In each of the last few years, readers of this blog have voted for their favorite San Miguel de Allende restaurant. The overwhelming winner in all of the most recent years has been the very cherished Firenze. Sitting in second place but edging closer and closer in those recent years has been the restaurant Casa Nostra.

Though the two restaurants share a very friendly rivalry, they bring memories to me of the Hertz/Avis battle of the brands. In the fifteen years or so that Firenze has been around, there haven’t been a lot of changes to the menu. Chef/owner Antonio Arrieta takes the Hertz approach: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Marco Massarotti, the chef/owner of Casa Nostra, on the other hand, employs the “we try harder” strategy with frequent changes to what he offers his diners.

Don Day’s Wife and I tossed a coin last week as to where we’d go for dinner. This time, Avis beat Hertz. We made a reservation at Casa Nostra.

When a restaurant’s good, you trust them to not just suggest but to actually make your menu decisions. Chef Marco chose to show off some of the more recent additions to his menu. Up first was on the specials blackboard. It was soccarat.

We wondered how many diners would know what soccarat was. I wondered if even I would know if I wasn’t married to a woman who was somewhat famous for her paella, if I wasn’t one of those guys who had fought for that crispy, crunchy crust at the bottom of her paellas known as soccarat.

Now there are two problems with soccarat. One, it’s very difficult to get through all of the rest of the ingredients and finally reach the buried treasure. Two, there’s never quite enough to go around.

Marco Massarotti has solved both of those problems by doing individual servings in Mexican molcajetes. All of the rice is exposed to the volcanic rock so all of the rice is soccarat.

Don Day’s Wife was surprised that the kitchen didn’t use the traditional paella bomba rice for their creation. “It’s arborio, the type used for risotto, but it really, really works, doesn’t it?”, said Marco. Don Day’s Wife smiled and nodded in approval.

Then there was the crowning glory on the soccarat. I believe bigger is almost always better when it comes to shrimp and Casa Nostra doesn’t scrimp. Using the amount per pound sizing scale, these would have been in the 16-20 Colossal category.

Next on Chef Marco’s recommendations was the most Mexican of all dishes, the tamal, but the restaurant has given it some Italian touches.

The usual cornmeal was there but it was teamed with brasata, an Italian style of braising beef in red wine. We stayed in Northern Italy with the topping of shaved black truffles. Then went back to Mexico with the side of chile poblano sauce.

We would have liked a little less masa and a lot more of the goodies but I’ve probably said that about almost all of the tamales I’d ever eaten.

Watching and listening to Marco Massarotti tell us about the new dishes and the sometimes adventures in sourcing the ingredients locally is almost as enjoyable as eating them.

Describing the ravioli that came up next he referred to the filling as “puerco pelón”. I think Marco speaks at least a couple more languages than me. I was too embarrassed to ask him what a bald pig was.

I thought about how important presentation is when you’re savoring a special meal. To me, very important.

There is nothing better than black as a backdrop for food that shines. And the dome over a dish not only serves the purpose of keeping the contents warm but provides for great drama during the unveiling.

I thought about how presentation was also very important to Marco Massarotti. I thought about how he might understand its importance more than any other San Miguel restauranteur.

Last up was salmon, wonderful Norwegian salmon that somehow makes it all the way from Bergen to Oslo to Mexico City to San Miguel without ever being frozen.

Marco told us it was, “Gochujang glazed salmon with roasted sesame seeds and chives on a bed of orzo infused with chile poblano, my memories of when I trained at the Kyung Hee university for a few weeks.”

Don Day’s Wife wondered why she stopped using orzo as a rice replacement at home. I wondered if Marco might also speak Korean.

A toast to the chef and we were on our way. Stuffed with food and joy. We told Marco we would see him very soon. But we knew we wouldn’t be back at Avis before we once again visited Hertz.

Casa Nostra is located at Terraplén #8 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is open Wednesday and Thursday from 5:30 to 10:00 pm, Friday and Saturday from 2:00 to 11:00 pm, Sunday from 2:00 to 10:00 pm.