October 21, 2011
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Count on Cuatro for Late Night Cravings
Comedian chef Shirley Fong-Torres joked that “Fusion cuisine is whatever people find in the refrigerator when stoned. Cold pizza with pickled ginger and mayonaisse, far out. Peanut butter fried rice, awesome.” As a cuisine, fusion deserves such levity. First of all, it’s hardly innovative. Twenty five hundred years before the Travel Channel began sending gluttons around the world to “discover” new foods, Herodotus was chronicling the miracles of the spice route. (Among other things he wrote that cinnamon was harvested by breaking up the nests of giant birds in Arabia.)
At the decadent peak of the Roman Empire, Suetonius wrote about a dish that required pike liver, peacock brains, flamingo tongues, and lamprey roe. All those ingredients had to be imported from afar, as did the wheat that fed the rabble that kept the Roman Empire going. Without fusion there would be no tomatoes in Italian sauces, no noodles in Chinese stir fries, and no sugar in French desserts. If Iowa diets were restricted to indigenous Iowa foods, we would live solely on rye grasses, wild garlic, yarrow, pecans, sunflower seeds, prairie sage, wild leeks, dandelion greens, mint, riverbank grapes, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries and some other fruits so bitter no one would think of eating them without sugar today.
Nevertheless, fusion cuisine is trendy now, particularly in late night haunts where human brains open for experimentation. Des Moines’ latest such place is Cuatro, a taqueria with a full bar and popular Asian options.
For instance, my order of “chimales” delivered fresh masa (cornmeal) stuffed with kung pao chicken. (Korean BBQ short ribs were not available on three different occasions.) That order had been steamed and also appeared to have been grilled to achieve a crunchy texture on the outside. That was innovative, turning each tamale into a finger food. Mine were covered with red pepper aioli, sour cream, onions and Srichacha. If you prefer to apply such condiments personally, ask for them on the side here. My to-go order of chimales was not wrapped in foil as it would be at most Mexican joints. It lost some moisture in transit too.
I had better luck with straight Mexican orders – tacos, burritos and tortas, the latter on freshly baked bread. Tongue was expertly cooked once but was unavailable on several subsequent visits. Pastor was particularly tender and flavorful.
Shrimp ceviche tasted of fresh squeezed lime juice but the seafood and price/quantity ratio left me dreaming about the ceviche at Mi Patria Ecuador. A $7.50 ramekin was accompanied by a large basket of corn chips.
A noodle bowl, ordered “hot,” was served without a single detectible trace of chili, though chilies were described on the menu. All its heat derived from bottled Srichacha. “Vietnamese style pork” seemed identical to the Mexican pastor I‘d tried. A good lemon sauce accompanied rice sticks but noodles were scarce compared to what is served in Asian cafés around town.
A rice bowl brought a similarly small quantity of Japanese style rice with pickled radishes, carrots, bean sprouts, fresh lime and Mexican salsa. Excellent freshly cooked shrimp subbed for Korean BBQ short ribs.
Kim Chee fries, quite popular with several young friends, come from the same school of thought that invented French fries with gravy, poutine, and other busy dishes that become more popular after midnight. This dish mixed sour (vinegar) and salty with umami (overcooked tilapia as BBQ ribs were unavaialbe), spicy (chilies), and sweet (orange sauce) flavors but all were lost in an excess of Srichacha and red pepper aioli. Crisp things soon became soggy.
Cuatro
400 Walnut St., 288-9637
Mon. – Thurs. 11 a.m.. – 2 a.m., Fri. – Sat. 11 a.m. – 3 a.m.
Side Dishes
Hell’s Angels California Club stopped at Smokey D’s for lunch last Sunday attracting as many cameras to the parking lot as Harleys… Ground cherries are making a comeback in Central Iowa. Ubiquitous before WWII, the little fruits, described as “a tomato crossed with a melon,” have shown up lately on menus at Mojo’s on 86th and Trostel’s Dish.
