Today was a beautiful, sunny, not too hot day outside. George and I had both been spending entirely too much time working on various things, and not enough time slacking off together. He decided he wanted some Mexican food, so he picked a place out in Grafton that seemed to be both out of the way, and not too shady. The plan then was to drive in the general direction, get happily lost on curvy farm roads, and then ask the GPS to take us there when we got hungry.
We wove through towns and farmland, waved at cows, made fun of funny signs, and enjoyed the sunshine. We entered downtown Grafton, and it initially looked like a neat little place. It was a railroad town, still with active tracks, lined with old nicely kept store fronts. Sadly, we noticed very quickly that about half of them were vacant. Then we saw the restaurant we had aimed for. Though it’s “open” sign was lit, it did not look occupied, nor did it look terribly inviting….new plan? Let’s see what the GPS has to say.
Next on the list was Casa Fiesta on Main Street in Oberlin. Places on any “Main Street” are a good bet when you’re making a shot in the dark. And being in Oberlin, a college town, there’s a very good chance it is open, and that there may be other interesting things around. So we continued down the country roads, started to feel like we were in the suburbs of a small college town, and there on our left was…
Well, OK! Let’s go! It was just on the outer edge of the central square in Oberlin. Just a small little old store front place, it was bright and sunny inside. This photo below really is all there is to the entire place. The big window in the front brought in all of the sunlight.
Photo by George Burgyan http://blog.vec.com
Here is George doing what he does…specifically, taking the above photo:
And here is George smiling while I rudely take a photo while he is munching their fresh, hot, seemingly house-made tortilla chips and tasty salsa. Seefood?
The salsa was a fresh tasting tomato puree style, heavy on the onions (which I like) with just a little hint of oregano. George ordered, and thoroughly enjoyed, a beef hard taco, chicken enchilada, and a tamale. I also had a beef hard taco, a chili relleno, and what seemed to be their house tostada, which they called a Beef & Been Tostaguac.
We agreed that the taco had a good unique flavor. The shell was a standard gringo-style crunchy corn boat, but the seasoned ground beef really was a hit. It had a little bit of sweetness to it. George suggested cinnamon. I was thinking a little brown sugar. Yum! The chicken in the enchilada had a fresh and complex flavor. Very light tasting, but definitely well seasoned.
I’m not as much of a tamale fan as George. One or two bites and I’m fine. George, in turn, is not as much of a chili relleno fan. One or two bites and he’s fine. But we both agree that we are aware what would make each one good (the tamale needs to be rustic, with an honest, up front corn flavor, and a chili relleno needs to be a real chili like a poblano, NEVER a bell pepper*). And we each order our selected item when we try out an untested Mexican place. If they can do a good tamale/chili relleno, they automatically earn points.
Lupita’s scored. I’ll let him gush over the tamale at his blog. My chili relleno was a perfectly sized, perfectly prepared poblano chili. It wasn’t over done, so there was plenty of “meat” still on the chili to munch on. It was lightly coated in the traditional delicate, crunchy egg batter, stuffed with gooey cheese, and covered in a smoky, and slightly sweet red sauce. Lucky for George, that same sauce was on his enchilada.
My Beef & Bean Tostaguac was had the usual crunchy corn tortilla topped with some beans, ground beef, lettuce, and tomato, but they also included some of that great shredded chicken and some fresh guacamole. This was served on a platter with refried beans and rice. Believe it or not, there is a difference in refried beans from restaurant to restaurant, and I qualify these to be good. The rice, well, it was the usual slightly reddish, dry “Mexican Rice” that any other place serves, but I generally don’t like it anyway. I always let George keep it for leftovers.
So we followed our huge dinner with a stroll through the center of town. I had been to Oberlin College dorms before, but had never seen this great town center. There were restaurants, shops and galleries in little old (late 1800’s to early 1900’s) store fronts (complete with a 5 & dime) on one side, a gothic church, 1960’s contemporary class buildings, a 1950’s “modern art” style theater, a more 1920’s style art deco music center, and a Mexican Abby style administration building…all of this surrounding a beautiful green open space filled with ancient looking trees.
What a nice walk! But it was past Kitty Dinner Time and we needed to get back home.
Zoe in the foreground, Jack, um, in-the-box.
What a great way to spend a late summer, late afternoon 🙂
xo
en
*My favorite Mexican restauran Mariachi Coco’s does in fact seem to prepare Chili Relleno with a bell pepper (at least that’s what I thought when I first ordered it), but they also serve a Chili Poblano, which is the traditional version. I think they do this to appease all audiences. And their Chili Poblano is the one to which I compare all others I try. Yay!