Forget The Appearances And Go For The Flavor

It was one of those nights when the restaurants recommended by the guidebooks turned out to be soulless tourist traps. Out of desperation, I asked my cab driver what his favorite eating place was.

“I think maybe you won’t like it,” he warned as we rode through the streets of Juarez, Mexico. “It’s very simple and there aren’t any foreigners.”

But the first whiff from the dining room - a commingling of seared beef and mesquite smoke - told me I had hit pay dirt.

The cabby was right; Mitla isn’t fancy. In fact, the tiny restaurant (perhaps 40 seats) has occupied the same low-ceilinged space for 25 years. Time and smoke have darkened the once white walls to a color between tan and gray.

Guests sit on straight-backed wooden chairs at Formica tables crowned with salt shakers made from baby food jars. A mournful mounted stag head surveys the scene, while a noisy TV provides background ambience.

Mitla, I am told, is the Nahuatl Indian word for “hell.” The inferno for which the restaurant is named is a horseshoe-shaped, green-and-white-tiled barbecue pit built into the back wall of the dining room. Mitla’s Mexico City-born owner, Fernando Duran, fuels the pit with mesquite from the Chihuahua highlands. The gnarled, twisted mesquite logs are about as thick as your arm. Senor Duran burns about 400 kilos (over 800 pounds) of wood in a week.

The grill itself is a cast-iron grate that slopes upward as it goes back. This ingenious system, found throughout Latin America but seldom in the United States, enables the chef to control the cooking temperature by moving the steaks forward and backward, closer and farther away from the flames.

As an American reared on Bible-thick steaks, I was surprised by the modest dimensions of Mitla’s steaks. The pieces are broad and wide (perhaps 6 inches by 12 inches), but only 1/2inch thick. (Because the steaks are so thin, the chef salts only one side during grilling.) There seem to be two advantages to cutting the steak this thin: First, the meat cooks quickly, so it’s easy to gauge accurate doneness. Second, the broad, thin cut maximizes the surface area of the steak, allowing for maximum absorption of the smoke flavor of the mesquite.

And soak up the flavor it does. Mitla’s sirloins are about the smokiest, juiciest steaks ever to have crossed my molars. They melt on your tongue with a strong whiff of smoke and a succulent slurp of meat juice.

As befits a good steakhouse, Mitla’s menu is limited - and so are the accompaniments. Steaks are served with a little lettuce and tomato, some fire-warmed tortillas and a smoky salsa made from tomatoes and fiery chilies de arbol. Like the steak, the salsa acquires its distinctive smoke flavor from the grilling of the tomatoes over mesquite.

The proper way to eat a Mitla steak is to cut it into pieces, drizzle it with salsa and wrap it in fire-charred tortillas. The resulting flavors are earthy and elemental: chilies, wheat and beef. Each mouthful lights up your palate like a pinball machine, playing to each set of taste buds. The tortillas have a touch of sweetness; the salsa is bracingly tart; the beef offers a sanguine saltiness, while the chilies provide a pleasing bitterness and heat.

Mesquite-Grilled Steak With Fire-Charred Tomato Salsa

The best way to cook the beef would be over a mesquite log fire. Barring that, toss plenty of water-soaked mesquite wood chips on a charcoal fire or in the smoker box of your gas grill (2 cups mesquite wood chips, soaked in cold water for 1 hour).

Salsa:

2 to 4 chilies de arbol or other dried chilies (4 give you a nice heat)

2 large ripe tomatoes

1/3 medium onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, sliced

3 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro

1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Salt, freshly ground black pepper

Steaks:

4 thinly cut sirloin or T-bone steaks (each about 1/2 inch thick)

Salt

4 large or 8 small flour tortillas

If using mesquite logs, build hot fire and let it burn down to glowing coals. If using charcoal, build hot fire and let it burn down to glowing coals. If using gas grill, preheat to high.

Soak chilies in bowl of warm water until pliable, about 20 minutes. Grill tomatoes over high heat until skins are charred and blistered on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to plate and let cool.

Drain chilies and puree in blender along with tomatoes, onion, garlic and cilantro to a coarse paste. Add lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. (Salsa should be highly seasoned.) Transfer salsa to attractive serving bowl. (This may make more salsa than you’ll need for 4 steaks. Any excess goes great with chips and stores well in the refrigerator.)

Generously salt each steak on one side and grill over high heat, first with the salt side down, until cooked to taste, 2 to 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Grill tortillas until soft, pliable and lightly browned, about 20 seconds per side.

Serve steaks on platter or plates, with tortillas (in cloth-lined basket) and salsa on side.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 487 calories, 14.3 grams fat (26 percent fat calories), 55 grams protein, 35 grams carbohydrate, 138 milligrams cholesterol, 360 milligrams sodium.

Note: The smoke flavor of the salsa can be pumped up with a few drops of Liquid Smoke.