slc - day 3

lunch today was pizza at wasatch pizza. pretty good. nice crust. had a piece of bbq chicken and a piece of chicken pesto. the chicken pesto sounded like a great idea & was talked up. it was good but nothing exceptional. kind of dry. the bbq chicken was quite good though. good crust, nice huge chunks of chicken breast and green onions charred. pretty good.

for dinner, made it to red iguana. cool place. chips were good. hot sauce was very good. was pretty set on having one of their moles as that's what they were known form. deliberated for a while and the server offered to bring a taste. brought a plate with 5 moles on it. as described:

mole amarillo - good but a bit too spicy for me. menu description: a very spice mole, chile guajillo, chile habanero, fresh vegetables and spices, sauteed and simmered to perfection. a oaxacan treat. served with chicken.

red pipian - very good. seemed to lack heat so didn't order it but it was my alternate. after i ordered, detected heat so i kind of kicked myself. menu description: peanuts, pumpkin seeds, pasilla & guajillo chile transport to you Mexico, a delicious national dish. served with chicken.

mole poblano - this is what i chose in part because of the server recommendation. menu description: a rich blend of peanuts, walnuts, almonds and a hint of mexican chocolate make this puebla original the king of moles. delicioso!! served with turkey.

mole verde - this was good. would be happy if someone served it to me but when compared with the other moles, just didn't seem as distinctive. not much spice, no real bold flavors. menu description: a verdant pleasure from oaxaca of fresh green vegetables sauteed and blended with pumpkin seeds and spices. served with your choice of chicken or turkey.

mole negro - this was good too. some spice. some strong flavors. thought about going with it. menu description: chile mulato, peanuts, walnuts, almonds and fennel seeds fuse together with spices to make this oaxacan treasure unforgettable. served with chicken or turkey.

so i ended up ordering the mole poblano. i really liked it. had big chunks of turkey in it. came with rice, beans and tortillas. they were decent but nothing special. the tortillas at rito's and carolina's killed them. the beans at rito's killed them. if you put the mole together with a carolina's tortilla and rito's beans, it would be too good. the mole was pretty thick. the heat definitely built too. after a bit, i had to keep eating bites with the tortilla or with rice on the fork...something to offset the heat. wasn't too much for me but it was spicy. by the time i'd fished most of the chunks of turkey out (which were covered with the thick mole) and just had the mole sauce left, i couldn't do just the sauce anymore. too spicy and too much.

followed that up with arroz con leche - homemade mexican style rice pudding. this rocked hugely. it was basically rice cooked in a sweet milk with cinnamon sprinkled on top & shards of vanilla bean & raisins throughout. the consistency was pretty liquidy - not very pudding-like. still, i really, really enjoyed it. sweet but not too sweet, nice notes of cinnamon and vanilla. yummy.