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Sonoma Howie found a brand-new Mexican resto for us to try: El Rinconcito Yucateco, just on the outskirts of Santa Rosa. What was most exciting for us was the fact that it featured food from the Yucatan, something new to both of us. So, off we went.

It's a simple, but clean and orderly place in a strange sort of strip: sidewalk level is all retail, up above is residential, more like Euro-urban than Cali-suburban. Out back is a courtyard where we sat. Lovely server, friendly and very helpful. First she brought us the chips and dips:



chips by ggale1, on Flickr

The red sauce had good chili flavor and a nice bit of heat. But it was the black sauce that surprized: it was totally smooth, very well seasoned and spiced, with a good 'meaty' sort of taste with what seemed like chocolate overtones. But the server said "no chocolate, it's just black beans." There were some unfamiliar, and quite intriguing spices in there too. We sucked it all up. BTW, homemade chips, too.

Next came an order of fish tacos:


fish by ggale1, on Flickr

Nicely crusted, very fresh fish, excellent crunchy cabbage and a *great* fresh verde sauce. Fresh, aromatic little tortillas, too.

But the real winners were the pibil tacos:


pibl by ggale1, on Flickr

The pibil was perfectly prepared, toothsome, flavored with spices new to us. But the killer was the pickled onions: just *love* that color and flavor, makes a plate as pretty as it is tasty.

Howie and I are going to return whenever possible --there's quite a bit more to the menu that we need to try. Oh, they have some great-looking agua frescas, too; I had an excellent horchata, perfectly flavored.

Geo
PS. The pix are by Howie, not me.

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Sooo, you like wine and are looking for something good to read? Maybe *this* will do the trick!