BWW Reviews: SAZON Reclaims Mexican Cuisine in North Carolina

Cullowhee, North Carolina is one of those towns that's really just the university that's situated there, in this case Western Carolina University, with a few support businesses. You can picture the restaurant situation for a place like that with your eyes closed - burgers, pizza, beer, burritos. Yep, right. Only, about those burritos...

Welcome, friends, to SAZON. In a town where dining options are presumably limited, when you ask about a great meal in this Smoky Mountain college town, you'll find yourself directed to Sazon, where you can find a burrito, yes, but one you'll never forget. It's a Mexican restaurant that can, without irony or sarcasm, be proclaimed the best place in town, a place that finds itself rented out by families or by college organizations that want to have special dinners for groups, because the food is, indeed, special. It's special enough that the residents of other area towns head to Cullowhee for their Mexican fix - even when there's other Mexican food much closer to them.

"I'm a chef from Mexico City, but I've had a chance to travel a lot. I've been influenced by Colombian and Guatemalan cooking," explains Sazon's chef/owner, Alex Rodriguez. His background, rather than culinary school, has been hands-on experience, especially with fish (the fish tacos at Sazon are the best this reviewer has ever encountered). "In Tijuana, there was this little cart, and I was eating there. I asked if I could help. That was where I learned to cook seafood. I learned to do octopus, ceviche, fish tacos. Americans lined up to buy from us. I'm so glad for the experience." That experience produces a fish taco with perfectly cooked tilapia under tomators, avocado and cilantro, with dazzling sparks of fresh lime bringing a vivid color to the whole combination.

Rodriguez is a believer in fresh, farm-to-table local cuisine. He owns his own farm which grows some of the produce. "Every pepper you eat here is from my garden." So is the cilantro. The restaurant also makes its own chorizo. "We're interested in contemporary, clean Mexican food."

The menu is contemporary, indeed, featuring an entire separate vegetarian menu as well as other dishes that can in many cases be made vegetarian. Even if you are not a vegetarian, do not ignore the vegetarian menu as several delightful dishes are located only on there, including Sazon's tortilla soup. The tomato-based broth begins mildly flavored but finishes with a pleasantly spicy kick; it's filled with avocado as well as crisped tortilla strips, and is light enough to be a true start to a meal rather than causing you to think that it was a mistake to order anything following it.

When you're dealing with a chef who makes his own chorizo, anything is possible. One of those possibilities, one of the house specialties, is a very spicy carnitas that is more than hot enough for the faint of heart (or mouth, or stomach) that, as a chimi carnitas, will wake taste buds even without the jalapenos on it. On the other hand, there's an avocado sopa, a fresh corn masa cake, layered with beans, spinach, and fresh avocado as well as a healthy dose of roasted peppers; slightly sweet and wonderfully creamy in avocado and queso fresco, slightly chewy with corn cake, firm with properly cooked pinto beans, and crunchy with salad, the dish is mild, but is a textural symphony. So is tostada maria, a crisp tortilla bearing the weight of delicious freshly prepared black beans, avocado, tomato and cilantro - almost a salad, it seems a more completely composed dish than that.

Salsa here is a fresh, thin tomato base full of chopped onions and cilantro, tart and tangy against crisply fried, blissfully unsalted tortilla chips. Drinks are also a delight here - if you've become jaded by one more margarita at one more chain Mexican joint, order the Jamaican margarita, Alex's favorite drink on his menu. With a dash of rum as well as the anticipated tequila, and with hibiscus in it rendering it a gorgeous reddish hue (as well as sweet in a totally different way from the usual frozen fruit-based margarita), it's an exotic luxury that is bound to refresh and relax whoever has it in front of them.

Steak, chicken, and pork entrees are available, if a major protein dish with sides is your preferred plate, but consider the composed dishes, especially those involving the house-made chorizo or carnitas for meat-eaters, or one of the vegetarian entrees, which prove beyond doubt that vegetarian cuisines can be as complex in flavor and as delicious as meat-based ones. These aren't Taco Bell bean burritos; sautéed mushrooms, purple onions, queso fresco and other cheeses, poblanos, and various bean preparations - not just sides of refried beans - combine with other vegetables, tortillas, corn cakes, and rice to produce entrees that are more than worthy of selection by people who don't consider themselves vegetarians.

In this area of the North Carolina Smokies, including Cherokee, Bryson City, Sylva, and Cashiers, as well as other mountain resort areas, Sazon has become something of a legend. Alex is looking to expand into Cashiers, and into further variations of Mexican cuisine. It would be a great pleasure to see him branch into further fish and seafood cooking, as he learned to prepare those dishes in Tijuana, and to consider some Veracruz seafood dishes such as huachinango a la Veracruzana and arroz a la tumbada. Zarela Martinez (mother of Food Network celebrity chef Aaron Sanchez) has done much to popularize the dishes of Veracruz, and Alex certainly has the skills to handle the coastal cuisine of that state.

Asked about Chicago's noted Mexican chef and restaurateur, Rick Bayless, Alex says he's ready for a cook-off. Partial as this writer is to Bayless' cuisine, something suggests that Alex Rodriguez just might win, and deservedly so.

Sazon's information and menus are available at www.sazoncullowhee.com. If you're planning a trip to the North Carolina mountains, work it into your trip in advance. It's worth the destination stop.

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Don't Miss a Travel News Story Sign up for all the news on the Fall season, discounts & more...