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my name is Benita Lopez and we are here
at gala Quetta just a Oaxacan restaurant
in Koreatown in LA you know people ask
me what's the difference between Oaxacan
food and like just Mexican food I think
the only way I can really explain in
it's more hockey and food is more like
soul food it's like a soul food of
Mexico and Oaxaca is your such a
beautiful magical place we have really
like a deep close relationship to our
food and one of the things that we walk
in food has is got this very like smoky
notes to its food like a ludus and male
and chillest and chorizo and all these
different things and it might look
simple but if you really break it down
and you understand what goes behind each
layer then you're able to understand
what will Hawking food really is and
what it stands for there's certain
things that people from Oaxaca just
cannot live without tortillas in one of
them and there's specific type of
tortillas or cold clay you guys we
actually bring them from Oaxaca they're
these like large portrait tias are
handmade and people would look at it and
they're like oh that looks like a
Mexican pizza or like a flatbread and
you layer it with this pour cream paste
cholesky Antho so it's pretty much like
chicharrón then after that you layer it
with a bean paste now the beans have to
be made with a special herb from Oaxaca
it's on avocado leaf it's a little
earthy a little smoky and I think that's
where it gets the flavors then you add
just get some fresco cabbage and then we
put our meats on top so we make all our
meats from scratch here or tasajo which
is B or Sistina
which is pork or Teresa which is also
pork and then we put those three things
on top
tamale is nothing that walkers known for
it's known as the land of the seven
Mullis we specialise in six of them or
less here at delegates at the mall a
Negro male Rock Hotel daddy toe
Amarillo where they and mr. fellow there
is a specific male that's called
Colorado and that kinda became like our
signature and that really is just like
the perfect balance of savory and sweet
it's really a combination of two flavors
so we have what we call the spices and
the chiles right they're cooler it does
mean with one chin I was at the chin
over here it gets roasted and then you
put it in hot water so you can get soft
and then you grind it and then you take
the almonds that plantains the sesame
seeds garlic cumin allspice red and all
of those ingredients you Rose them as
well then you put them all together and
then you fry them together and that
actually becomes this kind of like the
spices and then really is introducing
both flavors together with some tomato
paste some chicken broth and then you
have the mullet
there's just so many different ways you
can eat it and I know a traditional way
is just over chicken rice but really
like you could do so many things with it
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so this restaurant was founded in 1994
when my father Fernando Lopez and I year
after he opened my mom and her siblings
we all moved to LA and we cross the
border with like a backpack full of
cheese and miss cow and Molay and
tortillas and the first place it took us
to was the restaurant because they
needed to close and that was really the
beginning of my life having a place
where you can have a little Hakka inside
a Korean building like there's just no
better way of describing what Los
Angeles is this is what it is it's just
a beautiful combination of cultures and
flavors all in one place
you come to the restaurant you try
Oaxacan food but that's only step one
like for me is that you really have to
go to a hog done you really have to
experience it and be part of it and like
bees drench in the culture so you can
understand that there's so much more
that goes behind it
you