding American macro lagers, “Light bodied, pale, fizzy lagers made popular by the large macro-breweries of America after prohibition. Low bitterness, thin malts, and moderate alcohol. Focus is less on flavor and more on mass-production and consumption, cutting flavor and sometimes costs with adjunct cereal grains, like rice and corn.” Not exactly the ideal starting point for the novice beer drinker – right? – so my advice would be to seek out a craft lager/pilsener whether it is from a local brewery or even a decent Euro Lager (like Stella Artois) and pair it with a favorite food (pizza, pasta, hamburger, hot dog, chili, whatever) and notice how a well crafted lager can be a wonderful accompaniment to any meal.

The flavor profile of lager ranges along the lines of the beer’s darkness. As a general rule, the lighter the beer (not including “light beers”), the hoppier it will be while darker lagers will have a stronger malt presence. Essentially this means that as you move toward bocks, dopplebocks, and rauchbiers, the flavors become more intense and pairing may prove tricky. More specifically than stated above, try some good grilled salmon or a Vermont white cheddar with a Bohemian lager or some spicy nachos with the Vienna Lager. For those who are more adventurous, try the Dunkelweizen with a plate of grilled Hofbrau Brats and pierogis.

One of the specials this morning was a Breakfast Panini  – a grilled sandwich made with cinnamon raisin bread stuffed with Nutella, granny smith apples, and bananas.  We have a panini press at home, so this is a sandwich that we’ll be bringing home.  The hazelnut chocolate Nutella paired well with the apples and the banana.  The sweetness from the bread was a welcome addition as well.

During the past month or so, I’ve made steel cut oatmeal a couple of times.  Both times, Heather has been less than pleased with the texture of the oats claiming they’re too chewy.  Given this fact, we have been unable to give the oatmeal to Laila, who at nine months old cannot chew them.  Toast has oatmeal on their Kid’s Menu, so we ordered some for Laila.  Unbeknown to us, they were steel cut except they we cooked beyond their initial chewiness to a state of transcendent fluffiness that was easily consumed by our nine month old even more so when paired with the bananas that accompanied the oats.

I cannot wait until we are able to visit Toast again.  I am very curious to see how they do lunch since they seem to do breakfast so flawlessly.