Carlos Sanchez was the first San Miguelense I ever met. He greeted our car from the airport, he took our bags, he shook my hand, and he introduced himself as the house manager of the home we had rented on Pila Seca. There was something I liked about Carlos Sanchez. Immediately.

I remember him saying something like, “If there’s anything at all you need, anything you can’t find in our town, just let me know.” I doubt that he’d ever rented to fanatical foodies before.

The next day I sent him on what must have been one of the wildest goose chases ever. I told him I was trying to find goose liver pâté and a French goat cheese. Now these were the days before City Market, before La Comer or Mega or Soriana. In those days, you had a choice of the not so super-big Supermercado Bonanza or the not so superbig Supermercado Bonanza.

We came home that afternoon and there was a jar of pâté de foie d’oie and a roll of fromage Sainte-Maure de Touraine on the table. I liked Carlos Sanchez even more.

Last week, we walked in to the new restaurant behind La Mar and Lima. We had cherished memories of that patio from its glory days as Fiamma and were thrilled to see it had a new tenant. Over walked this guy who looked vaguely familiar but it was Don Day’s Wife who positively ID’d him (she’s good at remembering men with that Al Pacino look). It had been almost 20 years. He’d added a little sophistication to his chin. But it was definitely Carlos Sanchez.

“Your restaurant?”, I asked.

“Yes, my restaurant”, he replied. “Well more my family’s restaurant. My son Daniel, my daughter Karla, grandchild Santy and my wife Christina. We had a little place in Colonia Ignacio Ramirez. Now we have this big place here on Salida a Celaya.”

The little place was called Tyto’s. The big place is called Tyto’s. 

“My grandson couldn’t pronounce abuelito, the Spanish word for grandfather”, continued Carlos, “so I was just Tito, if you were wondering where our name came from.”

Tyto’s menu is very traditional Mexican. No Nueva Cocina Mexicana, no reinventing the classics, no words like milpa or masa, no meddling and messing with historic recipes. I liked that. But there was something specific on the menu that really intrigued me.

I have been dabbling in a book about the history of Mexican cuisine since shortly after I met Carlos Sanchez (yes, I know my ashes will be in the presa before it’s finished). There on the menu was one dish that may have had its origin in my very precious, very favorite place in the world, San Miguel de Allende.

The arches on the east and west side of San Miguel’s jardin were once known as Los Portales. And there…well I’ll let born and bred San Miguelense Carlos Sanchez tell you the story he shared with us.

“When I was a kid, my grandmother was dedicated to making alfeñiques, a type of sweet that’s of Arab origin. During the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the Arabs taught them the technique and later the Spaniards brought it to America. Alfeñiques quickly became popular due to the merger of the two cultures.”

Carlos brought out samples for us to see and continued.

“At the time of the conquest, these sugar figurines replaced the real skulls that were used in the Tzompantlis in order to honor their gods. Today we place them on our altars so that the souls of the deceased are nourished with the essence of these gifts and we give personalized sugar skulls to our friends as a reminder that someday we will also die.”

“Forty years ago, during the Day of the Dead season, my grandmother would set up a stand of alfeñiques for sale.

All of the grandchildren liked to go help her because, at the end of the day, she always bought crispy tacos or red enchiladas at a food stand that was set up in the portal on the east side of the main garden.”

“The woman who made them was a very famous lady known simply as “la maistra” and the name of the red enchiladas became enchiladas del portal because of where they were sold.”

The late and great grand dame of Mexican cuisine, Diana Kennedy, wrote that she had learned her enchiladas rojos recipe from a San Miguel de Allende woman and suspected that Enchiladas del Portal had its origin right here in San Miguel.

We ordered a plate of the red enchiladas to share but, before that, there were a lot of other things to try, beginning with the traditional and complimentary salsa and chips.

“Homemade?”, I asked Carlos.

“Homemade”, he replied. “The salsa and the chips”.

There was an aroma wafting through the window from the kitchen. When I saw the menu, I guessed what it was. I asked if I could venture into the kitchen and catch a close-up. 

Carlos welcomed me to.

The smell of pozole is intoxicating. The sight of it bubbling in the pot is enticing. We had to order it but we also had to order another classic soup/stew, what Tyto’s simply calls Tortilla Soup, what is more often called Sopa de Azteca.

Carlos had a solution. He would split an order of each into smaller bowls so that we could check out both. Again, I liked Carlos.

Pozole is the most famous pre-Columbian dish in Mexico. It is mentioned in the “General History of the Things of New Spain” written around 1500 by Fray Bernandino de Sahagun, a monk who documented Hernan Cortes’ exploration of the new world. 

Pozole is basically a pork and corn soup or stew but it has many variations. It’s those little nuances that make one pozole rank over another; Tyto’s pozole now ranks very high on my list.

It’s not just what goes into the pozole bowl that’s important, it’s what comes with it to the table. Tyto’s serves their pozole with the classics: chopped onions, radishes, lettuce and limes, powdered oregano and adobe chiles.

In the neighboring bowl was another centuries-old dish. Sopa de Azteca, was probably created to freshen up tortillas that had passed their best-before date. Tyto’s only uses a few strips of crisp tortillas, mostly for decoration. What’s inside though is different than most. Below the usual chicken strips and broth is a generous layer of gooey queso de Oaxaca.

It was almost time for those Enchiladas del Portal. I knew because, once again, there was something beckoning me from the kitchen. The tortillas were being dipped in their sauce then fired quickly in a pan. I’m a sucker for showbiz in the kitchen.

We’d ordered the red enchiladas as well as Tyto’s green. I called the green ones Enchiladas Suizas until Carlos corrected me:

“The difference between green enchiladas and enchiladas suizas is in the preparation of the sauce.

For enchilades verdes, the green sauce is prepared separately then topped with sour cream and cheese. For enchiladas suizas, the green sauce and sour cream are blended together.”

 Maybe Carlos Sanchez should be writing that history book about Mexican food.

There was just room for one more dish, again to share. Carlos recommended the flautas, the sensible way to eat a hard shell taco. Unlike the U-shaped tacos dorados, you don’t end up wearing them.

There was nothing over-the-top special about any of the dishes that Tyto’s served. Everything was just very, very good. But eating them in such a beautiful setting, with a twinkling fountain and trees all around you. With attentive, at-your-beck-and-call service. And at a very reasonable price (every one of our dishes was under 150 pesos). It made the evening very special.

Traditional Mexican cuisine is something I occasionally eat for breakfast, often eat for lunch, but rarely eat for dinner. I think that tradition is about to change. I think I may soon be liking Carlos Sanchez even more.

Tyto’s Grill & Drinks is located at Salida a Celaya #6 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The bar/restaurant is open from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm, Tuesday to Saturday; 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Sundays.