T wo years ago a taqueria in Santa Ana, California, filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against KFC seeking damages from the death-peddling corporate protein merchant for using “Para chuparse los dedos” (“to suck the fingers”) as the Spanish-language analog to “finger-licking good.”
Chef Montes de Oca, who’s mostly a one-woman operation, fries pica pollo to
order every day she’s open, and marinates a batch for the next. But not
everything on the menu hanging above the register is always available. She
doesn’t have the room in the tiny kitchen to make everything, which is why
after you walk in the door and she greets you like you’re the most
delightful surprise of the day, it’s best just to ask what she has on hand.
If you’re lucky she’ll have sancocho, a meaty stew with beef,
chicken, dumplings, squash, yuca, carrots, and plantains that, once
ingested, turns your gut into an internal furnace that’ll warm your bones
long after you’ve returned to the cold outside.
Morena’s is set up mostly for takeout, but Montes de Oca has plans to take
over the defunct computer repair store next door, which will roughly double
her size—and her ability to accommodate anyone who wants to stick around
and absorb her energy while absorbing her energizing food. v
5054 1/2 W. Armitage 773-622-7200facebook.com/ComidaDominica
