Hospitality runs high and the prices for dishes representing nearly every region of Mexico dip low at El Comal in North Park. But drive by too fast and you might easily overshoot this quaint, family-owned restaurant that blends into residential surroundings.
El Comal’s interior is, however, considerably more vibrant, with Art Deco chandeliers, rusty-red and mustard-yellow walls, Aztec-inspired copper suns, light-wood flooring and vibrant replicas of paintings by revolutionary muralist Diego Rivera. A patio, full bar and linen-draped tables welcome you in for such non-pedestrian fare as steamed goat, whole tilapia, cactus salad, homemade gorditas and a host of other victuals that you won’t find too easily on this side of the border.
The restaurant has one of the most sensational and intense mole sauces I’ve ever encountered. It’s a guarded recipe created by Acapulco native Noel Herrera, who operates the business with his wife and four children. The sauce takes three days to concoct and contains about 120 ingredients, including peanuts, almonds, chilies, basil, cinnamon and the traditional silver lining of cocoa. It’s a magical mixture that delivers deep flavor notes to the tongue from eating just the slightest amount. My companion and I could barely stop dipping our spoons into the thick, dark-brown mixture served with chicken or enchiladas,
From an assortment of gorditas made with various fillings, we chose mushroom. The masa casing offered all the attributes of pie pastry – thin, flaky and tantalizing on the tongue. Herrera’s son, Saib, recommended we try it with extra mozzarella cheese, which indeed added creaminess to the sautéed shrooms within. More substantial are the huaraches, available with cactus and carne asada or topped with a choice of meat layered over beans, cheese and lettuce. We chose the former sans the cactus, since we had Ensalada de Nopal on order. What we got was a size-14 sandal formation of compressed masa sprinkled generously with cubed, flat-grilled sirloin – a substantial belly fill for only $6.50.
We also selected two “street tacos†made from homemade corn tortillas. We requested a crunchy shell for the chicken taco, which imparted a pleasing textural contrast to the soft, mildly spiced poultry folded inside. The grilled steak taco took well to the bright-tasting table salsa. Both tacos were small and satisfying.
“This place is a lot more interesting than other Mexican restaurants because it has heart,†my companion said at this point in our meal, referring to the food’s endearing flavors and the family members who greet and serve guests.
The Herreras also offer two humble types of Pozole soup. The “red†version is spiced with huajillo chili powder and is common to Guadalajara. The “white†recipe from Mexico’s Guerro region simply eliminates the chilies. The base for either begins with a pig’s leg boiled in water before onions, cloves, garlic, hominy and pulled pork or chicken are added. We tried the red rendition, which was as comforting as any minestrone or other peasant-style soup on the globe known for warming the soul.
As for the cactus salad that we squeezed in before our main courses arrived, the succulent resembled a cross between green beans and asparagus. It’s cut into thin strips and tossed with onions, tomatoes and cilantro. Newbies to cactus need not fear the adventure.
The restaurant has one of the most sensational and intense mole sauces I’ve ever encountered. It’s a guarded recipe created by Acapulco native Noel Herrera, who operates the business with his wife and four children.
Zarape is a thin, griddled steak camouflaged by a mantle of chorizo, tomatoes, poblano peppers and mozzarella cheese, all of which raised the meat’s mediocre quality to an enjoyable standard. Another entrée we tried, Camarones, was predictably less exotic – a basic arrangement of medium-sized shrimp covered in tomatoes, peppers and cilantro. Your ticket into the unknown, however, comes from Barbacoa de Chivo, tender cubes of goat steamed in banana leaves and swimming in a scarlet-colored sauce with red pepper intensity. In this Guerro-inspired preparation, the meat looks and tastes like carnitas, as opposed to tougher and odder-tasting cuts I’ve poked through in the Caribbean.
A traditional and recommended dish from the Yucatan is Cochinita Pibil, a casserole of spiced pork that dances with sour onions as commendably as pork chops sing to red cabbage. Though a little salty, I found it to be a radical and refreshing change to most Mexican pork entrees found throughout San Diego, particularly those omnipresent carnitas verde plates.
With the exception of market-priced tilapia or red snapper served whole, few items at El Comal exceed the $10 mark. And even if you stick to the limited selection of familiar American-Mexican choices such tamales, quesadillas or chile rellenos, you can safely bet on superb quality that surpasses those suffocating heaps of cheddar, lettuce and tomatoes seen in Mexican eateries everywhere else.... Frank Sabatini GLT