Phantom Gourmet: The Painted Burro In Somerville

SOMERVILLE - Flavorful. Fragrant. Fun. The street food of Mexico City has arrived on Elm Street in Davis Square, Somerville at The Painted Burro.

It's a loud and lively place, highlighted by colorful murals, rustic wooden furniture, plenty of action at the bar and plenty of creativity coming out the kitchen. Sure, you can get your standards here: thick-cut tortilla chips and salsa, a huge variety of tacos, and a well-made margarita; but you can also find a fresh kale salad with toasted corn nuts, three styles of just-mashed guacamole, even a jumbo lump crab tostada with cucumber and lime.

In the words of Executive Chef Danny Bua, it's a new take on a Mexican restaurant.

"Something that's more than rice and beans on everything. We've decided that we want to focus on fresh, local, quality ingredients. We want to take dishes that are very authentic, put it here in Davis Square and make our own spin on it. Just fun, fast, quick food that tastes delicious."

The Cholo Corn Cob is a perfect example: just sweet simplicity kicked up with spice and authenticity.

"This is exactly what they would eat down in Mexico in the streets," Danny said. "In Mexico City it's very, very popular. It's very delicious. It's got mayo, it's got lime, it's got cheese, it's got spice, and it just goes perfect with the sweetness of the corn. It's sticky on your fingers but nobody cares. It's pure and simple corn and it's the most delicious corn you've ever had."

Deliciously messy finger foods dominate much of the Painted Burro menu. The signature Street Tacos are served over fresh-grilled corn tortillas, with toppings like Gulf Shrimp and mango salsa, and the Short Rib Barbacoa "Double Stack".

"The short rib taco is slowly braised short ribs, a soft corn tortilla with melted cheese, and then it gets a hard taco shell on top on that. That's why we call it a double stack," explained Danny. "Then it gets a ladle full of our special black mole. It's crunchy, it's sweet, it's peppery, savory. It's like heaven."

For something even more heavenly, start your meal with the Pork Belly and Watermelon Salad. It's sweet, salty, rich, and ridiculous tasty, served with Serrano chiles and a tamarind glaze. If you're looking for more of a knife-and-fork kind of meal, you gotta go for the real deal Mexican Street Cart Chicken served over sautéed kale & fried plantains, with creamy poblano rice.

"A lot of people don't order chicken when they go to a restaurant. The cool thing about our chicken, it's slow roasted for two and a half hours. It's just charred and caramelized on the outside. Whole roasted birds, and we marinate them in achiote paste, grind them also overnight. So that thing is guaranteed juicy when you get it," said Danny.

An even more substantial meal is the Yucatan Meatloaf, served open faced with two fried eggs on top, red mole and thick-cut toast on the bottom.

"The meatloaf is better than your family's meatloaf growing up. My mom didn't use salt and pepper. But all of a sudden I put salt and pepper on things and things just taste amazingly delicious. But with all these other ingredients in the meatloaf, it tastes even ten times that. So we've got ground beef and chorizo, deviled ham, chopped ham, bacon, onions, garlic. It's a list of like 25 ingredients."

On Sundays, the Painted Burro serves one of the best brunches in Greater Boston, featuring dishes like the Burro Benedict, packed with two poached eggs, sliced ham, and a smoked-chile hollandaise. For dessert, there are the cinnamony sweet Burro Churros with melted chocolate, or the tempting Tres Leches cake, with fire-torched, housemade fluff.

"It's a delicious blend of a dense yellow sponge cake, that's soaking in a mixture of condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream, and of course rum," Danny described. "Because Fluff was invented here in Somerville, we've decided that we want to make our own fluff. You gotta have it."

In the end, this might not be the kind of Mexican food you're used to, but that's exactly why you should give the Painted Burro a try. You can find it at 219 Elm Street in Somerville, and online at thepaintedburro.com.

Watch Phantom Gourmet on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 and 11 a.m. on myTV38.