Cinco de Mayo with a Greek goddess
Weekend parties of mythic proportions at Pasadena’s El Portal
By Dan O'Heron 05/01/2008
How is it that the spirit of the Greek goddess Athena pervades this weekend’s Cinco de Mayo party at El Portal Mexican restaurant?
First, it is remembered that it was resourceful and valiant Athena who stood between Achilles and Odysseus when a quarrel threatened to turn into a deadly duel. It never happened: With praise, she charmed one of the lesser gods from fighting, then restrained the other by pulling his hair.
El Portal Mexican Restaurant
695 E. Green St., Pasadena
(626) 795-8553
www.elportalrestaurant.com
(Cinco de Mayo celebrated Friday through Monday)
Fast forward to the mid-1980s and another arena — Caltech’s Athenaeum. This time Athena’s spirit was called on to referee a bout between Abel Ramirez, current owner of El Portal — but then general manager of the members-only Caltech club — and Athenaeum chef, the late Jean-Pierre Couly.
As told to me by Ramirez’s son, Armando: “Dad was trying to tell Couly, a Frenchman, how to cook a Yucatecan/Mexican-style meal for a surprise Cinco de Mayo-themed party.” As the story goes, Couly wilted Ramirez with a glance, threw up his arms in a theatrical gesture, and shouted: “Who’s going to dig the barbecue pit?”
Evoking the spirit of Athena, the goddess of crafty intelligence after whom the Athenaeum is named, the elder Ramirez reportedly shook hands with Couly and said something like, “Do it the way you think is best, but remember who’s the boss.”
For the rest of the story, visit Ramirez at the restaurant Friday through Monday at El Portal’s celebration.
Briefly, the upshot turns out to be a sweet Mexican standoff. The party features Ramirez’s Yucatecan recipes, but they are prepared by Cesar Soberanis, a chef classically trained in French cookery. Many Caltech faculty members who attended that contentious evening at the Athenaeum are expected to show up.
If you hear a “thwack” on the Arcade Lane pathway to the courtyard party, it won’t be children banging open piñatas for showers of candy, but it might be the smarties from Caltech diving and pushing and stuffing their pockets.
There will be souvenirs, appetizers, dinners, mariachis with horns blaring and guitars playing, ballet folklorico performers and “bottoms up” toasts from Budweiser, Corona and tequila girls.
Piñatas come in all shapes: bulls, bears, cartoon characters and vegetables. But El Portal’s may look like a pork butt — the essential ingredient in the restaurant’s signature Yucatecan specialty, cochinita pibil.
In this delicious dish, pork chunks are simmered in a classic achiote marinade until frazzled to juicy tatters. (The marinade is made from achiote seeds, crushed to a paste and fortified with citrus, garlic and salt.) Melded with raw and pickled onions, lime juice and vinegar, the pork skeins are wrapped in
a pliable banana leaf and slowly baked to coax out flavor. Once unwrapped, aromatic steam bursts from the leaf.
Applause for Chef Soberanis should follow. Premium tequilas fueling “revolutionary” margaritas will keep the show moving. You can join me in singing “Jose Cuervo is a friend of mine. He’ll have us dancing on the table by nine.” After that, I’ll have a shot of mescal — a suspected hallucinogen — and you can eat the worm at the bottom of the bottle.
When Cinco de Mayo is a one-day celebration, 20 cases of the guacamole fruit are ordered. This year’s party goes on for four days. Ramirez knows about avocados and long days of fiesta. Growing up on a ranch in the Yucatan, he used to collect avocados the size of cantaloupes. “They were so sweet and tempting,” said Ramirez, “they rarely made it to guacamole.”
As an attraction for village celebrations, Ramirez said that his dad raised fighting bulls, but they were used sportingly, only to demonstrate how to cape. There was no blood, no death in the afternoon — Hemingway would have nothing for a story.
Storytelling about Cinco de Mayo is a big attraction around party tables. I never tire of hearing about how Napoleon III — a half-century after Bonaparte — met his Mexican Waterloo in the Battle of Puebla. And I like to hear about guerrilleras — the women who stood by their men in battle, feeding them ammunition and nursing their wounds.
This is no costume party, but how charming it would be to see tall men swaggering in white shirts, red bandanna neck scarves and wide white trousers — sashed at the waist in red — in the company of fiercely beautiful Spanish señoritas in spotless white dresses laced with colorful embroidery.
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