Max Sanchez: chef

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Wednesday, December 17, 2025

September calls for a chile!

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

September is an important month in Mexico because it’s when Mexican Independence is celebrated, and while this happens only on September 16th, the whole month is full of typical food and dishes available only in this period. For example the famous “Chile en Nogada”.

What is a chile en nogada?

Yeah… it’s no secret that we, Mexican love chiles, and this one is amazing.

It basically is a poblano chile stuffed with picadillo topped with a walnut-based creamy sauce called nogada (hence the name) and pomegranate seeds.

What is picadillo? Another Spanish word for another dish, made of shredded meat, aromatics, fruits and spices.

All this together make up the perfect chile en nogada.

This is in general words what it is, you can always search for a recipe online to see what exactly has, and maybe try to prepare one.

Or… you can search for a place that prepares chiles en nogada just like I did this weekend.

The Place

Searching online we found this place called “Casa Tijuana Project” near Tijuana’s soccer stadium.

It is a small place, which feels more like a home because of how small it is and the cozy decoration.

I liked how every table was different from one another.

The menu is not too big. It is actually simple, but creative and from what I read, it keeps changing through the seasons.

This time we were seated on the newly renovated second floor.

The Dish

Obviously, I had chile en nogada as the main dish, but before I get to that, I first got a soup I’ve been craving for a while.

I ordered a Mexican noodle soup or sopa de fideos in Spanish.

This is also a classic Mexican dish and every Abuela knows how to make it. It’s just the pasta in a tomato and chipotle broth, and this version also had northern potatoes and a piece of dry meat.

It did not disappoint me.

And the star of the evening:

Like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, this recipe is not hard, but it’s tricky due to the ingredients for the picadillo inside the chile, and those to make the sauce.

It also takes skill to prepare the inside of the chile so it is not spicy.

I can confidently say this Chile was perfect. It wasn't spicy at all, the stuffing had the right ingredients, the sauce on top was sweet and not too liquid. And the best, the size was more than perfect, in fact, it was bigger than expected.

While I arrived at this place because I was searching specifically for a chile en nogada, my experience was great and delicious that it left me wanting to come back and try something else, because sadly the chile en nogada was a season special dish and last Sunday was the last day available in the menu for this year.

But the rest of the menu certainly looks amazing…

Fun fact: this dish is tied to the independence of Mexico since it is said they were prepared for the first time to entertain the future emperor Agustín de Iturbide when he arrived to Puebla after the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba.

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burger

All aboard!!

Monday, August 09, 2021

I had to make a quick stop at Mexico City and Instagram knew exactly where to send me. Well, it didn’t exactly show me, but it showed my girl and she knows those things that make me easily excited.

By now you should know I love food, and I hope this is the same reason why you read me. But sometimes the place is as exciting as the food served in that place. This time I was more excited for the place than the food, but it was equally delicious.

The place

Located inside “Parque Interlomas” in State of Mexico, we have “Train Bistro”, and as you may imagine from the name, the theme is all about trains!

According to the webpage description, it has the looks of a train station from Europe in the 40s. The whole thing feels as if you were inside a train station, the seats resemble train station benches, some tables made out of luggage. But this isn’t the best part.

What makes this restaurant so cool, and unique in the whole American continent is that it has several computer-controlled trains that go from the kitchen, stretch throughout the whole restaurant, there are five bridges, and the tracks end at each table. Yes, the trains deliver the food.

With that single sentence I was sold and I had the urge to go.

How it works?

There are still waiters in the place, but they will take your order, occasionally ask how everything’s going, and bring those things that a train can’t deliver. Other than that, once you choose what you want to drink and your meal, it’s only a matter of waiting for the train to arrive. It automatically stops at your table, and once everybody takes their dish/drink, it slowly backs up and returns to the kitchen.

What about the food?

The restaurant defines the style as casual gourmet, which basically means: the food you can find in any other regular restaurant, just presented nicely.
For example, for breakfasts, it offers the classics: fruits bowls, pancakes, chilaquiles, enchiladas, bagels, and eggs. For entries, potatoes in different forms, soups and creams, and salads. For the main dish, they have pizzas, sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs.

So, nothing extraordinary or something you may not expect, but still, it’s nicely presented, it has great flavour and feels fresh… and come on, it arrives on a train!

You can check the full menu on their webpage.

What did I have?

This visit we had the “Cubos Mikado” to start, which are a mix of breaded cheeses chipotle mayo and carrots. And as the main dish, I ordered a pulled pork sandwich. And for dessert, a cinnamon roll which comes with red fruits and a chocolate bunny.

Again, nothing too fancy, but it was tasty and fresh. The meat in my sandwich was soft as you might expect from pulled pork.

This place is not really for trying something different, it’s about having a nice experience. I loved the theme and was fascinated by the trains running across the whole place carrying drinks and food, so if you have kids they’ll love this place 100%.

And of course, you can buy train sets before you leave.

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bar

Round piece of heaven

Sunday, July 19, 2020

chef

Fries? Yeah! Buddha fries

Sunday, May 31, 2020

challenge

Rajitas against boredom!

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Sorry for being away for so long, but as you know, these are strange times.

On the one hand, all restaurants here in San Diego remain with heavy restrictions, and not all offer delivery. Actually, one of my favourite restaurants is entirely closed, no takeout nor delivery. On the other hand, I’m still working at my office; due to the nature of my work, I could not do home-office. Well… the celestial court decided against it, but I’m not going into that discussion. Worry not, I’m taking my precautions, and after work, I head directly to home.

Therefore, I’ve had few chances to continue writing. I haven’t tried new restaurants, or I order my favourites from my regular restaurants, and the point of this blog is to explore new places and dishes, and at this moment it’s kinda tricky.

I also don’t have enough time to cook elaborate stuff. For my lunch, I usually do quick and easy stuff. Sometimes I even cheat a little and buy pre-cooked food ready to just heat.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy cooking. This is why this weekend I set myself the mission to prepare something good.

What you will need

I’ve been craving some rajas con queso for a while, so, why not do them myself? They’re delicious and easy to prepare. And yeah, it's a Mexican dish.

Just a side note before I continue: I’m working with what I currently have. If you search for other recipes or pics, you’ll see them differently. Still, while I know the recipe I used today is not perfect and definitely not the classic one, it distracted me for a while, and it was delicious.

That being said, the essential ingredients are:

Chile Poblano
Onion
Garlic
Cheese
Cream
Corn

Chilito poblano 👌

That’s it! Nothing too hard to find. Unfortunately, I do not have corn or cream, but it’s still a pretty tasty dish.

Hands-on!

The first step is to roast the chiles. Make sure not to overburn them, but the whole surface needs to be well roasted.

The next step is crucial: Once they’re entirely roasted wrap them in a towel and put them inside a closed plastic bag for at least 10 minutes. This is for the chiles to “sweat”, and it will then be easier to peel the outer skin.

Note: Sure, you can make the rajas without peeling them, a coworker of mine does it like this, but trust me, peeling them make them way better.

After roughly 10 minutes, you can take them out of the bag and peel them completely.

Once ready, it’s moment to cut them into rajas! “Rajas” translates to slices (that’s why it’s rajas con queso, it literally means slices [of chile] with cheese). In this step, you should also cut the onion in smaller slices. Again, in my case, I don’t have fresh onions, so I had to use dehydrated chopped onions, not ideal, but better than nothing.

Once it’s all cut, put the rajas, onions, garlic, and corn along with a bit of olive oil, and salt it as desired on a skillet. All vegetables need to be fully cooked before you add the cream and/or cheese.

Once the rajas are tender, lower the heat and add the cream. Stir until it’s well blended, and finally turn off the heat and add the cheese. The recommended cheeses are asadero, Oaxaca, manchego or jack. Your choice. Today, I used jack cheese. Again, stir until it’s blended.

And now the best part… serve and enjoy!

Conclusion

During these times, if you don’t have much to do, take a moment to cook something, it can be relaxing and/or can be a new skill. Like this, there are tons of easy and delicious recipes to try. You can even create something new.
Don’t worry about the result. I have to admit that at first, I thought to skip this entry because I didn’t have all the ingredients and does not look like the traditional rajas con crema y queso. But I really enjoyed the process, it definitely looks tasty, and yeah, it was. And I needed an excuse to write 😉.

Be safe, get creative, and Bon appetite!

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