Negative-calorie burrito? One one side of the account, chalk up an eight-mile walk, round-trip, to the South Bronx and back. On the other side, reckon on a payload of rice and mushrooms brightened by bell pepper, carrot, and squash — then factor in a fat slice of pound cake from a nearby Dominican bakery.
Previously: Like many La Morada first-timers, I'd come for the mole. Only after lunch did I notice a waitress ladling sauce over a sandwich; it reminded me at once of a torta ahogada that I'd messed with out in Oakland. On a return visit, I ordered a pambazo of my own (second photo below) and found it full of chunky chorizo and potato, plus a few slices of avocado; a squeeze bottle of sour cream stood at the ready, too. The red sauce that had soaked into the sandwich bread proved thicker and less spicy than that of the torta ahogada; the wadded-napkin count was about even.
From that initial lunch: a jalapeño-inflected mole verde, made with chicken and accompanied by rice, beans, and (not shown) tortillas. As noted by Chris Crowley, who pointed me to this Oaxacan restaurant, La Morada prepares many less-common moles, though just two or three each day, and some only by special request. Poblano, sure; verde, you've seen; but also mole negro, mole amarillo, and mole Oaxaqueño, moles based on guaje pods and pumpkin seeds, and a mole blanco whose ghostly presence I still have never encountered.
La Morada
308 Willis Ave. (140th-141st Sts.), Mott Haven, Bronx
718-292-0235
www.Facebook.com/LaMoradaNYC
