Favorite Thing I Ate This Week

D.R.'s little sister spent a week with us in Los Angeles.  For a final send-off dinner, we took her to one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants, Mexico City.  I once saw most of the cast of Parenthood here, including a very tipsy Peter Krause.  They also make a perfect margarita (generous with the tequila, on the rocks with a lightly salted rim), and bring TWO different salsas with their free homemade tortilla chips.  They also usually have some delectable special that I end up ordering.  The latest special I ordered is called . . .

Umm, Chiles de Neg-something?

Pablano de Neg-thingy?

Wow--please hire me to advertise for your establishment.  Fail!

I know there was a chile involved and there was a "de" in the title.  Does that narrow it down at all? 

Anyway, this is what showed up.

It kinda looks like dessert, doesn't it?  

It's a chile stuffed with beef and pork, mixed with raisins, apples, pears, peaches and cinnamon, as well as garlic and thyme.  They roast that chile with all the goodness inside and then smother it in a walnut cream sauce (who knew walnuts were so creamy?) and sprinkle with walnuts and pomegranate seeds.  It's spicy and fresh, savory and warm, crunchy and juicy all at the same time.  It was a bit baffling for my taste buds, and at some point they gave up trying to make sense of it. 

Here's the strange thing:  I don't think I would ever order this again.  It wasn't bad by any means.  With all those flavors going on, it was quite good.  But I found myself studying it more than I was eating it.  Does that make sense?  It was like watching a really good movie that is so intense and twisty and involved that I'm exhausted afterwards.  A movie that is so good that I will recommend it to everyone I know but probably only see it once--like, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

That's what this dish is.  And I will recommend it to you . . . as soon as I remember what it's called.

I guess you'll just have to come visit.