Homey, Fresh and Filling!
by Nancy
Snipper
American and Mexican Flavours Merge into Food
Favourites
La Frontera San Miguel
de Allende is famous for its hands – hands that make the best food that true
down-to-earth cooking that no schooled chef can create nor duplicate. Co-owner,
Noren Leigh Cáceres has a superb talent. She was born to cook and to care about
others. This comes through in the food that lies on your plate. You can see her
in the kitchen working hard, looking out over the counter to say hello and talk
to her kitchen helpers every step of the way.
Her calm manner and
mother earth gentleness is admirable, considering the countless foodie fans
that have been coming to La Frontera for more than three-and-a-half years to
enjoy her dishes. She doesn’t follow recipes; she doesn’t imitate, and she
doesn’t do cuisine concoctions that overcome essential flavours.
It Takes Two to Form
a Frontera
La Frontera’s other
half is Jerry Harper who makes you feel you have entered your second home – the
moment you step into the interior of vivid
burnt red and turquoise wall colours, further enhanced by Mexican folk
art and some film posters. Noren and Jerry are always there for you; the warmth
of the staff can melt your heart as much as the mouthwatering dishes satisfy.
Is it any wonder, La Frontera has served the likes of painter/skater, the late
great Toller Cranston and L.A. actor, Michael Cory Davis! But people come here
not to be seen; they come to eat.
It’s hard to find in
San Miguel a breezy menu that has matzo ball soup and tortilla soup on the same
page – one line below the other.
It’s hard to find a place where huge fabulous
hamburgers share the same “frontier” as taco salad. The Tex-Mex food styles
create a magnificent mix.
What’s cool about this
place is – aside from its trusty menu – every day of the week also offers
specialties. It might be meatloaf on Monday, shrimp taco on Tuesday and so on.
Of course, the menu offers nachos, fajitas and quesadillas filled with your
choice of chicken, shrimp, arachera, ground beef or veggies Variety is the
spice of life at La Frontera, and yet nothing is overly spicy or overly rich.
Hearty and healthy, everything is freshly prepared and generously portioned.
Bring on the
Brisket
I ordered brisket my
first visit. Wow! How many places in
this town offer that, and was it ever tender and tasty! On the same plate was a
glorious assortment of grilled veggies: red pepper, mushrooms, zucchini and
onions. This mixture was as momentous as the meat itself.
I watched Noren make
my margarita in the back of the kitchen. I saw her squeeze the lime and put the
salt on the edge of my glass. The result was so wonderful, I ordered another
margarita. As I waddled out of the restaurant I was already planning my
Frontera “come-back”.
My Big Fat Burrito
I returned the next day to feast on the Drowned
Burrito. This flamboyant Fontera favourite is huge, and it hosts a hunk of hunger-solving
ingredients: creamy sauce salsa,
guacamole, pico de gallo, ground beef, rice, tomatoes and carrots. It was so filling;
I convinced myself I would never eat again. Then again, “never say never”, doesn’t
apply to La Frontera. It’s simply too hard to resist.
La Frontera’s Big
Heart
La Frontera hosts the
Passover Seder for Shalom San Miguel and most recently, the staff held a
fabulous chili cook-off – the proceeds of which went to San Miguel’s hospital
for the mentally challenged – another action demonstrating La Frontera’s
kindness and caring soul. Take a look at
Noren’s moving poetry and witty writing in “Under the Table”: https://guavatales.wordspress.com.
La Frontera is also on Facebook.
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