Today hasn’t always looked tasted this good. Earlier today Big D got some bad news about the funky transmission in his ’95 4Runner. It was fried and as it turns out, the transfer case is built in to the transmission. This means it has to be rebuilt/replaced as well. All told it’ll take about 25 hours in the shop and will cost upwards of 6 grand. Big D quickly turned to Sad and Depressed D. But wait, it gets worse. I decided to cheer the guy up by coming by and taking him to lunch. Sounds easy enough, right? Nope. Travinos was closed, who knows why. Not only was the news about the tranny depressing, but our lunch plans were flying right out the window. We decided to head down San Pablo Avenue to see if anything piqued our interest, Mc Donalds? No. Church’s Chicken? No sir. Our next place would have been Wienerschnitzel, I detoured and headed to the Barrio. Enough was enough, we needed something rich & satisfying. We found it! Portumex Family Restaurant on 23rd Avenue in Richmond. YEAH !!!
Portumex is no secret in this area. I’ve heard good things about it for years. Even driven past it numerous times. Our souls needed healing today, so it seemed like an excellent time to carve a path down to 23rd Avenue. We arrived just before noon (really fricken’ busy) and found our place in line to order. The menu is right along the wall there so you have plenty of time to pick out what you want. They have tons of stuff, all the normal fine Mexican faire you are used to and nifty others. Some which made my lips all trembly, such as the Pozole (pork soup with vegetables & hominy). One of the more interesting ones caught my eye, Camarones A La Diabla (Shrimp in a hot & spicy sauce) or the Camarones Al Mojo Deajo (Shrimp in a garlic & butter sauce). Must be good for 12 bux.
Hang on … (wife on phone). Cripes, she and the kids are off on a local freeway offramp with a blown front tire. Everyone’s alright, just rattled. I’ll be back in a bit, gotta rescue!
Meathenge’s Automotive Tip for March 2005:
Uh, ya know. You may want to go check on your spare tire, jack & accessories. Make sure the spare is sevicable (will work) and has enough air. Double check to make sure your jack is the correct one for the car and has the handle & lug nut wrench. Cause brother or sister, having what you need when you need it makes a bad situation in to an easy 10 minute job. Whereas you could spend the rest of the afternoon dealing with it. This time everything was there and the family got home in fine style!
Back to lunch …
The line went really quickly, even got a nice place to sit down. There are about 3 places to eat. Outside in front, outside under a nice awning on the north side or in the main dining area. Oh wait, you can even sit at a little table behind the main entrance. That didn’t look nice at all. Everyone coming and going staring at you, ick. Big D and I sat right down and in about 2 minutes we got our chips & drinks. YEAH !!! They make their own tortilla chips, score. Plus you get two bright and happy salsas, the red and the green. Red had bright organo flavor and the green had something I couldn’t quite grasp, yum. I poured my Mexican orange soda and was about to engage in conversation. Nope, our lunch arrived. Not bad for a place full of customers.
Here we find the Chile Verde Lunch Plate. You can get a dinner plate or the lunch plate, I’m glad I opted for the lunch portion.
The pork was lean and could smoosh with fork. Green chile sauce was bright, semi-rich. Rice had been fried in oil a bit, nutty flavor. Refried beans creamy and nice. About 4 hot corn tortillas come with. Big D reported the same happiness from his Chile Colorado Lunch Plate. Both of us had the same comment though, not real spicy and low on the sodium content. I suppose this could be a good thing.
After I got back I noticed on their paper menu I snagged they only use 100% vegetable oil for cooking. Again, I suppose this could be a good thing.
To sum it all up, Portumex is a fine restaurant with good food and lightening service. I didn’t see anything off-the-shelf-crazy that we just had to have. Plus I felt the lack of quality lard left the beans & rice a little lackadaisical. Even so, we’ll definately be returning.
Senior Biggles
Thanks for rescuing us!!!
No lard and you’re still ok?
Hmmmm… Must be getting soft in your old age.
Yeah well, both Big D and I noticed something missing. Very well done meal, but missing the lard. Missing the lard, you’re missing the meal. It seems to be the way though, lard is something people used years ago. Not now. Now you have to be Heart Healthy. It ain’t right and I don’t like it.
Senior Biggles
I’m still on the hunt for good Mexican restaurants in foreign lands just because I know they’re not out there. Tilting at burrito windmills.
I had nachos yesterday in Christchurch. I couldn’t figure out if they were worse than the nachos I had in Rockhampton, Australia. The Aussie ones came with marinara sauce.
The Christchurch ones had actual salsa, of the generic jar variety. Served on flavored chips with lousy cheese. Put a couple of White Kraft Cheese Singles on generic Doritos with a finger bowl of mild El Paso next to it and pretend it’s New Zealand Day.
If I find a place with edible nachos, then I’ll move up on the menu to the burrito world.
lard is probably actually better for you than veg oil. apparently the veg oils often are rancid but processed to deodorize, and/or they have too much omega6 which gets in the way of all the nice omega3 your brain wants. this is what i read anyway, and i like it because it means i can cook with lard now and again as needed with no guilt whatsoever. yum.
Yeah man! Lard rocks! See if you can find some fresh stuff though, not that Armour stuff in the grocery stores. Better for you than butter, this I know. Just can’t remember the ratios of what’s what when you compare them.
Lard is necessary.
Though all saturated fats should be restricted, LARD has gotten a bad press. It’s actually less saturated than butter and, unlike fully hydrogenated vegetable shortening, can withstand heat better without converting to unhealthy trans fats, of which it has NONe. We just rediscovered it, in lieu of the more expensive and super-saturated coconut butter, for making popcorn in our new paraGON professional theatre-style popcorn machine. These machines operate at a consistently high temperature and burn just about everything BUT.
Man..Do I love me some Portumex!!But you missed on the best dishes bro!!Should of had a shrimp cocktail with a tostada de ceviche and a corona and lime aaaaawwwe maaan!!Or try the Carnitas or the Fajitas plates they freaking rock!!!!The steak ranchero and chiles rellenos are the bomb too!!Staff is friendly especially they’re wild cook cuco!!Highly recommended
I was looking for Portumex and now thanks to Biggles I have found it. I’ll try it soon. I looked up some of Biggles posts on Chowhound. I think rworange should have her keyboard amputated. I learned pretty soon after I moved to El Cerrito that her recommendations are absolutely worthless. She has no palate at all.
Hey Curmudgeon,
Now now, food can change and as with any reviewer and eater, tastes vary.
That being said, I think you’ll find much nice faire at Pepito’s down the street. Make darned sure you at least check out the garden down and to the left. It’s like being teleported to another place & time. I’d return there, but not to portumex.
xo
I am so amazed with the service of Portumex. The food is very good. I like their taco’s, burrito’s. I think the owner put a lot of love into serving his customers. I moved out of the area, and have’nt visit Portumex in a while.The next time I’m in Richmond I will surely go to Portumex. I really miss the food. Thank you Portumex for your good service.