Chaak Kitchen is the newest addition to my "Greatest Hits" series, featuring exceptional restaurants. Chaak, located in Tustin, California, is relatively new compared to previous restaurants I've featured in this series. The restaurant opened strong in 2018, and only continues to get better.
Chaak Kitchen
Chef Gabbi Patrick and her husband, Ed Patrick, are co-owners of both Chaak, and their first restaurant, Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen, which has been open for nearly 20 years. The two are no strangers to culinary success, as both of their restaurants have earned Michelin distinctions.
Chaak features food from Yucatán, a state located in southeastern Mexico. Yucatecan cuisine celebrates smoke, coupled with flavors and ingredients of Mayan origin such as corn, pumpkin seeds, chocolate, turkey, and chiles. The restaurant pays homage to Gabbi's parents who have roots in the Yucatán capital of Mérida.
Panuchos
My meal started with an appetizer of panuchos. Panuchos are fried tortillas, filled with black beans and meat. Ours were topped with chicken, avocado puree, tomatoes and pickled onions.
Empanadas
Next, we shared the empanadas, stuffed with Oaxaca cheese and epazote, a herb native to Mexico and Central America.
The cheese was warm and gooey and the corn crust was perfectly fried and dusted with maldon sea salt, for an ideal balance of sweet, creamy and salty.
Sikil P’ak
Our next appetizer was Sikil P'ak, a traditional pumpkin seed dip. Think of it as a Yucatecan, pumpkin seed hummus, blended with chilis. We scooped up this hearty dip with tortilla chips, chicharrónes and cucumber.
Camarones en Recado Negro
This dish was my favorite of the evening. It featured crispy, tiger prawns, mojo de ajo, chilmole (black mole) rice and radish salpicón.
Sugar Snap Peas
These sugar snap peas were deliciously sweet and crisp. They were served with smokey, roasted artichokes, pea tendrils and crema. I love sugar snap peas for their sweetness and crisp snap (hence the name). I often snack on them raw at home, or I quickly sauté them and then toss them in some Calabrian chili oil and fresh mint (a preparation I made for Thanksgiving that is inspired by A16, another restaurant in this "Greatest Hits" series).
In restaurants, I have experienced some very appetizing presentations of sugar snap peas as well, including the A16 dish I mentioned above, a shredded version at a restaurant in Mumbai, India, and a blistered version at a restaurant in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which I will share about in forthcoming posts. That said, this version at Chaak Kitchen, has to be my favorite snap pea dish of all time.
Pavo en Recado Negro
The next dish of the evening, the pavo en recado negro, is a speciality of the house. Recados are thick spice pastes that are central to traditional, Yucatecan cooking. This recado was used to season and marinate the turkey confit, which was served with a blackened chilmole, radish salpicón and fresh avocados.
Accompanying the dish were house made, blue corn tortillas. All the ingredients were placed in the warm tortilla to make a taco that I dotted with traditional Yucatán salsas. The component that intrigued me most, honestly ... looked like motor oil. The black, unctuous substance is a charred, habanero salsa that fills your mouth with a delicious, slow, smokey burn.
Cochinita Pibil with Au Jus and Avocado Puree
Our final entree was the conchinita pibil, which is a traditional, Yucatec Mayan, slow-roasted pork dish. Yucatán is situated in an area dense with forests, in a very hot, tropical climate. As a result, food runs the risk of spoiling quickly. In order to combat this, cooks created conchinita pibil. The process of spicing and smoking the meat, preserved it.
Conchinita pibil, originally created for very practical reasons, is now the region's most famous dish. Chaak Kitchen executed the dish extremely well. Our pork shoulder was wrapped in a banana leaf and smoked with achiote for 11 hours, over red oak, resulting in savory and sweet meat, that was exceptionally tender.
We combined the meat with guacamole, pickled onions and salsa, and placed it on top of blue corn tortillas, to create an extraordinary taco.
We were tempted to try many more items on the menu, but too full and satisfied to order anything else. On my next visit, I look forward to trying the scallop tostadas, almejas al vapor picantes (clams in broth), and salbute pato ahumado (smoked duck salbutes) among many other items. If you find yourself in or near Tustin, California, stop in at Chaak Kitchen and celebrate the flavors of Yucatán.
Pumpkin seed hummus!!!!! Chaak Kitchen who would have known? A treasure in our own neighborhood ;)