Best soups in town.

Genoma has been around for about 6 years now. However I didn't ever visit it until last year when chef Guillermo Gonzalez had me over for lunch. That time I had my first taste of the Genoma soups: Mex/Thai mussels.

Simply put, it was just mussels and their cooking juices. Those juices however, were delicious. The chefs at Genoma nailed a nice combo mixing mexican chilies with coconut milk. It was the priciest soup on their menu (which can be understood, because of the mussels) but it was definitely worth it. If my wife wasn't allergic to coconut, I would've had it more often. Alas, it's off the menu now.

Another "regular" is their Roast tomato soup with fried feta and pesto. Sure, it's a simple soup, but it's the best tomato soup in this town. Hands down. This has become my wife's favorite soup and she will have it every time we're there.

Genoma also features an onion soup dubbed: Three Onion soup. I haven't had a taste of this one since... well it's soupe a l'oignon. I'll just give you the description: Red, White and Green onion soup with gruyere and baguette.

Recently (I think) Genoma has added a prix-fixe menu that's an excellent value with very good meal choices. It's from that menu that I've had my most recent soup choices, and they've been all so good

First up, Curried Mussel Cream with fried mussels, and apple. I think this is my favorite version of a dish including mussels and curry. It used to be a regular combination in our residence hall repertoire at IPB, but Genoma's soup was much more delicate and elegant. So much I should probably be ashamed at not coming up with something.

Finally, the most recent addition to the Genoma Repertoire: Tortilla Soup. The mexican classic is most often found in it's original state. I had seen a spin off this in a Regional restaurant in Saltillo that while good, it wasn't great. Genoma's doesn't try to distance itself from the original so much but manages to to leave an impression. It consists of a richer, thicker soup that's a far cry from the usual broth. The soup however is much tastier. As for the accoutrements, they're the classic tortilla chips. This time, they're multicolored and cut in a julienne that makes it also much easier to eat.

If you're ever around, stop by Genoma, even if it's just for the soup.

On an unrelated note: Go Foie Gras! Kudos to Chicago!

La Leche

After so long of this restaurant lingering in my head, we finally made our way to La Leche. Created by Chef Alfonso Cadena, La Leche revolves around a funky-sounding concept coined by Cadena himself: Kocinaperitivo (It's even registered).

As far as I could grasp, Kocinaperitivo is not quite a cuisine philosophy as much as a service and drinking concept. The restaurant has a theme drink for the day and food's supposed to be paired with it, also food's served in the center of the table for sharing while quafing the bar's concoctions.

We arrived to La Leche at our scheduled reservation time, and found the place totally empty. Being an entirely white locale, it looked even emptier, despite the five or six persons staffing it. Service was friendly and attentive (at least until some other clients, known to our waitress showed up). She explained to us that the spirit of the day was Gin and they had four cocktails classified according to the moment we were supposed to drink them.

First up was the "Before" cocktail, a mixture of grape juice, lemon, gin and curacao. The "during" one was cranberry, lemon and gin. For an "After" drink they carried a Kahlua, coconut and gin mix and finally, for the "Party" they announced the "martini" of cucumber, gin and dark creme de cacao. We only had the first two, I found the first one a bit too sweet and tangy. I couldn't find a hint of the gin. Next up the "During" was a bit more balanced, but still on the sweet side. Not a bad drink but not quite something I would've paired with the meal.

For starters we had "Capri Roll" and Ravioli in Meat Jus. Capri roll was poorly treated goat cheese smothered in pesto. It was dry and crumbly but tasted fine. The ravioli were filled with chicken mousse and brie and came swimming in a dark meat broth. The mousse was tough and chewy and the brie was MIA. The broth was a bit too salty but overall, the dish had a decent taste to it.

Our mains were Salmon in Fava Cream and Chipotle Duck. The server asked me how I wanted the salmon "From seared rare to well done", I wanted it medium. The duck, medium as well. The salmon came bordering on well done, it was well seasoned and the fava cream was excellent. The duck came spot on as far as the temperature and the chipotle syrup was also excellent.

My grudge as far as the mains, relates to the garnishes and plating. The garnishes were pretty much the same for both dishes: roughly mashed potato and vegetable julienne. They came slightly warm instead of piping hot, for one of the "Nicest restaurants in Mexico", they were lacking. As for the plating, I feel that the plating didn't embrace the idea that this is food meant to be shared. The duck had to be awkwardly sliced by us and the mash was so "rustic" that it was impossible to get a decently sized bite from it without spending a lifetime fiddling with it.

For dessert we opted not to have drinks. My wife had lemonade and I asked for sparking water. They were out of Perrier, which was good, because I'm not too huge on it. They were also out of Pellegrino. They left me with only Topo Chico, and not the nice, new, table version. So no, thanks. Again, the hyped place fell short.

Choices for dessert were utterly lacking creativity: Creme Brulee, Brownie and Chocolate Mousse. Our server told us the mousse was extremely rich in flavor. So we had it along with the creme brulee. Again, I was disappointed. The Creme brulee had a perfect caramel shell on top, a nice taste but an awful texture. It was so overcooked it resembled scrambled eggs. The mouse was so rich in flavor it was sinful. Also a sin was its texture, it was a hard, grainy, block of chocolate.

In the end, it was a good dinner for this town, the price was fair, except for the extremely poor craftmanship on the desserts. I've paid more for creme brulee, ($12 bucks at a Ritz Carlton), but theirs was flawless while this eight buck one, should've at least had a better texture, or a hint of real vanilla bean.

Maybe I'd come back to this place, maybe I won't. It's definitely not ranking up among my town favorites.

Adrián Herrera

I met Chef Adrián Herrera over a Christmas dinner last year. He runs a small place here in Monterrey that could practically be called a Joint (because of the physical space, not the food). Tucked in the downtown area of San Pedro, the Fonda San Francisco is undoubtedly one of the restaurant jewels of the city.

Adrián has dedicated part of his life to researching about Mexican food. He's gathered a wealth of recipes from the diferent regions of the country. When creating plates for the Fonda, he'll usually take the original recipe then give it a twist. A fine example would be his Smoked corn soup. It's basically, as the name suggests smoked corn broth into which cured cacahuazintle corn is added for garnish. The result is a surprising flavor that still manages to be familiar.

The rest of his dishes complete the range for appetizers, antojitos, and main courses. As an added bonus, he features a weekly menu to keep things fresh.

Something else that sets Chef Herrera apart from others in the city, is according to his own words: "I don't only sell food, I sell stories". Adrián is frequently seen in the dining room entertaining his patrons. A word of caution though, sometimes his stories might be a bit far from the truth, but incredibly fun nonetheless.

If you're ever in town, don't miss the Fonda de San Francisco. Or in case someone looking for a talented Mexican cuisine specialist is reading: Invest in this guy!