8 | BOROMAG.COM | AUGUST 2013 FOOD Family-Inspired Mexican at Casa Enrique Story + photos bradley hawks “My brother is serving the food we cooked at home growing up,” Luis Aguilar says of his brother Cosme, who began handstuffing chorizo and butchering meat at the age of seven. Luis and Cosme, who worked for over a decade at Café Henri— with locations in Manhattan and Long Island City—are now the General Manager and Executive Chef, respectively, at Casa Enrique, which opened last year in Long Island City under the same ownership. While the chef (and younger brother) serves many dishes from Chiapas where he was born, the menu reads as less of a regional tribute and more of a family history, as they moved several times throughout Mexico. The space, formerly a satellite kitchen for Café Henri—the restaurant’s French older sister just down the street—is now whitewashed like a blank canvas, with a communal table up front, and cozier, intimate seating at smaller tables in the back room. Servers are attentive, and eloquently describe the menu and cooking procedures in multiple languages. Unique cocktails and homemade soft drinks form a beverage menu to be enjoyed while dining, or simply snacking chips and guacamole at the bar. A mojito with muddled cucumber adds subtle sweetness, and the horchata—rich with vanilla and cinnamon—tastes like Christmas in a glass. The menu boasts a single salad, and for good reason. The Ensalada de Betabel con Jicama is unlike any I have enjoyed. Like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, slender sticks of golden and crimson beets and white jicama zigzag in a climbing haystack, with two triangles of salty queso fresco, all doused with a fresh mint-speckled lemon vinaigrette. Crunchy, tangy, creamy, cold and refreshing, it is one of the most simple and all around enjoyable summertime salads. Though ceviche presents itself in several forms, the Tostadas de Jaiba remain one dish I have had to order every single time I visit—they are that good. A long platter arrives with three seafood sombreros. Crispy tostadas are capped with mounds of lump crabmeat jeweled with citrus-kissed avocado, chiles, tomato and cilantro. Hand-stuffed chorizo is then crumbled onto mini tortillas with a surprising complexity of tenderness and sweetness and gentle blend of spices requiring nothing more than the light sprinkling of cilantro. A lamb shank draped in a huaxamole of dried peppers, apazote, and huajes falls from the bone at a mere prodding—a most exquisite presentation of mutton. Weekday service is dinner only, and weekend brunch adds several egg-centric menu items. And you absolutely must save room for dessert. The pot de crème is like chocolate-almond velvet, but the tres leches cake puts to profound shame every other rendition I have ever tried. Casa Enrique 5-48 49th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101 (718) 448-6040
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