El Arrayán

About a half-hour trek from our rented condo overlooking Playa Los Muertos sits an authentic, small local restaurant in the backwaters of Puerta Vallarta called El Arrayán, where we settle in to enjoy a wonderful traditional meal of local dishes.

A simple whitewashed space decorated with primitive art, there are colorful oilcloth covered tables dotted around and in an open courtyard in the middle which sits an Arrayán tree, also known as guayabillo. The tree botanically is luma apiculata and produces small round yellow fruits, used in some Mexican dishes, and lovely creamy white five-petalled blossoms. It grows natively in this region of Jalisco, as well as other parts of Mexico and Central America.

Owners Claudia Victoria R and Carmen Porras E, who are very much present, started the restaurant in 2003 to fill what they saw as a gap in town in high quality traditional dishes of this and other regions.

A good wine, beer, mezcal and raicillia (the local version of mezcal) selection along with a list of craft house cocktails appear. Some of our party of six old friends opt for beer and wine, but we experiment with a Mezcalito for Troy—Mezcal enlivened with orange, tangerine, lime and cucumber juices, made purple with hibiscus, and garnished with rosemary...tasty, if a tad too sweet. My Boom-Boom is local raicillia with a tad of spearmint agave—and as soon as I get Carmen to adjust the sweetness down and the strength up, it’s great.

Starters include black bean and asadero cheese-filled plantain-dough empanadas with three salsas, crispy cricket tacos, and a skewer of marinated fish. We share the empanadas around (can’t talk anyone into cricket tacos) then two of us opt to share queso fundido with mushrooms, house specialty rajas con crema—strips of mild poblano chiles with melting onions and cream, served with house-made corn tortillas, and the mini crispy quesadillas with hibiscus blossoms and huitlacoche’ corn fungus. All fantastic. Two others opt for the long-cooked Yucatecan cochinito pibil—tender pork marinated in sour orange and achiote, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a stone pit for hours. The last pair share pork belly with mustard sauce, slowly cooked until tender, with soft grilled cabbage.

Two great sounding dishes we don’t have enough people for are the duck carnitas in orange & guajillo, and very traditional birria of lamb, long simmered with peppers, orange, tomatillos, garlic, cumin and oregano—and sometimes ginger.

There are rotating ceviches, crudos, grilled fish, and a handful of salads, including nopalito, made of strips of cooked de-spined cactus paddles.

Satiated, we nonetheless order a traditional pastel de tres leches and six forks....a couple bites each of the famous strawberries and cream-topped rich cake.

Fun, lively place, great friendly service, out of the ordinary and excellent comestibles; two bottles of wine, a couple beers, a couple cocktails all for under $200!

Hopefully Carmen or Claudia or both will be there to take great care of you.

Photo: courtesy El Arrayan

+52 (322) 222 71 95 b178 17 23 — info@elarrayan.com.mx

Allende 344, El Centro, 48304 Puerto Vallarta,Jalisco, Mx