Judged simply on salsa, Traspasada on California, Elston & Belmont stands alone in this Mexican cuisine-wealthy city.  Wiz lives nearby and we’ll go there from time to time.  Couple weekends ago we went both Friday & Saturday.  The Home of the Black Salsa beckons those with functioning taste buds.

 

The in-house recipe involves blackened tomatoes and results in a smoky taste so addicting Wiz has pleaded with them to bottle it for take home.  Apparently, they’ve tried, but it doesn’t preserve well enough to be profitable.  Dining in is the only way to get it.  Which isn’t a bad option.  Because they’ll refill your bowl after you run through the first serving. You will finish an entire bowl, and then some.  The friendly guy will serve you a beer.  And a complimentary bowl of soup for an appetizer.

Let’s not forget the burritos.  Steak burrito, everything:

Can’t recall if it was Friday or Saturday, but one of the nights before or after a burrito Wiz threw on the Eddie Vedder/Cubs Netflix show.  It intersperses footage from the 2016 World Series run with Pearl Jam’s Wrigley Field concerts.

A mesmerizing time capsule for any Cubs fan. Of what was everything.

 

All the salsa had been washed in black.  Salsa-ed everything.