As I was arranging places to visit, I was able to manage almost entirely with my Spanglish and utilizing translatation apps. You may notice I said “almost”. In the case of La Chatita, not a word of English was exchanged and when I met the warm and beautiful women there, words were apparently not necessary.

One member of the family (Catalini) greeted me by introducing herself, where I thought she was indicating that I (Kathryne) was expected. So it turns out that we share a name and we share our mutual love of food. In this case offerings are from their family’s home of Guadalajara.

La Chatita was one of the places that we had a challenge finding as our first set of incorrect instructions took us to the vicinity of Bastos where the helpful owner redirected us. In spite of two cab rides to locate it, our visit was well worth the effort. I would suggest Googling the address because many restaurants in Colonias change location without notification. Of course, now that we have visited it isn’t hard to find at all!

But to the food. We arrived after breakfast (9-12) in time for lunch (12-3). If their prices weren’t already reasonable enough, they have a daily 3 taco promo which included consume.

The latter turned out to be a fine tomato soup which was enhanced with the inclusion of diced onion and squeezes of lime from the taco accompaniments.

The tacos themselves were assembled when a lovely beef blend was placed inside 2 or even 3 tacos and then placed on the grill to crisp them up before serving. O yum.

We also enjoyed Tuesday’s special of ham stuffed chicken in a poblano cream sauce. Both the ham and the sauce were on the salty side (to our liking) but when wrapped in the numerous tortillas, perfect.

As I was taking a picture of the ladies in action in the kitchen, they were preparing a number of “to go” lunches which I was quite certain included enormous fried perogies. Upon inquiries they were described as potato croquettes, in other words perogies! I vowed to get there again before I left the island for those delicious looking bundles.

If you looked up “clean, cheap and cheerful” in an IM food guide, you would see a picture of this lovely little spot. Catalina is surrounded by either good friends or family members because their synchronicity was apparent to my own sister and I. This is one of those places where you will remember the love even before the menu.

Kath’s quote: “The secret ingredient is always love.” -unknown

Love never fails.

 

 

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