Yesterday, after attending an educational summit and before attending my student's wedding, I drove my lonely self over to my friend's place in Jamul. Since the wedding was in El Cajon, she lived nearby so I could hang out with her for 2 and 1/2 hours before the ceremony. We ended up going out to lunch at a place called "Ranas" ("frog" in Spanish) which is off the 94 freeway and the Kenwood exit in a small strip mall. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me and the website they advertise on their business card does NOT work (www.ranas.com.mx)! :(
For nice photos of the restaurant and a review to boot, please refer to this review by Kirk of MMM-Yoso! Here's another site with a few comments .
My friend and her husband frequent the place often and know the owners personally. In fact, we were greeted by Oscar (the very nice and friendly young owner) that afternoon. To start, I ordered the Flor de Calabaza Quesadilla (Zucchini Flower Quesadilla). This was a corn tortilla filled with zuchinne blossoms, cheese (not sure which kind), epazote (a Mexican herb), and chopped jalapenos. The tortilla is filled, folded (like a taco) and fried. The result was an interesting array of flavors. The squash blossoms had a vegetal taste and were almost sweet.
My entree was the Camarones a la Chile Poblano. This was shrimp was served in a boat dish on the plate, just swimming (in a good way) in the creamy chile poblano sauce. The sauce was a light orange hue and not spicy at all. The shrimp was served with a choice or either flour or corn tortilla on the side as well as beans and rice (white rice with peas). My friend had the entree that included two Flor de Calabazas quesadillas with a side of nopales strips (cactus) and white rice with peas.. She ended up having half of my beans since I'm more of a rice fan.
This Mexican restaurant doesn't serve your regular "Berto's" taco-shop choices. What I mean by that is that most taco shop places serve the same old thing. One of the reasons why I'm not too crazy about some types of Mexican food is that most typical restaurants serve their dishes drowned in red sauce and cheese, which I really dislike. I'm not a fan of saucy dishes. However, after that Chile Poblano sauce on my shrimp, I might just might convert! According to my friend, the Mexico City style is quite different from California Mexican food because the sauces are more sophisticated and complex. There are more exotic dishes with interesting sauces on the menu that I am interested in trying, next time with Bert and TC in tow. I was glad my friend steered us over to Ranas.
After the restaurant, I went to the wedding in El Cajon. It was in an Apostolic Church and I noticed a lot (not all) of the women had little circular veils that they pinned on the back of their heads. I didn't have one of those and hoped that I wasn't "disrespectful" for not having one! I also noticed I was the only Filipino (or Asian for that matter) person there. The other non Mexicans were a Caucasian couple, who, like me, came way early. The church was locked and the wedding started an hour late! I was in my car during most of the wait biding the time until the parking lot filled up and someone opened the church door.
The service was in Spanish and I understood bits and pieces of it, like when the preacher said (in Spanish, of course), "Marriage is forever. Marriage doesn't end when the husband becomes bald or the wife becomes fat" (I understood the words 'pelon' and 'gorda'). He also went on about husband and wife becoming one person and that marriage is a spiritual partnership and so on. It was pretty religious. I felt like a heathen riding down the highway to hell. Just kidding.
My student looked beautiful and quite happy on her special day. Although I went solo (Bert was with TC for her dance practice) like a loser, I was glad I showed up. I didn't go to the reception since I had planned to go home and relax. Instead, after coming home, my plans for just a family dinner changed because we ended up to dinner with Bert's brother and mom since it was my bro-in-law's b-day.
For nice photos of the restaurant and a review to boot, please refer to this review by Kirk of MMM-Yoso! Here's another site with a few comments .
My friend and her husband frequent the place often and know the owners personally. In fact, we were greeted by Oscar (the very nice and friendly young owner) that afternoon. To start, I ordered the Flor de Calabaza Quesadilla (Zucchini Flower Quesadilla). This was a corn tortilla filled with zuchinne blossoms, cheese (not sure which kind), epazote (a Mexican herb), and chopped jalapenos. The tortilla is filled, folded (like a taco) and fried. The result was an interesting array of flavors. The squash blossoms had a vegetal taste and were almost sweet.
My entree was the Camarones a la Chile Poblano. This was shrimp was served in a boat dish on the plate, just swimming (in a good way) in the creamy chile poblano sauce. The sauce was a light orange hue and not spicy at all. The shrimp was served with a choice or either flour or corn tortilla on the side as well as beans and rice (white rice with peas). My friend had the entree that included two Flor de Calabazas quesadillas with a side of nopales strips (cactus) and white rice with peas.. She ended up having half of my beans since I'm more of a rice fan.
This Mexican restaurant doesn't serve your regular "Berto's" taco-shop choices. What I mean by that is that most taco shop places serve the same old thing. One of the reasons why I'm not too crazy about some types of Mexican food is that most typical restaurants serve their dishes drowned in red sauce and cheese, which I really dislike. I'm not a fan of saucy dishes. However, after that Chile Poblano sauce on my shrimp, I might just might convert! According to my friend, the Mexico City style is quite different from California Mexican food because the sauces are more sophisticated and complex. There are more exotic dishes with interesting sauces on the menu that I am interested in trying, next time with Bert and TC in tow. I was glad my friend steered us over to Ranas.
After the restaurant, I went to the wedding in El Cajon. It was in an Apostolic Church and I noticed a lot (not all) of the women had little circular veils that they pinned on the back of their heads. I didn't have one of those and hoped that I wasn't "disrespectful" for not having one! I also noticed I was the only Filipino (or Asian for that matter) person there. The other non Mexicans were a Caucasian couple, who, like me, came way early. The church was locked and the wedding started an hour late! I was in my car during most of the wait biding the time until the parking lot filled up and someone opened the church door.
The service was in Spanish and I understood bits and pieces of it, like when the preacher said (in Spanish, of course), "Marriage is forever. Marriage doesn't end when the husband becomes bald or the wife becomes fat" (I understood the words 'pelon' and 'gorda'). He also went on about husband and wife becoming one person and that marriage is a spiritual partnership and so on. It was pretty religious. I felt like a heathen riding down the highway to hell. Just kidding.
My student looked beautiful and quite happy on her special day. Although I went solo (Bert was with TC for her dance practice) like a loser, I was glad I showed up. I didn't go to the reception since I had planned to go home and relax. Instead, after coming home, my plans for just a family dinner changed because we ended up to dinner with Bert's brother and mom since it was my bro-in-law's b-day.
4 comments:
they sure do! i'm definitely going to come back!
me again...
they used to have a restaurant like this in downtown chula vista (corner of F and 3rd): la fonda roberto's. it's been gone for at least a decade but they had such good food and sometimes they would have a buffet.
KIRKK wrote:
Ranas serves up some really great food, don't they? The service is always really great as well. Wish we had more of these type of restaurants......
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