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Hungry Memphis

Best Bets: Guava Agua Fresca at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana

Well, the temperature is supposed to reach 104 degrees this week. And not just for one day, apparently.

So here’s a way to, as they say, beat the heat. Order the Guava Agua Fresca at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana.

When I visited the restaurant the other day, Jonathan Magallanes, who is chef, manager, front-of-the-house man, and just about everything else, asked me what I wanted to drink. Then he offered me a glass of their fresh guava juice.

It’s one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. It’s extraordinary. Just the right amount of sweetness. Refreshing. All the good adjectives.

And this isn’t something you’re going to find everywhere.

I asked Magallanes how he happened to begin selling Guava Agua Fresca.

Jonathan Magallanes with a Guava Agua Fresca, as well as a tray of yellow guavas, at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana (Credit: Michael Donahue)

“One day randomly I’m at Walmart,” he says. “Right? And I’m just cruising down the produce aisle, whatever. But I smell something. I’m like, ‘What’s that smell? I know that smell.’ And I never smell it. Never. ‘That’s guava.’ And I’ve known this ‘cause we’ve traveled and gone to Belize, and the Yucatan, and Guatemala. Down there where they have these gorgeous, little yellow guavas.”

He tasted the yellow guava in drinks or desserts while traveling. “In Mexico, all these markets that are selling fresh fruit, guava is this one-of-a-kind scent. It’s super fragrant. Sweet and tropical. Sort of has it all. Total package fruit.”

Magallanes found the store’s guava display. “Walmart had this little clamshell with six guava. They were a little past ripe, in my opinion. But that fragrance had overtaken the whole produce section.

“I took them anyway and cut them and one was great, it was delicious. And so I looked on the little clamshell (to see) where they were from. Of course, they were imported.”

He then went to the local importer and bought them in bulk. “And they were amazing. ‘Cause they were the little yellow ones. It’s not the pink one.”

Yellow ones are different, Magallanes says. “The skin is thin enough and the seed is small enough you can juice the whole fruit.

“The seed has a certain type of guava flavor. So does the skin. And the flesh. So, you get this full spectrum of guava assault. It’s sweet the way the fruit is. It’s not sweeter than that.”

He brought them back to the restaurant and began serving the guava juice with ice and a touch of lime. 

“When it’s super really ripe, it’s almost frothy or creamy. Creamy almost the way a melon is sort of creamy. Fruit that’s at peak ripeness has this luxurious quality.”

He began selling Guava Agua Fresca about a year and a half ago. “As soon as I found it in bulk and the quality was good enough.”

And, Magallanes says, “Now it’s the special juice all the time.”

Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana is at 215 South Germantown Road in Germantown, Tennessee; (901) 751-1200 

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Jonathan Magallanes: Making those flavors work

Jonathan Magallanes is a big dog rider in the kitchen. With warp speed he can whip up a mole or a salsa.

Instead of roosting in crash padding on a superslab, Magallanes is in a chef’s jacket working at breakneck speed at the stove.

An avid motorcyclist (hence the lingo), Magallanes, 42, who got his first motorcycle when he was five years old, is chef/owner with his dad, Pepe Magallanes, of Las Tortugas restaurant.

Born in Memphis but living for a while in Mexico City, Jonathan rode his little yellow 50-cylinder Yamaha, participated in Boy Scouts, practiced piano, and took karate.

Cooking sparked his interest after he made a pizza in an extracurricular cooking class at St. George’s Independent School. He remembered “preparing food being this exciting, really creative thing” when he lived in Mexico. “My dad was in the kitchen doing a million things at once and preparing food for a lot of different people. The kitchen was a fun place to be.”

Jonathan thought, “I can do this. This is something I have complete creative liberty with.”

He didn’t pursue cooking. “With so many things going on, I think it sort of went on the back burner — no pun intended — for a long time.”

He went to Mexico for a year of school when he was at Kenyon College. “We went to Africa and Greece and Western Europe. I think that trip was really where I sort of discovered this exciting world of food and exotic food. I really think I developed a love of food in a new way.”

After graduating with a business degree, Jonathan moved to Naples, Florida, where his parents lived, and got a job in sales with a paint company. He also waited tables at high-end restaurants.

His parents moved back to Memphis, where his dad opened Las Tortugas. Jonathan also returned, but he wanted Memphis to be a home base to network and do resumes.

While helping his dad at Las Tortugas, Jonathan “saw this book on Mexican cooking that was in the office and was just flipping through it. I came across a dish called Mole Verde, which is a green mole that has pumpkin seeds, and it was really exciting to me. I think the fact that it had a ton of ingredients. Then it was really up to you to make all those flavors work. It was also exotic. Sort of rustic.”

They served it as a special. “One of the first people who had it was a lady. And she said, ‘That’s one of the best moles I’ve ever had in my life.’ When she said that, it was this jolt of electricity and I felt alive in a way that, professionally, I had not really had. It was such a great feeling that I wanted to feel it again.”

He decided to go into the restaurant business with his dad, who let him “change the menu in ways that we both agreed on. I wanted to add more variety to it. Add more depth to it. Maybe add some things that people aren’t familiar with. Like moles that are done with seeds and nuts and not chocolate. I trusted my intuition. I thought that if I really liked something, people are going to like it.”

His style became dishes with a “ton of flavor” but light and colorful. “At the same time being traditional.”

In 2014, Jonathan was invited by Felicia Willett, owner of Felicia Suzanne’s restaurant, to be included in a team to cook at the James Beard House. “That was, in many ways, a career-defining experience. The friendship and respect of all your peers is what it’s all about. It keeps me motivated to do the best job that I can. And to know that you’re part of a community of people who are really trying to change how people perceive Memphis. They really are proud that they’re from Memphis. And proud that Memphis is up and coming as a food town.”

Jonathan’s contribution to that James Beard dinner was the same Mole Verde recipe he discovered in a cookbook years before. “It was really the dish that set off my culinary journey.”

Las Tortugas, 1215 S. Germantown, 751-1200

Jonathan Magallanes: Making those flavors work

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Cover Feature News

Tour De Tacos

Sometimes the stars align and forces larger than us reveal themselves and a light bulb goes off and we know: It’s time for a taco-themed cover story.

Last Thursday, the world celebrated National Taco Day. Just a day earlier, an escaped emu named “Taco” went looking for a mate and brought traffic to a halt in Cape Canaveral.

That’s kismet enough for us.

So without further ado, here are some of our favorite tacos in town. The Flyer staff covered everything from breakfast tacos to fish tacos, vegan tacos to eyeball tacos, tacos wrapped in corn tortillas to tacos wrapped in Doritos. It’s taco time.

ChicharrÓnes Taco at Los Comales

I never gave my first chicharrónes taco a fighting chance, purely on the basis of its weird texture. Chicharrónes are fried pork rinds, and I’d assumed that the taco filling would be crunchy just like the convenience store staple. I was wrong and didn’t like the surprise chewy pudding texture. By the time I spied chicharrÓnes on the menu at Los Comales, however, I was better informed and knew what I was getting into.

Chicharrónes are popular all over Latin America, and every region prepares its skins a little differently. At Los Comales, the tacos de chicharrónes ($1.75) are like intense pork-flavored crème brûlée on dense corn tortillas with chopped white onions and cilantro. It’s great with all the house salsas, but I like it best with just the tiniest dollop of the El Yucateco XXXtra-Hot Habanero sauce. There’s a bottle on every table and cold beer on tap should the fires rage out of control. — Chris Davis

Los Comales, 4774 Summer, 683-9530

“Nasty Bits” Taco at Tacos Borolas

Tacos Borolas on American Way near Getwell isn’t the sort of place you go to fill up on nacho chips. Tacos Borolas is the kind of tiny mom-and-pop taqueria you visit when you’re in the mood to mainline authentic Mexican flavors.

“I was hoping to try something unusual,” I said to my server, who had many suggestions for tacos she didn’t think I’d order. The next thing I knew I was being served a steaming plate of tacos ($1.85 each) stuffed with meats I couldn’t easily identify. Thankfully, everything was chopped and beautifully cooked: brains, head, and eyeballs.

I’ve never been a fan of brains but can’t deny that the gray matter at Tacos Borolas was delicious. The texture was slightly denser than scrambled eggs and the metallic aftertaste that usually puts me off was minimal. After a plain first bite to find out what the brains tasted like on their own, I doused the taco with salsa verde and smothered it all in onions, cilantro, and radishes.

The corn tortillas at Tacos Borolas are slightly smaller than I’m accustomed to, which made the offal on my plate less intimidating. But if the head tacos had been served in a wrapper the size of a frisbee I wouldn’t have complained a bit. Anybody who thinks loin is the most tender and flavorful part of a cow should think again. Head meat may sound gross and it may not be easy to retrieve, but it’s completely worth the risk and extra effort. And it’s fantastic with all the house salsas.

When it comes to tacos, I’ve always preferred things like chorizo, stewed goat (chivo), and spicy al pastor. But the eyes have it. I’m surprised to report that tacos de ojos — eyeball tacos — may be my new favorite. Yes, the texture is odd, but if you can make yourself forget you’re holding a childhood nightmare in your hand, you’ll be rewarded with a rich, buttery, intensely beefy flavor that you can’t get from any other cut of meat. It’s even better laced with Tacos Borolas’ extra hot and slightly bitter red sauce.

If all of this sounds completely nasty, be aware that Tacos Borolas also serves a variety of less extreme tacos. The spicy pork is always an excellent choice. On the weekends you can dine in or buy your tacos from their sidewalk stand. Bonus: Panadería La Ilusion is next door, and for 82 cents you can get a gorgeous slab of bread pudding topped with strawberry or pineapple. For a more authentic experience, you’ll have to go to Mexico City. Or Summer Avenue at least. — CD

Tacos Borolas, 4273 American Way, 791-4379

Machaca Taco at Elena’s Taco Shop

Kowabonga, dudes! Surf’s up in Bartlett.

Elena’s Taco Shop sits at one end of a newish, mini-commercial strip building at the corner of Summer and Raleigh-LaGrange. The interior is clean, freshly painted, and decorated with California surf posters and pictures. It’s not a funky Mexican restaurant but rather a Southern take on the typical seashore taco stand.

I tried the fish taco and the shrimp taco, and both were very good. The seafood was cooked in a crisp batter and piled with a fresh cabbage mix and pico de gallo and Elena’s “secret sauce.” But my mission for this story was to try a breakfast taco, so I also ordered the machaca plate — a scrumptious blend of scrambled eggs, shredded beef, tomatoes, and onions in two soft taco shells. They came with sides of beans, tortilla chips, and rice and set me back a very reasonable $6.49. Of the eight sauces available, I picked the “mild” San Francisco. Good stuff. If I lived in Bartlett, Elena’s would be a regular stop. — Bruce VanWyngarden

Elena’s Taco Shop, 6105 Summer, 417-7915

Discada Jarocha Taco at Tacos Los Jarochos

Memphis is late to the taco truck game, but Tacos Los Jarochos is helping us catch up, one authentic taco at a time. Not long ago, this moveable feast was but a wee taco trailer at Summer and Perkins; now it’s a true taco truck, camped out on Summer near Mendenhall every day from 3 p.m. until about 10 p.m. While I happen to believe the enduring value of a taco is in its portable nature, if you like to kick back while you eat, there are a few tables for dining al fresco in the parking lot. Everything is tasty here (and everyone speaks Spanish, which is never a bad sign when you’re looking for tacos), but why not try their signature Discada Jarocha taco, made with steak, ham, bacon, chorizo, onion, and jalapeño. Top it with one of their five salsas, fresh sliced cucumbers and radishes, or have it plain and savor the simple combination of fresh corn tortilla and savory meats. At $1.75 a pop, you can try both variations. Just don’t miss out on this roadside gem. — Hannah Sayle

Tacos Los Jarochos, Summer and Mendenhall, 314-5735

Cheese Steak Taco at El Toro Loco

El Toro Loco’s cheese steak tacos left my mouth begging for an encore when I finished. Three corn tortillas come covered with small, savory chunks of steak, drizzled with a delightful white cheese sauce, and topped with onion and cilantro. It comes served with sour cream, pico de gallo, tomatillo sauce, and refried beans, but I ordered a side of diced tomatoes and lettuce to complete the dish. Biting into one of these delicacies revealed a beautiful combination of tender meat, fresh veggies, cheese, and sauciness. I finished the dish and thought to myself, Damn, that was the best $7.50 I’ve spent in a while.

— Louis Goggans

El Toro Loco, 2617 Poplar, 458-4414

Asada Taco at Caminos de Michoacan

A colorful, cozy shop on Macon Road, Caminos de Michoacan offers a particularly good take on authentic tacos. All the traditional meat options — pastor, asada, chorizo, carnitas, etc. — are on the menu, and all I’ve sampled are top-notch, though I particularly like the asada and pastor ($1.80), the latter of which included grilled onion on my last trip. In addition to the standard topping of chopped cilantro and onion and lime wedges on the side, Caminos de Michoacan tacos include a smattering of radish spears, which add color, crunch, and freshness, and a side of grilled green onion bulbs. But it’s the before-and-after that really sets Caminos de Michoacan apart. In addition to the standard chips and red salsa, meals here also start with a generous portion of extra-spicy tomatillo salsa, which can be balanced by a tall glass of their on-tap horchata. And, in addition to a taqueria, Caminos de Michoacan is also a bakery — a panadería — with an entire self-service wall that beckons with cookies, muffins, donuts, torta rolls, churros, and other pastries. — Chris Herrington

Caminos de Michoacan, 3896 Macon, 458-5550

Pastor Taco at Mike’s Express

Just two doors down from Caminos de Michoacan is perhaps one of the city’s most unexpectedly good taco haunts. This cramped, cinder-block quickie mart has a taco bar in the back, which also serves quesadillas, tortas, and other variations of Mexican finger food. The tacos here find a nice middle ground between traditional and what we think of as Americanized, with the basic construction — doubled soft corn tortillas, traditional meats, onions and cilantro — embellished with shredded lettuce, a slice of tomato, and grated queso blanco. Mike’s Express is a great place to get tacos to go, but you can also grab a Jarritos soda from the cold case and eat there, with two four-top tables and two four-seat bars surrounded by racks of snack foods and household goods. Two big tacos and a soda will set you back $5.50 before tax. This is what “fast food” should be. — CH

Mike’s Express, 3874 Macon, 323-6927

Black Bean Taco at Evelyn & Olive

This taco should actually be called the Magical Savory Tofu & Black Bean Taco from Heaven. Because that’s what it is. “Black Bean Taco” sounds a little boresville, but this Jamaican-style vegan taco is the furthest thing from dull. For starters, the crispy taco shell is extra-large, making it the perfect vessel for a hearty serving of its mouth-watering filling. That filling is made extra special by the addition of marinated, sautéed, crumbled tofu. The tofu has been frozen, thawed, and then cooked, lending it a meaty texture. It’s combined with seasoned black beans and then topped with a tangy cabbage slaw. Atop the slaw is a sweet-and-savory kiwi salsa. All the flavors combined make for one tasty-as-hell, meat-free taco. If you’re lucky, the oil from the tofu and beans will soak through the bottom of the taco shell as you’re eating, creating a still-crispy but sinfully delicious last bite. The dish is served with Jamaican-style rice and peas for a little healthy balance. $7.95. — Bianca Phillips

Evelyn & Olive, 630 Madison, 748-5422

Doritos Locos Taco at Taco Bell

KFC may have trademarked “Finger Lickin’ Good,” but how else would anyone describe the crazy-good Doritos Locos Taco from Taco Bell? After just one bite, you’ll have enough UT-orange crumbs left on your fingers for an afternoon snack. On the inside are your basic Taco Bell ingredients: beef, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream. But Taco Bell said adios to its boring corn shells and packs all this into a crunchy Dorito shell. It’s so special that it’s even encased in a cardboard sleeve that encourages munchers to “celebrate the awesomeness.” The craziest thing about this combo is: Why didn’t anyone think of it before? And when will the Cool Ranch version hit Memphis? — Michael Finger

Goat Taco at La Guadalupana

One thing you’re not going to get at a drive-through is a goat taco; another is a tongue taco. I tried one of each as take-home breakfast entrées from La Guadalupana. At $2 apiece, both were seriously meaty (shredded) and served in a soft taco shell with a minced green-and-onion filling. The experience was more like eating a wrap than a Norte Americano-style taco, and the sauces — I tried mild and spicy — were agreeably subtle. The décor of the place is no-nonsense formica-top, and, at breakfast time on Monday, service was quick and courteous — a pleasant surprise.

Jackson Baker

La Guadalupana, 4818 Summer, 685-6857,

Chorizo Taco at El Palmar

El Palmar is well known for its authentic and hard-to-find menu items, so it was difficult to order strictly from the à la carte menu. The chorizo taco, in all its glory, was what I finally settled on — three of them to be exact.

El Palmar serves its chorizo in traditional Mexican fashion, using minced (not pulled) pork sausage and pork fat seasoned with chili pepper and salt. The chorizo is served in a corn tortilla and garnished with piles of onion and cilantro. I recommend using a fork, because trying to keep the mountain of chorizo, onion, and cilantro in the tiny taco shell quickly proved to be impossible.

Instead, the dish is served with multiple wedges of lime, which should be squeezed onto the taco to counter the dry texture of the meat. If you’re feeling adventurous, spoon out both kinds of the homemade salsa onto the chorizo tacos. It’s like an authentic way of “Going Bold” Del Taco style. Wash it all down with a modestly priced Pacifico and you’ve got a hell of meal, all for under $10.

Chris Shaw

El Palmar, 4069 Summer, 323-0363

Fish Taco at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana

The tacos come four to a plate, with avocado, shredded lettuce, marinated cucumber slices, salsa, chips, and a mildly hot guacamole on plastic trays. The price ranges from $10.95 for fish (red snapper or tilapia) and slow-roasted chicken to $18 for steak. Sounds like a lot of food, but the soft tacos are gone in three or four bites, so it’s pricey. The selling point is that everything is homemade. The fish (looked and tasted like tilapia) comes in small filets, not in small pieces, like the chicken. It’s a tasty enough meal for those with a modest appetite who find themselves close to Germantown. — John Branston

Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana, 1215 S. Germantown, 751-1200

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Newman Farms Berkshire Pork Tacos at Las Tortugas

Just when I thought that Las Tortugas couldn’t get any better, they started adding locally sourced meats to the menu. Owner Pepe Magallanes and his son Jonathan were already very particular about every ingredient they used, shopping each morning before the store opened to find the perfect ingredients. Adding Newman Farms pork and Neola Farms beef takes everything up another notch. On a recent visit, I tried the Newman Farms Berkshire pork tacos and was blown away. Pepe and his crew obviously spent a great deal of time cooking the meat to perfection. Marinated in citrus juices and slow-cooked, it’s crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Once shredded and put into corn tortillas with crema, spicy chile sauce, cilantro, onions, and avocadoes, it’s almost too good to be true. At $11.95, it is one of the more expensive items on the menu, but each order includes four tacos, lettuce and cucumber salad, homemade chips, salsa, and avocado sauce. I’m a firm believer that the offerings at Las Tortugas are better fit for fine china than plastic baskets, but I’m happy to be able to enjoy them in such a warm and inviting atmosphere. —

Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana, 1215 S. Germmantown Parkway (751-1200)

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Two for Brunch

What’s the first thing a young chef does after opening his own restaurant? Find someone else to do the cooking for a change.

After Kelly English opened Restaurant Iris in Midtown, he started checking out the Memphis restaurant scene. Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana in Germantown was a favorite find, as much for the people as the food.

On his first visit, English had an elephant-ear torta, a hand-carved sirloin sandwich, that reminded him of the roast beef po’boys he loves from his native New Orleans. He was hooked.

At the same time, Jonathan Magallanes, owner of Las Tortugas, visited Restaurant Iris “to see what all the fuss was about.”

“I was more than impressed,” Magallanes says. “I was blown away. It felt like everything I hope people experience at Las Tortugas.”

“Ours are very different restaurants but with very similar philosophies of carefully sourcing ingredients and taking care of our customers,” English adds.

English and Magallanes became friends quickly, and with that friendship, they began to exchange ideas. When Kelly competed in Cochon 555 in Atlanta, he looked to Las Tortugas for help.

“Kelly was in our kitchen learning tamales,” Magallanes says. “He used his own recipe for the filling at the event, but he learned technique with us.”

Last October, English and Magallanes were invited to cook at the annual Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi. Their barbacoa was chosen to match the symposium’s “Global South” theme, and they were presented a challenging ingredient — cow heads — to prepare traditional tacos de cabeza.

“We had one practice run, and it went well,” English says. “For the event, we were going to do 42 cow heads. I wasn’t sure how it would work. Two heads in a hole is one thing; 42 heads and 800 pounds of charcoal is an entirely different thing. We were very confident in what we were doing, but we knew there was an outside chance that it wasn’t going to translate to 42 heads.”

After a sleepless night and a nearly disastrous encounter with the Oxford Fire Department over the size of the fire, the barbacoa was a resounding success, providing a unique dinner to hundreds of symposium attendees.

The teamwork between English and Magallanes will be seen at another event, thanks to changes English is making to the hours at Restaurant Iris. The restaurant will serve dinner on Monday nights, and brunch with visiting chefs will be served only on the third Sunday of each month.

According to English, Jeff Frisby, Restaurant Iris’ general manager, came up with the idea of a collaborative brunch.

“We wanted to do something where we could cook with some friends and take in some people regionally and offer Memphis something that they don’t have on a regular basis,” English says.

The obvious choice for the first brunch partner was Magallanes.

“Kelly called and asked if I was interested. I was more than interested; I committed right away. We’ve been experimenting and talking and tasting ever since,” Magallanes says.

Both restaurants’ styles will be represented in a blending of techniques and flavors. “This will be a very different type of brunch,” English explains. “We may not even serve biscuits. We aren’t at Jonathan’s. It will be a complete collaboration,” English says.

After the meal with Magallanes on January 16th (which is already sold out), brunch in February will feature Jennifer Chandler, author of Simply Salads and Simply Suppers. Future brunches will include Lee Richardson of Little Rock’s Capital Hotel; Elizabeth Heiskell, co-author of Somebody Stole the Cornbread from My Dressing; and Kat Gordon, owner of Muddy’s Bake Shop.

The friendly partnership between English and Magallanes will continue as well.

“Jonathan is one of the most passionate people about food that I have ever met. He will text me at 3 a.m. with a dish. He is full of ideas,” English says.

For more information on upcoming brunches, go to restaurantiris.com or call 590-2828.