The evening was a fateful one for me as it drastically changed the way I've gone about dining. I went in to the restaurant with the knowledge that El Señorial was famous for a few dishes, most notably their parrilladas. A combination of arrogance, entitlement and idiocy persuaded me to ignore the advice of my hedonistic brethren and go with the strategy I always implemented as a first time diner in an establishment: go with the fundamentals. To be fair, I only went with what I perceived to be the fundamentals, forgetting entirely that perhaps, just maybe, this deeply authentic Mexican restaurant, who's clientele are primarily Mexican people, doesn't give a shit about what I qualify as a "fundamental" Mexican food experience.
The result of my sloppy ordering was a forgettable and poorly prepared taco plate, replete with cold beans and rice. I left in a whiny huff, convinced that all of my friends had either pulled some elaborate prank on me despite not knowing one another, or that they didn't know a damn thing about food. There's that arrogance I mentioned again. After writing some jejune status update detailing my disdain, I got quite the lashing from several of my friends informing me that it wasn't the restaurant that had fucked up, it was me. I took a step back and considered my actions, which led to the dismissal of my faulty and misinformed "fundamentals" policy. I could have very easily reeled in to some existentialist crisis where I chronicled and criticized my ordering process for every meal I've ever had. Now that I'm married and have found content in the realm of romance, food has become my pursuit of choice when I want to instill my life with excitement. Could El Señorial be the one who got away? It came very close to that, but luckily fate intervened.
I was getting off of work a couple Saturdays ago when some married friends of mine contacted me asking if I wanted to stop by (the magnificent) Red Light Ramen for dinner. Usually i'd emphatically leap at the opportunity to get some midnight ramen, but there were a lot of things in the way this time. First: I had already gotten ramen in two consecutive weeks, Second: I had just gotten off a shift that had kicked my ass and I wasn't sure I could endure waiting in a line for dinner, but the big one is that I had already said the words "Mexican food" to my wife, so anything else may as well be "poisoned garbage" as far as our options were concerned. We bounced around a few more ideas before I almost unconsciously uttered the words "El Señorial", and just like that, our destination was set.
The husband in tow was one of the ones who more sternly criticized my initial ordering behavior, so with that and his enviable dining repertoire in mind I did the unthinkable... I handed over the helm of my dinner to my friends for the evening. We started with the requisite free chips and beers. I hate the idea of patronizing anyone who reads this with the details of ordering a generic Mexican beer, but the fact that they came with humongous frosted mugs with salted rims feels worth mentioning. We ordered a few other things that feel ornamental in comparison to our main dish; an incredible side of arbol sauce that I can say without hesitation was the best of my young life, and about a fifteen pound plate of chilaquiles which were sort of ordered "just because", but then we got down to the real deal, the reason for our whole journey, the pièce de résistance: the parrilladas.
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| Objective, indisputable excellence. |
From the little I've been able to ascertain from the internet, parrillada has several different incarnations. The one placed before us was a truly majestic heap of ribs, flank steak and chorizo, along with peppers, onion and potatoes cut lengthwise. Imagine some sort of evolved and nearly holy version of fajitas and that's what this was. I don't mean to use the word holy to come off as lofty or to be disrespectful either. What I mean to say is that what I ate at El Señorial at 1:30 in the morning a few Sundays ago was so close to perfection for that moment that it gave me pause and made me lament my mortality. To know that there are a finite amount of moments in anyone's life like the one I was having saddened me, but also inspired me in to a state of very real gratitude. I was thankful for what I was consuming, who I was with, and the reminder that being humbled can lead to great things. Usually if I'm awake at 1:30 in the morning I'm busy destroying memories instead of creating them, but that dinner was unforgettable.
Our ride home was filled with a wonderful delirium. Incidentally the last time I'd experienced anything like it was around the eleventh course of my dinner at Alinea. Stuffed with food and starved for sleep we parted ways. My wife and I made our way home. My wife and I attempted our nightly routine of nostalgic television and a beer, but I was no match for the sheer amount of mixed meats crushing my system. I fell asleep on the couch, beer in hand, so grateful to have been so wrong.
El Señorial
1901 S 31st St, Milwaukee, WI 53215
(414) 385-9506
Make it happen.
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ReplyDeleteاسعار خدمات توكيل كاريير يمكنك شراء احدث الانواع من الاجهزه الكهربائية المنزلية مع ضمان من صيانة كاريير التي تعمل علي خدمة اكبر عدد مكن من العملاء في اي وقت واي مكان فور التواصل مع رقم صيانة كاريير لطلب خدمات الصيانة .
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