Mole Rossa at Villa Azteca in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
Main Street in Salinas, California by the Steinbeck Center has several great restaurants that tourists might like for a flavor of the American West. (Note: There is a reasonably priced parking garage right around the corner from the Steinbeck Center that has a passage to Main Street.)
My husband Laurent, my daughter Florence Paget, and I have tried Villa Azteca on Main Street Salinas several times for dinner. We like the restaurant’s dishes that are different from typical taquería fare.
On a recent visit, we began our meal with typical guacamole made with mashed avocado, tomato, and onion. It came in a square, black dish made of porous volcanic rock that made you feel like you were dining in a rooftop restaurant in Mexico City.
For my main dish, I chose a carnitas enchilada with salsa rossa. Carnitas is usually made with pork rump or pork shoulder braised with bitter Seville orange juice and pulled once cooked like Southern pulled pork. The pork does not taste greasy, because it is made with Seville orange juice. I liked this filling for the rolled enchiladas topped with mole rossa.
The mole rossa sauce was a delicious surprise. I was expecting a light pink sauce made from puréed tomatoes and queso fresco. What arrived was a pinkish-purple fuchsia-colored sauce made from puréed beets, queso fresco, and a hint of habanero pepper for a little kick without numbing heat.
The mole rossa was rather mild from the beets, which have a good amount of dietary fiber, vitamin C, iron, vitamin B6, and magnesium according to the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) website. I was pleased with my first-time try of carnitas enchiladas with mole rossa.
I drank a non-alcoholic Mexican drink called horchata with my meal. This drink is made with ground rice, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Horchata is served chilled. Mexican vanilla is strongly flavored, and made the horchata taste like a cocktail despite being non-alcoholic.
My family shared a delicious Mexican flan milk custard pudding with a warm caramel topping for dessert.
This fancy Mexican meal at Villa Azteca in downtown Salinas was flavorful and relaxing. I love having Villa Azteca so close to my home in Salinas, but the nearby train station, Greyhound bus station, and parking garage make it a great stop for tourists visiting Salinas from Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, too.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
