Lengua Madre was such a great experience! If you want to visit, you have only a few weeks. Chef Ana Castro is opening a new spot, off Saint Claude Avenue, called Acamaya (Spanish for “crawfish”). One major difference, which is why you need to visit Lengua Madre pronto, is that there will be no tasting menus. Or will there? IDK don’t quote me. Pretty sure that’s what I remember her telling us at the Dillard University Ray Charles event though, where 9-year-old Franklin became one of her biggest little fans. Back to Lengua Madre: one of my best dining experiences ever. It’s so fun to have places like this here in New Orleans (my native and ancestral land, OK, so I’m allowed to grow disillusioned with the typical dining experiences here).
I’d been dying to visit Lengua Madre, ever since Rémy Robert of Foxglove Communications confirmed that it’s Mexican-owned. (Chances are, if you invite me to buy “ethnic” food from a person outside the culture, I won’t. Because why, when I live in dingdang New Orleans a whole multi-ethnic port city?! No, I don’t care that you went somewhere on a trip and “fell in love with the culture.” Go back and visit then. Cook it for pleasure in your home then.) Then I got to interview Chef Ana Castro for Bon Appetit, in PRINT, and wow wow wow she’s just so lovely and fun and real. Then after her pozole cooking demo at Dillard, Franklin became so enamored. And me too! Ana says she’s not a teacher, but she really had her field trip hat on that day. We learned so much about Mexican food and even about government and the food supply.
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Dining at Lengua Madre
Booking with Resy, I was able to pick seating at the bar which is essentially a chef’s table. We were the first ones there, so we weren’t able to look at other guests’ tables to see what each next dish would be. And that was very cool! The element of surprise was one of the highlights for us! Speaking of surprise, the menu isn’t printed either. Which, again, we loved and adds to the experience. You’re talking to real people telling you right then about the dish — a dish that likely wasn’t there recently and won’t be coming back soon! So it’s different than when you get the little printed menus before other multi-course dinners, and it’s different than when you dine out and the server is clearly just reciting info through rote memorization.
Lengua Madre Food
When Chef Ana spoke at Dillard, she mentioned that she hates the word “authentic” and the box that it creates. Some people say Tex-Mex isn’t authentic Mexican, and Chef Ana refutes that by saying it’s, in fact, some of the most authentic. Because Mexican people who moved to Texas (and Arizona, New Mexico, etc.) still made their ancestral foods using ingredients that were affordable and available. She said her grandmother even uses canned hominy for her pozole, which is just easier and tastes essentially the same. This talk definitely shaped my cooking in following weeks, as I was able to just buy prechopped seasoning instead of picking over the shriveled and limp bell peppers at the grocery.
The star of most of the dishes at Lengua Madre, on the night we dined and I’m assuming at most of the dinners, was house ground masa. We had it in the crab and squid tostada, beef tongue and mustard taco, potato and … I can’t recall sope, pre-dessert palate cleanser, and maybe even in the little cake thingies that went with the coffee. Seeing that one humble but essential ingredient become so many different things was mind-blowing. Everything was just, to quote Chef Ana from one of the outtakes in our Bon Appetit article, “fucking fantastic.”
“If she fine, if shawty is a dime you should tip her, you should tip her.”- Radio Killa, The Dream
Lengua Madre Drinks
Perfect! You go to some places and the drinks just ain’t right. Too sweet, too strong, low-quality booze. I had the Padre mezcal paloma and the Madre margarita. I chose mezcal with the Madre, but I’m a silly goose because it’s not tequila that makes me dislike margaritas: it’s disgusting ass cheap ass sour mix. Of course all the mixers are fresh at Lengua Madre, so I would never have that problem. Just gotta go back, I guess! Blame my error on the Padre paloma I had prior. You can also tell the garnishes are made fresh, which is hella important. Oh and I had the sal de gusano! That’s right: WORM SALT. If that’s how worms taste, I dig it. Franklin liked the salt too. (Of course, he didn’t have any of the drink.) Also Michael, our main server (he likely has a really special title and I’m sorry I didn’t ask him), made Franklin a special limeade.
Ambience
Perfectly dim lighting overall, but with fun hot pink lighting in the bathrooms and foyer and slightly brighter lighting over the actual tables and bar. Franklin said a few of the songs were scoring high on his “vibe-o-meter,” and I liked that the music was loud enough to hear but not so loud that it was distracting or impossible to talk. Gorgeous dishes, lamps (a terracotta sort of thing, but I’m assuming it’s something even cooler) and wrought iron barstools with purple velvet seats. Obviously clean. Everyone just enjoying the food and drinks, nothing raucous. If your kids are good and not entitled assholes with tablets and annoying toys, definitely visit.
