5.31.2001
MAYA-AZTECA
Latin American cuisine, gentle as a kiss


By MERIDITH FORD
Journal Restaurant Reviewer

PROVIDENCE -- I had eaten at Maya-Azteca, a Mexican and Guatemalan restaurant, but when it had a different name and different ownership. It was once the home of Don Jose's, now on Federal Hill as Don Jose Tequilas.

It was like deja vu walking into the restaurant, though -- not only because so little has changed since I was there nearly two years ago, but because its tiny space, with colorfully striped tablecloths and sombreros hanging from the walls, reminded me so much of Mexico.

For the past two years the restaurant has been owned by Caesar H. Morales, a native of Guatemala who spent 15 years in Los Angeles, where he developed as strong a taste for Mexican food as for his homeland's. His menu is a mix of both, with a slant toward Mexican.

A television dangled from a wall playing a favorite Spanish-speaking soap I remember from the restaurants I ate at in Mexico: Por un Beso, which means ``For a kiss.''

The restaurant is a little like a kiss: Sweet and gentle, leaving you satiated, but not so much so that you wouldn't come back for more. The food is exquisitely made and covers a broad range of dishes from Veracruz to Guatemala that even those unfamiliar with Latin foods would recognize.

Nachos would fit that category. A large plate, called nachos Azteca, came piled high with crunchy, house-made corn chips layered with stewed chicken, beans, freshly shredded lettuce and cilantro, queso blanco (a mild white cheese) and fresh, green, richly flavored guacamole laced with bits of tomato and onion.

Camarones al ajillo (shrimp with garlic) can be made several ways, depending on where you visit in Mexico. At Maya-Azteca, large shrimp come in a stew-like mole (sauce) mixed with the flavor of onion, mild chiles and garlic, with a salty, almost sealike aftertaste. The sauce drenched soft, fluffy rice with its intoxicating flavor, as well as the beans that came -- as all the main dishes do -- as a side.

Colorful salads add crunch

Dishes in Mexico are often accompanied by small, colorful salads of lettuce, tomatoes and red cabbage, and Maya-Azteca follows this custom -- each of the main dishes was colorfully garnished with one, and they add a wonderfully crunchy, fresh-tasting component to the meal, especially when mixed together with the other ingredients.

Another component to any Mexican meal is tortillas -- usually handmade and wrapped while warm in a colorful napkin, then placed in a table warmer. Maya-Azteca makes its own tortillas, although they are made with a press, not hand formed. The flavor of a fresh tortilla is the very essence of something central to Mexican cooking -- the musty, rustic, woodsy flavor of corn. It is a treat to use the warm tortillas as a wrap for beans, rice -- or any part of the meal -- but my favorite way is to roll them into a cigar and eat them as they are.

A torta is a bit like a Mexican version of a hoagie, or grinder. Maya-Azteca serves a big, soft roll stuffed with a savory stewed meat and layered with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and shredded cheese.

The restaurant's gordita -- a fried corn patty, soft and fluffy and filled with more of the meat, plus beans, cheese, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and dressed in a thin, pungent sour cream -- was a favorite of the evening.

A trip back to Mexico

There are daily specials, as well as the many offerings on the regular menu, including traditional Mexican desayunos (breakfast). All of the menu items are under $10; many are under $5. Bebidas (drinks) include sweet Mexican sodas and banana and strawberry-flavored fruit drinks. No liquor is served.

Our waitress spoke practically no English, but it didn't really matter. And frankly, I think I would have been disappointed if she had. Between her broken English and my broken Spanish, we managed just fine.

Maya-Azteca was like a little nugget of gold straight from Mexico, rich in the culture of Latin American cuisine. This tiny space, with its sparsely decorated walls and tables, served as a reminder for me of the time I spent in Mexico -- each bite a transport to warm, golden days in the sun.