Homage to Las Brisas Restaurant in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget
I learned to appreciate Mexican food at a young age when my mom took me to Las Brisas Mexican Restaurant in Detroit’s Mexican Village Neighborhood on Vernor Highway.
My mom always ordered what Las Brisas called a botana (today’s super nachos). I just loved the mountain of botana food – warm tortilla chips covered with ground beef, black beans, melted cheese, spicy peppers, chopped green onions, and sour cream. I thought that tasted like a crunchy garden burger. I still like crunchy food.
I walked to school in Detroit’s Siberian winters, so I had no problem polishing off the botana and not gaining any weight. I still had room for a chimichanga, which I ordered just because I liked the name of the food item.
A chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito. I would order a chimichanga with beans and cheese, because that was the kind of burrito I ordered at Jack in the Box. (There was a Jack in the Box near our house in Royal Oak, but that is another story.)
I loved the crunchy chimichanga with gooey cheese inside. I topped it off with hot sauce and sour cream and thought that chimichangas should be sold at Jack in the Box, too. (Hint! Hint!)
I also loved going to Detroit in the 1970s for restaurants even if places like Las Brisas had to have security in the parking lot. I still do not mind paying to park in a garage today for security when I go to restaurants.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
