La Tortuga Torteria offers authentic flavors of Mexico

My love for Mexican torta sandwiches lured me into La Tortuga Torteria, located at the busy corner of Fremont and Harcourt in Seaside. Owner Luis Vasquez opened the restaurant in 2000 and moved it to this more visible location in 2002.

I invited my husband Laurent, friend Clark, and daughter out there for sandwiches one Saturday afternoon, but when we saw the variety of dishes on the menu we chose the specialties: Pescado a la Veracruzano ($9.49), Chile Relleno ($8.95), Carne Asada with cactus petals ($8.95), and Enchiladas Verdes ($8.95).

The waitress told us that the grilled trout for my pescado would take 20 minutes to cook. The wait gave us time to sample drinks and learn soccer Spanish (the TV was tuned to a game on a Spanish-language station). Clark got a bottle of imported Mexican Pepsi. It tasted more sugary than its American cousin, fizzy rather than highly carbonated. I tried a mango licuado ($1.75) made from whipped milk and mango pulp with added vanilla, sugar, and a sprinkle of cinnamon on the top. The flavor was cloyingly sweet. I finished it and ordered a breakfast atole de maiz ($1.50). Atole is a corn gruel made with ground corn and milk whose origins extend back to the Mayan empire in Yucatan Peninsula, according to Alan Davidson’s Penguin Guide to Food.

My Veracruz-style fish was another Yucatan specialty, one that merited the wait. A whole trout covered with strips of sweet red pepper, olives, capers, long yellow hot peppers, and cilantro appeared before me. The tender fish flesh slid off the bones with little effort. The Mediterranean olives and capers betrayed the dish’s European influence, while the zing of those yellow peppers clearly manifested its Mayan heritage. The light tomato sauce that bathed everything was hot without burning the mouth, and the peppers enhanced the flavor.

Piquant sauce covered Clark’s green pasilla pepper in his chile relleno. He said it was the first time he had eaten this dish with a chicken and raisin filling instead of a cheese one. He loved it, and I agreed with him after snagging a forkful of his dish.

My daughter’s carne asada came thinly sliced and tasted of the onion with which it was fried. The most interesting items on her plate were the nopalitos, strips of cactus petal. I have done the tedious work of scooping pickers out of cactus petals to make cactus petal omelets, so I willingly ate her portion of these treats. The sliced nopalitos resemble long green beans. Their sour taste was tempered by frying them together with the lime-marinated steak and onions.

Laurent ordered his usual enchiladas verdes, but even these used an ingredient Laurent had not tried before—queso fresco, fresh cheese. The crumbly, bland white cheese soaked up the spicy sauce that covered the crisp-at-the-edges tortillas. After two bites, Laurent said, “Their food is great here.”

None of us had room for dessert even thought the collection of Mexican sweet breads looked tempting.

The next Monday, Laurent and I returned to sample more lunchtime fare. Music was playing this time, and more tables were vacant.

I ordered a pollo (chicken) en mole torta ($3.99) while Laurent asked for a ham and egg burrito ($3.99). I thought I would chance a second licuardo, and ordered a papaya one.

Laurent’s burrito had salt, sweet ham mixed with chopped “sunny side up” eggs next to its beans, rice and cheese filling. He ate it fastidiously, with fork and knife, down to the last bite.

The pollo en mole filling in my torta came with tomato, onion, avocado, and jalapeno pepper. Tortuga makes Poblano mole, which features chocolate in its preparation. The constant among all the moles made in Mexico is the use of chile peppers in the sauce. Usually ancho, pasilla, and mulatto chiles are fried and pureed with chicken stock, then things like toasted sesame seeds, almonds, raisins, cloves, garlic, and fresh oregano are fried and pureed to make a paste. After that, one adds chocolate, cinnamon, and a little sugar, and then puts in the boiled chicken to simmer in the completed sauce. An elaborate preparation, pollo en mole allows for much variation. At Tortuga the sauce is not sweet from sugar, but tastes of cinnamon and clove, giving the meat a delicious smoky flavor. The crunchy crust of my torta bun added to the pleasure.

The papaya licaudo tasted like strawberries; I liked it better than the mango variety. Tortuga has lots of Mexican drinks on hand, including the rice-based horchata and a tamarind drink.

Tortuga also offers many soups, including the traditional tripe dish menudo on the weekends. Another weekend specialty is barbecued kid—as in goat. Obviously, there is a whole world of Mexican food to explore at this very down-home eatery.

La Tortuga Torteria

1257 Fremont Blvd., Seaside

394-8320

Open daily 6am to 10pm