Café Arabia — Restaurant in Oaxaca

Don't judge a restaurant by its tortillas.

Well, maybe if they're incredibly good tortillas it could be a safe bet, but if they're the machine-made cardboard flapjacks that work better than a serviette for de-saucing one's beard, you might be mistaken if you think the rest of the food will be lackluster.

Tonight at Café Arabia i ordered two dishes and a tea, and was delighted with all of it, even asking for a second helping of the aforesaid culinary travesty when the sauce proved too much for my napkin. (I'm impervious to chagrin so i will tell you that in fact i actually ate both tuppers of tortillas, banal though these were. In my ravening i had to pay particular attention so as not to consume the plastic, nor the serviette, so little did the flavour of that victual recommend itself.)

Savory Crepes with Mushrooms, Gouda, and a Cilantro glaze: These were slightly thicker than the crepes my family made on the direction of a french acquaintance, much darker due to some whole wheat flour, and just as loaded with all the right sort of detritus one would expect. Yellow sweet bell peppers figured prominently alongside the title ingredients.

The gouda i was skeptical about--not because i detected anything awry--but because i've seen the processed 'cheese product' version not far from the real deal Gouda in the chic mega grocery chain here. And i'm too much of a hillbilly to honestly dislike the salty, creamy umami of the imposter, so i cannot say which it was at Arabia.

The cheese in the Cheese in Red Sauce dish was unusually tasty. ...Granted my list of cheeses i don't like includes only one cheese out of the thousand i've tried. Be that as it may, the cheese had a fairly intense aroma, which is a difficult accomplishment when one is swimming in tomato sauce. I hear that's what people do to quench the stench after Pooch has been skunked, so this curd instantly gained my respect. No bland white stuff with added salt -- no no!

Now about that sauce. If i had to guess i would say they use canned tomatoes. I thought i detected that taste canned tomatoes give, but we've been through this already about my palate; don't trust it. The more compelling evidence is the deep red colour, which i doubted could be the result of using the fresh (greenhouse-grown) tomatoes commonly available around here in November.

Perhaps a real food critic should investigate my claims and wild speculations. If they're not picky about tortillas, they'll probably enjoy the experience.

The service was superb. Nearly a full house and the young men were all moving smartly, bringing everything out so quickly i half expected the table top to melt.

And the tea.

What a selection!

I chose a Rooibos chai. As the description said it was only (very) lightly spiced, so in a flash i was neatly transported back to South Africa, without even having to suffer the indignity of the human cattle chute...

No recomiendo este lugar, me pasaron muchas cosas dentro. Lo primero fue que me hicieron esperar 20 minutos antes de tomar mi orden, segundo lugar, les pregunté que si aún había el menú de desayunos, a pesar que eran las 12:45 horas, me dijeron que sí; por lo tanto pedí en paquete unos huevos a la mexicana, unos huevos revueltos (no lo pedí en paquete) y una malteada de fresa. Esto último que pedí era para mi hija que está pequeña aún. Al final me llevaron las cosas, pero en vez de huevos revueltos me trajeron huevos con jamón, no me llevaron la malteada, por lo tanto mi hija se bebió los dos jugos que dan en el paquete. Le comenté del inconveniente, me dijo que lo pidió así porque me sale más barato, que los huevos revueltos no vienen en el paquete y que me los cobrarían como un especial; le dije que somos ovolactovegetarianas, que por ello le especifiqué que fueran revueltos. Me preguntó que si lo retiraba, y continuó diciéndome que me cobrarían el jugo y el café de olla que viene en el paquete. Preferí quedármelos porque mi hija moría de hambre, sin embargo, no se los acabó. Y cuando quise probar el café de olla no lo pude tomar, dejé ambas tazas, ya que estaba demasiado dulce. Si tomo café lo bebo sin azúcar, cuando terminé de comer no me sentí satisfecha ni llena, sirven muy poquito las porciones y no tienen sazón. Para acabarla, le pedí un baguette vegetariano, estaba todo desabrido, el pan sabía horrible, parecía que era de un día anterior, además, ya para acabar, estaba demasiado costoso, $100.00 pesos. Al final, el chistesito me salió en...

Absolutely horrible. I used to come every few months. They had the best lemon meringue pie. It was wonderful. Now it is horrible. Crust is soggy Graham cracker. Filling has no taste of lemon. Made with lechero ( condensed milk). Meringue was horrible. Too bad. They had great lemon meringue...