Restaurant Sat Apr 26 2008

Columbian Love Feast

What's not to love at Mekato's?

This little sparkling clean Columbian bakery taunts me often with it's wafting aromas of sugary fried goodness. But what caught my eye on a recent visit for sandwich cookies stuffed with caramel was the harlot tray of freshly baked arepas being hoisted into the display case by a stout capable woman in baker's gear. I checked around inside my already stuffed full of bebimbop belly and found there was no space. I made a date in my head. A good friend of mine and itinerant explorer of edibles, S.C., and I went for breakfast a few days ago.
Sublime. Truly.

The cafe con leche is perfectly sweet and just strong enough. The arepas were pillowy soft and sweet with a little blanket of slightly chewy white cheese melted on top. Not being able to decide which meat to go with, we got chicharon. Hold the phone. It came out with a little masa cake top hat and a tub of peppery salsa verde. Honestly, I can't pick a favorite, but it lingers somewhere between the simply perfect arepa and the cassava dumpling stuffed with shredded spiced pork. Oh my sweet porky divinity.

We had a nice big cross section of their breakfasty wares and were not disappointed by any of it. Cheesy fried bread, beef empanadas, and perfectly textured flaky pastry slightly sweet with guava and cheese. My head was spinning. I love this place and I plan to go often. It is open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. daily. I plan to park myself at the shiny green and yellow tiled counter and dig in till they have to pry me, pork and cheese filled, from the stool.

Just to give you an idea, here's what our receipt looked like:

2 cafe pequeno
1 chicharron
1 arepa de queso
1 carimanola (the cassava/pork empanada)
1 empanada carne
1 pastel dulce (the guayaba or guava/cheese pastry)
1 pan de queso

total with tax: $13.08

- Rachel Humphrey