We’re stocking up on all our Latin favorites. But first, I want to introduce you to something new! This summer I traveled by plane, car and boat to visit friends on a tiny island off the coast of northern Maine and discovered my new favorite sauce, which happened to come all the way from Eszett… my neighborhood wine bar/restaurant on Sunset! Spencer and Sabrina Bezaire opened Eszett just before the pandemic, but are veterans of our east side food scene and had been feeding and greeting us for years. This week, you can read about how they weathered the storm, put their beautiful spot on your radar, and try some of their salsa macha, aka my new favorite sauce. It’s a spicy, nutty, smokey chili oil that's the table condiment of Veracruz. I think of it as Mexican chili crisp. Spencer features it on his grilled chicken wings at the restaurant, and I’m excited to drizzle it on some carne asada or mix it with mayo and dollop it on some grilled swordfish, but it would be great on almost everything else we’re offering this week…

Carnitas are back! We cook pork shoulders for hours, shred, and cryovac pack it so all you need to do is reheat and crisp it in a pan. You can stuff your carnitas in Tehachapi grain project’s tender Sonora flour tortillas, or all-natural corn tortillas, made fresh for us on Wednesday morning by La Gloria Foods. You could also stuff your tortillas with El Mexicano brand Oaxaca cheese for quesadillas times.

This week’s raw provisions include Peads and Barnetts’s chorizo, Wanderer Beef’s pasture-raised and barley fed skirt steaks, wild, local swordfish, and free range chicken thighs. Our classic green tomatillo salsa is great on chips or tacos, but it’s also a great sauce for braising chicken thighs.

Organic blue corn tamales are the product of a delicious collaboration between Tehachapi grain project and Chef Michelle and Company featuring Oaxacan blue dent corn masa and farmers market produce. You can steam and eat them next week or freeze them for later. They’re also delicious topped with our tomatillo salsa.

Burritos Las Palmas’s Zacatecan-style burritos are wrapped in Mejorado’s prized flour tortillas and have three different fillings to choose from: refried beans and Chihuahua cheese, shredded beef birria, or “con todos” with birria, refried beans and cheese. 

To stock your freezer and have on hand for breakfast, lunch or dinner are Delmy’s classic bean and cheese pupusas with accompanying salsa and curtido (cabbage slaw). They’re also great with a drizzle of El Salvadorean crema, which we are selling as well. 

We’re making tortilla soup, which will be delicious and vegan as is, but it’s also a great base for you to take in your own direction. The last time we had this, I gently cooked large pieces of halibut and whole shrimp (perhaps you have a frozen seafood stash) in the soup for a quick seafood stew. You could of course add chicken to it. But this week, I think I’ll add some of the last of the season corn on the cob and zucchini and then garnish it with fresh lime, cilantro, avocado, shredded cabbage, and a dollop of crema and drizzle of salsa macha. (All of those vegetables will be in the produce box.) And I’ll need some tortilla chips to go with it, so we are getting some “esquisitos chips” from La California, the closest tortilleria we could find. 

We’re also selling Two Peas in a Pod’s fresh coco shelling beans. These black beauties cook quickly and would make a great addition to the tortilla soup, a corn and tomato salad or fresh variation on the usual rice and beans. 

For something sweet, we have jars of Sam’s favorite dulce de leche from San Ignacio of Argentina. Tis the season to dip apples in luscious caramel, but you could also spread it on bread, drizzle it on your ice cream, bake with it or eat it by the spoonful. 

And Mel is also making another batch of healthier horchata. This classic drink made with blended rice, oat milk, cinnamon, dates and agave will be reminiscent of the taco stand treat, but free of refined sugars and dairy. We also have new juices this week. In addition to fresh squeezed orange juice, there's pomegranate-orange and limeade from Schaner Farms.