midwest neurotica

At the rate I’m going, this blog really should be called midwest enchilada! I simply can’t get enough of mexican fare and tonight was no exception.

Having spent 14 years of my life in Texas, I developed an appreciation of fine (read: hole in the wall) Tex-Mex cuisine, cheese enchiladas in particular. I once set out on a personal mission to taste this wonderment of cheese, tortillas and red sauce in every city I visited. (If only there were blogs back then!) In the past few months, I’ve chronicled my adventures making Creamy Buffalo Wing Enchiladas, Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas and Cheese Enchiladas. Of course, none truly compare to the drowned-in-sauce, cheese-filled, fried-tasties of my past. Until tonight.

I was on the outskirts of town, out of my normal neck of the woods, and it was time for supper. I was willing to settle for good ol’ American cuisine, but this place called Picante, was recommended as pretty darn good. Having had my share of truly horrid mexican food in this town, I was game. I entered the family-friendly establishment and immediately felt at ease. I had a good feeling about this place. I sat down to clean menu with 4 pages of delicious-sounding dishes. There were vegetarian options-a-plenty and even the refried beans were sans-lard. Woohoo! I did a quick once-through, searching for my staple. Gotcha! I closed my menu and hoped for the best. The chips and salsa were fresh and spicy, a good introduction. Then my plate arrived, pretty quickly I might add. Immediately, I knew I had found my holy grail local Tex-Mex restaurant. Why? See a photo from my camera phone below.

My enchiladas were swimming, just completely drowning in old fashioned red chile sauce. Yum-o! This is one of the defining characteristics of true Tex-Mex-style cheese enchiladas. I could barely locate my 2 little cheesy girls beneath all the sauce. I began to devour the dish, taking bites of the well-seasoned rice and perfect (vegetarian) refried beans in between. Pure heaven! Not only did I finish every bite, but I contemplated (seriously) licking it clean. Instead I used tortilla chips to scoop up the last remnants of red chile sauce.

Technorati Tags: cheese, food, mexican, vegetarian