click to enlarge The burritos rolled with flour tortilla at Testal Mexican Kitchen. Jacob Tyler Dunn If you think Mexican food is supposed to be cheap, I have bad news for you: Pulque Fine Mexican Cuisine serves a $ 35 yellow mole ribeye. Chef Danny Medina deep fried blue corn breaded calamari for $ 14. His waiters shake a lavender-kissed Codigo Blanco margarita worth $ 16, the glass paved with black lava salt. And every dish is worth every penny. Medina has cooked in some of the most expensive and chic restaurants in the Valley, such as Dominick’s Steakhouse and The Capital Grille. In the early days of 2021, he opened a 48-seater one-room in Scottsdale with white tablecloths, a modest bar with an agave spirit, a Frida Kahlo painting on one wall, and a few plants. There was no Instagram influencer bonanza. There was no press. In all silence, however, there was good quality food. I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of the New Times clear. But Medina’s food deserves some attention. It adds something to the Mexican dining scene north of Via Linda: a high-end restaurant that runs with substance rather than lavish style. At the beginning, even the chips are boiling hot and have a meaningful oily sheen. They are clearly fresh. Each brings a huge crunch, a welcome opener. The $ 35 steak speaks volumes about the restaurant. The buttery ribeye is no thicker than an inch and has such picturesque grill marks that they could have come from a TV commercial. Although mine was cooked a little over medium rare, the meat was rich and tender, a really solid steak. The steak sat in a yellow mole, fiery with smoke and the vegetable intensity of guajillo and chili de arbol, but still mild, soft, and restrained enough to allow complex, dark flavor to pass through. Medina also cooks many of its fine Mexican dishes with charming creativity. His fried calamari, for example, has a light and airy breading, almost tempura-like in its finesse. Dip purple rings with parsley and sliced chilli in a spicy mixture of apricot and chamoy. It has to be one of the most unique calamari dishes in town. The menu at Pulque has a variety. If you stop by for lunch, you can grab tacos and tortas. The evening menu completely dispenses with this and moves into plate dishes. This includes soups, salads, ceviche, and a handful of starters, most of which are grilled and alive with yellow, red, or green mole. Medina, who is from Chihuahua and has lived in Arizona for 35 years, focuses on the foods of Puebla and Oaxaca. Mole star. He pokes an arch of rickety grilled scallops into a patch of green mole. This mole consists mainly of serrano, jalapeño and poblano peppers and has a sharp, clean sharpness and the freshness of many untraceable herbs, but also abundance. The scallops are a touch sweet on bites that are not dominated by moles, and are cooked without a lot of searing, but good. I also enjoyed the flautas – hot, crispy rolled tacos made from the same hot, oily substance as the chips. These cigarillos are filled with juicy chicken, jagged with crema, and raised with the same yellow mole as the steak. The drinks at Pulque are worth trying, even if, in my experience, they are the work of your waiter and not a dedicated beverage specialist. No problem. (The margaritas were good enough to justify real estate in my recent story about the tequila cocktail.) Pulque’s version of a Cadillac margarita (a subspecies of the cocktail that uses more intoxicating alcohol) uses Codigo Blanco, Cointreau, and agave syrup with lavender. The lavender is sparse, but seems to balance tequila, lime, and rich agave in an elusive way. It’s a satisfying drink in a city where the margarita bar is high. Click to enlarge Testal Mexican Kitchen, 1325 Grand Avenue, Suite 1. Jacob Tyler Dunn I had similar positive cocktail thoughts as I drank across town at the Testal Mexican Kitchen on Grand Avenue in Phoenix. The burrito shop offers many cocktails made with sotol. The one I was sipping on rippled the paloma slightly. Tart and fruity, almost no sweetness, fresh like a sea wave of grapefruit and carbonic acid, the cocktail plays with gentle salty and grassy notes in a way that the original does not. The many bottles of Sotol and many Sotol cocktails are just one reason to love this burrito eatery that opened in late 2020 on the same boulevard as the Bacanora El Charro Hipster Bar and Cafe. Together, this section has grown into one of the largest and most characterful blocks of Phoenix for Mexican food and drink. The Testal, run by Fernando Hernández, sheds light on traditional burrito-shaped preparations made from Chihuahua. Cans of Picadillo, Deshrebada Verde and Chilli Colorado are prepared in a very small space in the traditional way. Hernández is committed to staying true to the region, right down to the selection of Sotol, the art and the items for sale. These burritos use flour tortillas – wildly fresh and fragrant. They are soft and cuddly, they lack a lot of chewing and they tightly enclose their fillings. These babies are newborn, still nice and warm from the barbecue. The word “testal” refers to a ball of dough that is pressed into tortillas; The name of this restaurant reflects its stretchy priorities. The Chicharron Burrito is characterized by soft pieces of pork skin. Even in the heat, these have a modest pork intensity, which is made even more pleasant when you add in beans and cheese ($ 0.30 each extra). The Deshebrada is another guardian. Melting, flavourful beef soup with a green sauce that curls from the heat. Speaking of heat, Testal just added a new salsa negra to their list. This salsa is made from sunset orange oil floating on dark bits of powdered chilies. It’s lovely – splendidly dabbed on the Chicharonnes. click to enlarge Testal has a trio of elaborate aqua frescoes that are worth exploring. The quill, mixed with roasted corn, is the best. It passes over with sugary, milky notes and then merges into a subtle but wild bloom of roasted, deeply earthy corn. Pinole is a local drink with an eventful history on both sides of the border. In Sacaton, on Ramona Farms, on the Gila River Indian Reservation, you can learn about the history of drinking pinole-sweetened beverages for energy by purchasing some of the farms’ pinole in dry form – crushed roasted corn. It is a blessing that Testal has such a pleasant variant in to-go bottles. I would stop by Testal for a quick burrito. It’s among the top burrito rollers in town. I came for a cocktail or to sit down after breakfast and do some work, or to try Sotol straight or to enjoy the new generation of Mexican food. The newer guard is showing promise – both on the high end and in places where you can eat like royalty for a few dollars. Pulque Fine Mexican Cuisine9619 N. Hayden Road # 108, Scottsdale480-393-3556 Calamari $ 14 Flautas doradas $ 8 Bistec mole Amarillo $ 35 Codigo Margarita $ 16 Testal Mexican Kitchen1325 NW Grand Ave. Suite # 1602-384-9993 Pinole $ 3.50 Burrito de deshebrada $ 5.00 Burrito de Chicharron $ 4.50 Guacamaya stool $ 12
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