by Ken Tsui | On a rainy afternoon before service at Chinatown’s Mamie Taylor’s, Chef Tobias Gringon has the perfect cure for the dreary weather. For staff meal tonight, he’s making a restorative pot of pozole.
It’s a comforting bowl of Mexican stew chock-full of hominy corn, spices, and a load of fresh garnishes swimming in a chicken/pork broth. Today, Grignon is making the down home version of the dish. He lets it simmer gently all day as he prepares for service. As the staff arrive, he dishes out steaming ladles of the stew and tops them with radishes, lettuce, avocado, cilantro, squeezes of lime, and a heap of crispy tortilla strips.
As the crew eats, they pine for and reminisce about when pozole was a regular feature on the menu. And who could blame them? It’s the perfect cure for the winter blahs, and provides plenty of energy for the busy night to come.