Challenging Elements: Comida Cantina

When the sun comes out and the temperature rises, I start craving grapes and margaritas and pretty much anything that can wake my palate up from hibernation with sweetness and bright flavors. And of course mangos, with their earthiness and luscious sweetness, become a favorite. It’s not at all local or indicative of Colorado cuisine.

But it’s delicious and it’s on my brain.

So, when an alarm on my cellphone reminded me I needed to give Comida Cantina owner Rayme Rossello her ingredient, I told her mango.
“Wow, thank you,” she said.
Thankfulness is not usually the reaction you want when you are trying to stump someone, but I still hoped the brand-new restaurant in Prospect would wow us
in return.
Comida is the second iteration of a highly popular food truck of the same name. When the best chefs in Boulder want a taco, they track down the Comida truck. Now in a less mobile environment, diners can find the same killer modern Mexican food as well as an impressive Sunday brunch.
“It’s really let me get creative,” said Serena Romeo, Comida’s chef.
That includes Mexican chocolate pancakes with Oaxacan chocolate, cinnamon chile butter and maple syrup. Her brunch menu is filled with American morning classics like pancakes and French toast with a twist as well as Mexican breakfast items, including, my personal
favorite, chilaquiles.
So, I wasn’t necessarily surprised she had a plan for the mango.
Romeo has been perfecting her house-made jam since they opened. The story goes like this: When Comida introduced brunch, Rossello asked Romeo to buy some jams, but the chef had a different plan. That’s how the house-made mango-blueberry jam on toast got in front of me.
In a large pot, she adds a dark slurry of bubbling blueberries to her bright mixture of regular and Champagne mangos, and she stirs. Romeo takes out some toast that she buys from a Boulder Mexican market, slathers on a warm lump of the concoction, and hands it over. It’s tart and fresh and lovely. And yet it’s still earthy. The flavors dance together. You can taste how the blueberry envelopes the mango and how the mango shines brighter each time you take a bite. When the jam sets up, the flavors will meld even more. It’ll be harder to distinguish the blueberry and the mango, but it’ll still be delicious.

Enjoy the mango-blueberry jam on Sunday brunch at Comida Cantina, 721 Confidence Drive, Unit 1, Longmont.

eatcomida.com