Back to Agave

Ashland, Oregon, March 30, 2010—

WHY WOULDN'T WE GO back to Agave? We're seeing Hamlet tonight; don't want a big dinner just before; won't want to eat afterward… Midday dinner then, but where? We looked over the lists of restaurants: Google, Yelp, various other sites, ruling them out one after another: not open for lunch, too expensive, too hippie, not very good, not very good… why not go back to Agave, right now? We can always have a little bread and salame and a piece of fruit in the room, just before the play…

I began again with a good Margarita and guacamole, salty this time; then went on to three little tacos: pescado Andrejo (fresh sautéed fish), carnitas, carne asada (deliciously marinated char-grilled steak). Dessert: a tamal dulce, a corn tamal flavored with pineapple and currants, with a thin crema straddling it. Delicious. On leaving, I asked if they used MSG in the kitchen. Of course not, they answered, Why do you ask? Because everything tastes so damn good, I said.

(But I think it's simply lime juice and salt and spices and really good ingredients, that and the talent at the stove.)

Rioja, Montecillo Crianja, 2000

Agave, 92 North Main, Ashland, Oregon; tel. 541.488.1770