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South Bay Accent - Apr/May 2016

Taste Zone Zona Rosa bistros lift Mexican cuisine to a fresh, creative place. 82 South Bay Accent ZONA ROSA REVIEW B y S u s a n H a t h a w a y Surveys say the mi favorita kind of restaurant for Americans is unanimously Mexican, but it’s ironic that many people still haven’t had much real Mexican food. Big-as-your-head burritos, cheddarcheese drenched crispy tacos and fajitas were all invented north of the border. But this isn’t to say fresh, regional Mexican dishes don’t have fans for those who can find them. Consider the bang-up success story of Zona Rosa. Launched in mid-2012 by South Bay resident Anna Zamora-Pizzo in a pipsqueak of a storefront near San Jose’s Rose Garden neighborhood, Zona Rosa features family recipes, local produce, and ethically raised or caught meat and seafood. The irresistibly fresh and delicious food so captivated patrons that lunch service, a liquor license and a second location in Los Gatos soon followed. You won’t find lakes of gloppy refried beans, bland rice or tastes-all-the-same combo plates at Zona Rosa. Nor will free bowl after bowl of store-bought chips and one-dimensional hot sauce flood your table. Here, quality rules over quantity by a wide margin. The not-free chips – house made and pan fried – come with three superb sauces: crafted-on-site red salsa, creamy smoked cashew and assertive sikil p’ak (pumpkin seed) with habañero. Even if Zona Rosa flaunts tradition, deliciousness is the goal. Hugely popular is the mound of tasty guacamole sprinkled with pistachios and studded with crispy fried strips of Niman Ranch bacon. Decadent? Si! And the nachos, featuring more of those housemade chips, mole negro, black beans and various intriguing sauces, demonstrate how tubs of cheese and sour cream aren’t needed for this tummy-filling dish to be outstanding. What won’t be found in all the Mexican chains are choices like quesadilla de verdura, in which tortillas are filled with butternut squash, caramelized onion and goat cheese. Or little tuna tostadas in which choice cubes of sushi-grade fish accompany crispy leeks and chipotle cream. Or the much-ordered crab ceviche, with Dungeness crab pairing lime, cucumber, jalapeno, avocado and chipotle cream. T h e D i s h o n H o t L o c a l E a t e r i e s


South Bay Accent - Apr/May 2016
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