Megan's Excellent Seattle Foodventure (La Carta da Oaxaca)

This is what I did the first day that I got back from school.

(but to preface this story:)

The night before I left school: Only around an hour of sleep because I was packing. It was pretty exhausting and also a good workout because I lugged all my boxes and luggage (also my fridge) to the downstairs storage myself (this is more remarkable given that I am a tiny Asian girl with no conceivable upper-body strength, and even more remarkable given the fact that I had barely any sleep...go me!).

The night before...

Denny's for dinner (after getting back at around 11 at night). Mom told me that I was going to my sister's recital at 10 in the morning (so I had to wake up at 9 am), and that we were going to go eat good food for lunch.

And the yumventure (and coincidentally also on Philippine Independence Day) begins:

La Carta de Oaxaca
One of the best Mexican restaurants that I've been to, especially since it is not your typical tacos, burritos and enchiladas place. The Oacaxan influence on the cuisine here is apparent in the variety of their menu, as well as the fact that they had mole. YUM. Also, they make their own tortillas (you can see it in their open kitchen) and have a good salsa bar. YUM. Overall, amazing, home-style (authentic), hearty (and cheap) food.

Interior: Note the open kitchen and the salsa bar near the bar area of the kitchen (it's right beside where the white thing is below the person at the kitchen). They had around 5-6 different salsas and all were good.

Lady making tortillas by hand (note the red basin next to her where the dough was--she would roll the dough out in spheres, flatten it, and place it on the pan to toast). Their tortillas are delicious by the way.

Chips and Guacamole: Yum. Chips were fresh and guacamole was nice and chunky.

Pork Mole Negro Oaxaquena: Did not get this myself, but two of my eating companions did (and I've tried this dish previously when I went here a while ago). The mole that they have here is pretty delicious--it has a nice, smoky-sweet flavor, and the pork is pretty tender. Such a hearty meal.

Lamb Birria: Sooo goood. And I didn't even know that Mexican people had lamb as part of their cuisine. Lamb was really tender and had a lot of different spices that allowed the meaty, hearty flavor of the lamb meat to come out. Originally I thought that they probably put in some alcohol--like beer or wine--to give the stew some depth, but when I looked at recipes for this meal, it turned out that it was just spices. The beans that this was served with were also really yummy, especially when you combined all the elements of the dish and made a taco with the tortillas (also putting in some salsa from their extensive selection completed the experience). Also, I finished my food--that is saying a lot.

Pozole (picture stolen from online--no, we did not have beer with our meal): Mindy's order. Pork stew with hominy that you eat up with tortillas. I tried her soup and it was seasoned very well--I've tried versions of this soup that were too salty, too spicy or too oily, but this soup was just right. It had a nice, meaty flavor and would be something that I would want on a rainy day.

Caldo de Pescado (taken from online as well): Mom's order. Apparently this restaurant won "best fish soup" with this dish, and my mom would agree wholeheartedly with that, because she really loved this fish soup. I tried some from her and the broth was very...nice--flavorful, but you still got that fish taste that was not overwhelmed by a lot of random spices.