What’s a road trip without food. I mean when we travel we enjoy discovering new places to eat as well as returning to places we know from previous trips. Take our meals from a couple of days ago in Salt Lake City for example.
Breakfast at Parrish Place, the B&B where we always stay in Salt Lake, arrives in a big wicker basket set outside the door at the time we request. Inside the basket is juice, cereal, yogurt, cups of fresh fruit and delicious muffins. There is also a big thermos of coffee to supply our morning caffeine needs. We can never eat it all but it is nice to have choices. It is also pleasant to eat breakfast in our jammies in our room.
For lunch we headed to Millie’s Burger in the Sugar House district. Millie’s is an unpretentious hamburger stand that serves up burgers and fries and shakes that are reliably good. I especially like the Millie’s secret sauce on my cheeseburger which is also supplied in a cup for dipping fries. We discovered Millie’s on one of our first trips to Salt Lake City a few years ago and always have at least one lunch there while we are in town.
For dinner we debated about going to one of our favorite brewpubs or trying someplace we hadn’t been before. In keeping with the spirit of this road trip, we opted to try someplace new. Several people had told us about a Mexican restaurant that is said to be the best in Salt Lake. Being from Arizona, we think the only good Mexican food has to be served within a couple of hundred miles of the border. Well, what a pleasant surprise the Red Iguana turned out to be.
Our first clue that this was going to be good was the line-up of people waiting to be seated on a Wednesday evening. It turned out to be a twenty minute wait; much better than the two hour wait that one of the guidebooks warned about. The second clue was the chips and salsa that arrived promptly at our table. The chips were crispy and the salsa was thick with a complex flavor and just the right amount of chili. No wimpy, watery stuff served here!
The menu at the Red Iguana is extensive and includes seven different mole sauces. Finding a Mexican restaurant that serves one mole dish is unusual. Having seven mole dishes to choose from is amazing. I had to go for the gusto so I choose the enmoladas served with mole negro. From the menu, here is the description of mole negro: dried chili mulato, negro pasilla, Mexican chocolate, raisins, peanuts, walnuts and bananas. The enmoladas which are like cheese enchiladas arrived smothered in the delicious sauce. I ate every bite.
Barbara opted for the enchiladas poblanas, cream cheese stuffed tortillas top with the Red Iguana’s own enchilada sauce. I had a bite to check out the sauce which was nearly as good as my mole—thick and rich with a hint of sweetness along with a nice chili bite.
The Red Iguana is now definitely on our list of favorites in Salt Lake City. I can’t wait to come back and try another of the mole sauces. I guess that means at least six more dinners to try them all. I know it is going to be tough, but someone has to do it.
