TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Waking up, this next stop in eastside Tucson is all about warming up with Mexican comfort food.
There’s also a heartwarming story of a husband and wife who’ve succeeded by making dishes they grew up with as kids.
We sat down with the owners of Salsa Verde Restaurant on Pantano and Broadway, and later, we saw their way to make red and green enchiladas.
In her small village in Sonora, Mexico, Reyna Davila helped her family raise cattle and make milk and cheese to supplement their income.
She said those were the seeds of a career in food that didn't full grow until she moved to Tucson and got her own taste of life in a busy commercial kitchen.
“Working at McDonald’s was a huge lesson,” Davila said. “I learned how a drive-thru works, focusing on speed and precision.”
Nowadays, Davila and husband Edgardo Corella take a more hands off approach as they run a second spot on Oracle and Roger.
They still make time to catch up with loyal customers who've stuck around since 2018, and since the drive-thru-only days of the pandemic. “We have so many clients that now almost feel like our friends and family, (we) know their names by heart," Davila said.
We asked Davila what she’d make for us. Her favorite is enchiladas, and it goes back to when both her abuelas would make this dish.
“Really, their recipes were pretty similar," she said. "Each had their own special touch, so I mixed in a bit of both.”
Let's pop in the kitchen to see how the Salsa Verde staff get things done:
— Beef birria stuffed inside three rolled corn tortillas
— Then, drenched in salsa roja, of course salsa verde
— Davila said some customers even like a trio of salsas and mole
— All topped off with lettuce, corn, beans, a sprinkle of crumbly cheese and crema
We got to talking about how birria's changed in a U.S. food context; Davila reminded us that, traditionally for some communities in Mexico, the original preparation calls for goat meat – shredded beef of this kind and flavor profile would be more like barbacoa.
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José Zozaya is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9. Before arriving in southern Arizona, José worked in Omaha, Nebraska where he covered issues ranging from local, state and federal elections, to toxic chemical spills, and community programs impacting immigrant families. Share your story ideas and important issues with José by emailing jose.zozaya@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
