Monday

After eating at so many fusion restaurants in México, I thought I'd mention some of the more interesting ones around here. In Monterrey, of course, many restaurants were incidentally fusion in that, sometimes somewhat accidentally, they were Japanese or Korean or Italian fused with Mexican stuff. To be fair, this way of looking at things should probably include all the food I eat in the US, also somewhat mix-bred, but like any other type of accent, I don't taste my own unless it's very obvious. I've been thinking about this since we ate out last night. Two years ago, there were two fusion-type restaurants that we really enjoyed. One was straight-up: Thai Roma* was just what its name advertises: a fusion of Thai and Italian. I was pleased with many of the bizarre noodle dishes mutated from these parents, but it was the healthily fried parmesan spring rolls that kept me coming back. On the other end of the spectrum was the fabulously low-rent Trio Restaurant* in the Shaw/ New U neighborhood, which was a fusion of greasy-spoon diner and whatever they were trying-out in their kitchen that day. The menu did not so much consist of mutated dishes as it was itself mutated: beside the burgers and Oreo shakes were often chicken kormas and spanikopita. Last night we went to the least fused of all inspired fusion restaurants: the New Moon Restaurant down the block from our complex. While it boasts El Salvadorian slash Mexican slash Chinese food, these are all so segregated as to come on separate menus. We ate Latin food: Central American pupusas, huevos rancheros, fried plantains with black beans and sour cream. But shuffle the menus and the possible odd combinations are myriad: steamed dumplings and burritos, General Tso's Chicken and nachos. Nice. [Cavin]