EAT This Week: Azul Latin Kitchen’s Carnitas Bowl
To try and decide each week where and what to eat around the basin can be a challenge — there are so many amazing choices. In this feature we’ll dive into dishes that will surely satisfy those hunger pangs and leave you wondering where to go next.
Any time someone tells me that a dish has been on the menu since the place opened, it always has to be a consideration for ordering. It has to be tasty, right? Why else would it still be on the menu unless people have flocked to it year in and year out? This week’s dish is one of those. Since 2014, this O.G. menu item has been dialing up people’s taste buds in amazing fashion.
The portion size would feed a mama bear and her cubs, so plan your eating accordingly. The bowl consists of carnitas pork (or seasoned sweet potato, if you like), mint green rice, black beans, house made guacamole, a slow cooked egg, spicy harissa, pickled peppers, and cilantro. The kitchen sink was left out because it doesn’t pack enough flavor — which is another way to say there are a lot of things happening in this dish.
Anytime there’s an egg, the first thing I’m doing is breaking the yolk to let that richness start penetrating the rest of the ingredients — no different here. The egg enhances some of the items while helping others to dial back, creating a great balance throughout.
The pork is smoky and moist with pockets of char — just as you want your carnitas to be. The rice adds a touch of coolness, which offsets the sweet spice from the red chiles in the harissa. The sweety drop Peruvian peppers also give little bursts of sweet and sour helping to round round out to the perfect amount of bite you’re looking for in a dish like this.
No flavor seems left untouched which makes a dish like this a great option no matter what time of year it is. You can pick and choose each bite and like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get, or if the next bite will be even better.
Azul Latin Kitchen is located at 1001 Heavenly Village Way in South Lake Tahoe. For food and drink information visit them online at azullatinkitchen.com or reach them by phone at 530-541-2985.
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