Grottaminarda, Italy. September, 1984

Agosto, capa r’virn’. Or so said my friend Nick’s grandmother in her Grottaminarda dialect every year at this time, announcing, “August is the beginning of winter.” I love this and have since the first time I heard it. Maybe because I like autumn the best of all the seasons, a time to sharpen pencils and head “back to school” or off to some foreign land once all the students are back in their classrooms and the temperature is more forgiving. One September, on my first solo trip to Italy, Nick’s Grottaminarda relatives welcomed me to their small town east of Naples, a wonderful friendly place. Here are Nick’s cousins Michele, Pupetta and Zia Letizia (whom Nick’s season-savvy grandmother with her flair for nicknames referred to as “crooked ass.”) I remember walking to the store with Pupetta to buy the fresh pasta for her ciambotella (sauté a red pepper, a green pepper, a hot pepper, a vinegar pepper.) The other dish she made that remains happily in memory is sartù, a loose sort of scrambled frittata with eggs and potatoes. Mmmm. Hearty and substantial fare, perfect for those blustery days of August.

Fonda, Brooklyn, NY. July, 2011

Mexican Food Week concludes with yet another visit to Fonda. We just can't stay away! This time, a midsummer meal of guacamole made to order (muy picante tonight, served with hand-pressed tortillas, chips and pasilla de Oaxaca salsa), ensalada de sandia, taquitos de carne asada (marinated skirt steak with onions, cilantro and chile de arbol salsa), and, my entree, a wonderful pescado de guajillo -- a pan-seared filet of red snapper over guajillo-passion fruit sauce, served with potatoes, asparagus, roasted red peppers and red onion (apologies for the inexpert and somewhat ghoulishly misleading flash photograph of this terrific dish.) Excellent company (friends Nick, Robin, and chef/owner Roberto), a terrific space (packed with discriminating locals) and, as always, superior food. No wonder it’s one of my favorite restaurants in the world and I try never to visit New York without at least one dinner here.

Arsenal Mall, Watertown, MA. May, 2011

Mexican Food Week continues with this question: A take-out taco stand in a food court within a third-rate shopping mall in a Boston suburb? That’s what I thought when my new friend Erika (a Mexico City native I met recently when we were both students in an Arabic-Syrian cooking class) told me that this place had the best carnitas tacos she’d found in New England. She added, “I know, I know...” and then assured me I would not be disappointed. I wasn’t. Trini’s Mexican Grill is a small, family-run storefront serving up tacos, burritos, quesadillas, etc. alongside some other sad vendors in this downscale mall. But Trini’s food is first-class. I decided to give it a try: tacos de carnitas and tacos al pastor, both exceptionally good. There’s a small condiments array from which you can serve yourself pico de gallo, jalapeños, guacamole, hot salsa, salsa verde and a few other selections. Three tacos (all with the same filling) $6.99. Add rice and beans for $1. Individual tacos $2.50. The people who work there (also from Mexico City) are really, really nice. And they’ll patiently practice your Spanish with you if you ask. I’ll be returning.

Little Café Poca Cosa, Tucson. March, 2011

Mexican Food Week continues with Little Café Poca Cosa. Chips and salsa. And a tall aqua fresca. Now that’s what I call a great beginning to breakfast. When Sandra asked me what I wanted to drink, I remembered the great agua fresca I’d had here a year earlier: limón con hierbabuena (key lime with peppermint.) I also remembered my less-than-successful attempts to recreate it at home. Today’s choice: Key lime with basil. Other flavors on offer this morning: mango-peach, pineapple with basil, lemon with strawberry, horchata (rice and cinnamon) and three or four others. Concocted from water (3 cups), sugar (1 cup) and either fruit (watermelon, strawberry and cantaloupe are standards; about 3 cups), seeds or grains, these non-alcoholic drinks are often sold by street vendors throughout Mexico as well as in restaurants and cafes. (I stopped at a taqueria later in the day and had a tamarind-flavored one.) A squeeze of lime, some salt, some herbal enhancement, the offerings are as inventive as the ingredients at hand and the individuals who set about combining them.

Hoboken, NJ. December, 2010

Mexican Food Week continues with some great tacos from recipes by el mejor chef mexicano Roberto Santibañez (of Fonda and Rosa Mexicano fame.) Roberto consults worldwide, offering his expertise in Mexican food of superior quality. Among the dishes he’s guided establishments in preparing: excellent tacos with an assortment of fillings (carnitas michoacan, chorizo con papas, pollo asado, pescado, camarón and more), all simply prepared from the freshest ingredients and laced with your choice of salsa (mild, medium, hot, very hot.) We recently had these tacos al pastor (adobo-marinated pork with onions, cilantro, pineapple and hot chipotle salsa. Mighty fine.) Roberto’s enviable knack is to take classics you think you may know, and then surprise you by showing how much better they can be when lovingly and skillfully prepared from only the best components. No skimping. No cutting corners. Sublime.

Fonda, Brooklyn, NY. May, 2011

Mexican Food Week continues with a return to our favorite restaurante mexicano, bar none, Fonda. And what could be better to counter the Brooklyn heat than this refreshing ensalada de sandia? Cubes of chilled watermelon, chunks of peeled and seeded cucumbers, just the right amount of slightly salty queso fresco, all laced with a lime juice-olive oil dressing, then sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and a pinch of chives. Just the thing to start us off on another wonderful dinner at Roberto Santibañez’s jewel of a restaurant in Park Slope. So simple, so satisfying. (See more of Roberto’s offerings in his new book, Truly Mexican.)

Café Poca Cosa, Tucson. April, 2010

Mexican Food Week continues with Café Poca Cosa, hands down, my favorite restaurant in Tucson. Simon and David brought me here for the first time many years ago when super-hospitable Suzana Davila was operating her upscale Mexican eatery out of its original Broadway location. Funky, colorful, loud, red. It was the first time I’d had Mexican food that wasn’t Tex-Mex, that was nuanced and sophisticated and un poco formal. I loved it. Now in its Pennington Street space, it’s a bit more stylish and chic, but just as wonderful and exciting. And, best of all, it still features the “Plato Poca Cosa,” which I have always ordered. Why? It’s the chef’s choice of three samplings from the evening’s entrees, allowing a tasting across the menu. Here, on a recent visit, I was served (clockwise from bottom) Carne Asada Adobo de Morita, Pollo Pipian Amarillo and Pastel de Elote Champiñones. artfully separated by slices of vegetables and presented with their signature mountain of salad and fruit. A bowl of beans, a bowl of rice, a basket of tortillas. All this and the evening’s charming and delightful host, Norbert, to boot. Cielo.