I’ve been pretty feeling pretty enfermizo the past week, with my worst fear of a mild bout of la gripe attacking while still in procurement of this damn tracheotomy. Believe me—it makes everything from aches and coughing to stuffy head and fever just about a few notches worse than I had honestly expected.
In desperate need of some sort of life-giving sopa, I remembered that a newish Mexican restaurant opened not too far from me, Rosario Cantina Mexican Grill, 2815A NW 10th. Pushing aside the Vicks VapoRub, empty bottles of 7-Up and so many Saint Jude novenas, I mustered up whatever ganas I had left and headed to the small joint, located next to that nevería that I like quite a bit.
With that new restaurant smell still in the air—at least what I could smell of it—I put in an order for a mucho grande bowl of Tortilla Soup ($4.99). A very underrated sopa, I think people tend not to order it because so many fast food joints—I can think of one in Bricktown right off the top of my head—tend to make more of a greasy mess of it, delivering to your table something more of an oil slick than an edible bowl of puro tradición.
Like so much Mexican food, anyone can make, but not everyone should make it.
Openly advertised on their menu as a simple tomato juice cocktail served enfriado with plenty of shrimp, avocado and pico de gallo, I felt pretty escandalizado when my order came to the table and instead I received a muy caliente bowl of chopped carrots, zucchini and squash with chunks of chicken hanging out—I’m pretty sure I had probably gotten the far more expensive Caldo de Pollo instead.
Still, I was given a serviceable handful of tortilla strips so, hey, I ain’t gonna argue.
This form of tortilla soup, official or not, is especially provechoso when you feel like Satan is pulling your cojones up from your mouth; to be fair, in retrospect, I really don’t think I could have handled cold soup and large shrimp anyhow. This was the healing hug from Heaven that I had been looking for the past couple of down days, each sip slowly replenishing my lost energía y vigor.
Sure, Rosario has plenty of appetizing eats on the menu—the Bistec Ranchera and Costilla de Puerco were two P.Y.T.s that immediately made my lista de deseos—but for now, this here Tortilla Soup is all the cure I need. Well, this and the Vicks VapoRub. Cómpralo ya!
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Follow Louis on Twitter at @LouisFowler and Instagram at @louisfowler78.
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