{"id":1495,"date":"2009-08-16T20:16:22","date_gmt":"2009-08-17T04:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/?p=1495"},"modified":"2009-08-16T21:49:06","modified_gmt":"2009-08-17T05:49:06","slug":"huevos-rancheros-el-chavo-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/?p=1495","title":{"rendered":"Huevos Rancheros: El Chavo Restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Well you knew it had to happen. It shares a name with a certain someone I know, so it was really only a matter of time before I checked out the HR’s at this place on Sunset. I think I’ve been here once before, many years ago, just to have drinks with friends. This time around it was the same situation, but we would be eating, plus I brought along my lil’ camera so you can see whats what. With a name like that, how can it not be loved?<\/p>\n

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We got some decent enough chips and salsa.<\/p>\n

It’s kinda fun seeing the moniker I regularly use come up in a different context. For the record, I took up this name a long time ago as an homage to El Chavo del Ocho<\/a>, back when that great show was no longer on the air. (It’s since returned in cartoon form, and it doesn’t have any of the doble sentido that made the original so hilarious.) But it was also my sort of Karen Eliot\/Luther Blisset<\/a> solution, an anonymous name with multiple identities. It’s a generic name, its been used before, it will be used again. I come from a time when ideas were more important than personalities, from a place that didn’t really care who you were. (Uh, not that this time and place was any different then the self-obsessed and self-delusional present.) I still hold to those seemingly antiquated notions, cuz what does it matter who I am?\u00c2\u00a0 Oddly, this fact is what gets me some regular emails asking for more info about myself, someone wanting to know more about my “art”, offers to treat me to lunch, offers to collaborate on something or other, even some hostile gentrifying jerk wanting to buy me a beer. But even with a fake name I’ve met many cool people via this site, some LH neighbors and others from beyond. I’m not too public, but I do like people! I know this isn’t relevant to an HR review, pero me vale.<\/p>\n

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Multi-colored sombreros on the ceiling. Even though this place recently changed owners, they kept the Mexican kitsch quotient at top notch. For lots of people in Los Angeles, the embodiment of Mexican cuisine is this: Margaritas! Oh, and Fiesta! So the colorful hats fit in nicely. There’s nothing wrong with those elements, it’s just not something I can easily tolerate. For much of White LA, the Mexican people are either the happy go-lucky tequila drinking pachangeros that just want to have fun, or they are the cheap help that tend to the yard, the offspring, and whatever else it is they do. Caricatures are inevitable. Thus, these “Mexican” restaurants are inevitable. Lucy’s, El Coyote, El Cholo, and yes, El Chavo.<\/p>\n

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I ordered the HR’s. They come with a mushroom soup! That’s a nice touch. The soup was decent, tasted like mushrooms. But about 10 minutes before this pic was taken, they decided to turn DOWN the lights, even though the sun was going down. It’s that whole mood package thing.<\/p>\n

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Presenting, the Huevos Rancheros! Did I mention they turned down the lights? I’m suspicious of bars and restaurants that go for the lack-of-lighting effect, I just don’t get it. I usually try not to use flash in restaurants, mostly to not bring attention to myself, but also cuz flash really distorts how one is experiencing the dish. For all intents and purposes, I could not see my food. Just for you my gentle reader, flash it is.<\/p>\n

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So that’s what my meal looked like! But now to break down the flavors in the dark. You can tell from this picture that the eggs were way overcooked, hard as hell overcooked. That has to be the biggest sin. You can just barely see the eggs under the cheese. There was a maiz tortilla underneath but I think it was placed on the plate cold, no frying, no light dipping in oil, just warmed from the food and sauce on top. And if you look at the edge of the plate, you can see the evaporation marks of the small amount of tomato sauce they used on this dish, no doubt from the flash cooking of the cheese on top. As a cheese lover I do have to say I really loved this oven burnt cheese. Chewy, burnty, tasty! I think I even tasted some queso fresco. Maybe I’m just being wishful. But still, we all know this excess of cheese has no place on proper HR’s.<\/p>\n

But this is a perfect example of the Mexican-American food that has become the standard reference for Mexican food. Which it isn’t. It’s Americanized Mex food. White folks love it, Mex-Americans love it, and possibly even some Mexicans like it. But its a cuisine far removed from any lineage to Mexico. Don’t misunderstand, I do like this food and I do crave it sometimes. It has it’s place. But really, it’s time we stop referring to it as Mexican food. Chicano food? Mex-American food? Comida de queso? I don’t know, but it definitely needs a new name.<\/p>\n

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Compare them to these simple DF style HR’s from Metro Balderas<\/a> I had recently. Properly cooked eggs on fried tortillas, and no cheese on top. Yeah, the form is similar but its a world away. Over at Losanjealous<\/a> we’ve been having some friendly discussions regarding the cultural definitions of food, the ethnic nomenclature one can ascribe to a meal, and in particular, the concept of white folk Mex food. Maybe I shouldn’t have called My Taco (giggle!) and their mostly bland fare white folk Mex food because that’s really not too accurate. Mexicans eat there, Mexicans run the place. And it’s not completely covered in baked cheese either. Commenter Juan calls it Mex-American food version 2.0 whereas the old school “Mexican” places are 1.0.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe that a good naming strategy?<\/p>\n

I’ve had some drowned-in-cheese HR’s before, so that’s not really what places them in the people of pallor category. And to tell you the truth, I don’t think there is one ingredient or technique that can be used as a sort of ethnic barometer. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that many places that have the audacity to bill themselves as “authentic Mexican” have a very obvious palate to which they cater. The tastes and flavors which United Statesians and Mexicans crave are very different, and Mex-Americans fall somewhere in between. Depending on the clientele, a place will often adapt to suit the local tastes.<\/p>\n

Back in the early 90’s Mae Ploy on Sunset had some tasty Thai dishes which were savory and often full of chile. The neighborhood changed and the last time I was there, even though we asked for spicy dishes, they were overwhelmingly sweet. The American tongue (you know, real Americans) wants sweet in almost everything. I don’t have a problem with that preference but I certainly don’t want to eat at a place that incorporates this subjectivity into their menu. It’s a flavor assumption that I don’t want to have to dispute.<\/p>\n

So getting back to the HR’s from El Chavo Restaurant: overcooked eggs, a hint of a nice tomato sauce, and lots and lots of baked cheese. It is what it is, but it’s not a plate that is trying to please me, it has other people in mind. Maybe these others will enjoy it, but I know that my taste buds are not part of that demographic.<\/p>\n

El Chavo Restaurant
\n4441 Sunset Boulevard
\nLos Angeles, California 90027 <\/span>
\nwww.elchavorestaurant.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Domingo? It’s Gringo day every day!<\/span><\/p>\n


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Well you knew it had to happen. It shares a name with a certain someone I know, so it was really only a matter of time before I checked out the HR’s at this place on Sunset. I think I’ve … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-los-angeles","category-huevos-rancheros","category-la-comida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1495"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}