Cheap Eats: Maya Quetzal

The longanizas plate ($8.75), with sausages made of ground pork, onions, jalapenos, mint and assorted spices.

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What we ordered: one plate of longanizas ($8.75) and one plato vegetariano ($8.75) for a total of $17.50 before tax and tip, much less than our Cheap Eats goal of $20 for two people.

Comments: Mayan cuisine—to me—has always been a cooled iguana sandwich that was passed off as tuna fish. This is what they gave us on the tour bus at the Mayan ruins as a kid and, beside the lingering sour taste, I haven’t thought much about it since.

In reality, though, Mayan cuisine is an array of distinct flavors and recipes that stretch across countries and generations. In its day, the Mayan empire encompassed several Latin American countries including Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras. Parts of its cuisine can still be found today, especially in the country of Guatemala.

Maya Quetzal, a Guatemalan restaurant on Fourth Avenue, is pretty much the only authentic representation Tucson has of this kind of food. And, at first glance, it doesn’t look like much of a representation at all. Much of the food appears to be typical Mexican: enchiladas, refried beans, steak ranchero...But while the dishes share the same names, they are very different from their northern cousins.

Food: Not knowing this at the time, we decided to stick with dishes that seemed the most Guatemalan. We passed over the chicken mole and chile rellenos in favor of longaniza, a plate of “Guatemalan-style sausage” of ground pork, onions, jalapenos, mint and assorted spices. Ironically, we found out later that these sausages are not actually native to Guatemala, but are also found in countries as far as the Philippines. The sausages themselves were medium-sized, but very dense and had a strong and almost spicy mint flavor. They definitely took an acquired taste, but I got used to them quickly.

The plate also came with a plain salad of iceberg lettuce, some standard Mexican rice and a dollop of refried black beans. These beans might have actually been the best part of the plate, because they had all the heartiness of regular refried beans but with an astonishingly heavy, deep flavor. After I was finished, I never wanted to eat regular beans again.

The other plate we ordered, the plato vegetariano, came with a side of regular black beans, which unfortunately weren’t as good as the refried. The main star of this plate was Maya Quetzal’s “specialty rice,” baked with cheese, sweet corn and sour cream. The sour cream was pretty much infused into the white rice, making it very rich but tangy as well. The plate also had a sort of taco puff that was made by stuffing a corn tortilla with spinach, walnuts and tomato, among other things. The puff had an extremely doughy outside, and was good but not as flavorful as the rice.

Service: On the last visit, the only server on the floor was the owner who mostly spoke Spanish. She was prompt but not talkative, which somehow makes it seem more authentic.

Bar: They have a small list of wines, as well as a few Mexican beers and the Guatemalan lager Famosa.

Bottom line: If an iguana sandwich on a bus isn’t enough to illustrate an entire cuisine, a single visit to Maya Quetzal won’t suffice, either. Their interesting variations on familiar food only makes me want to come back and taste other dishes on the menu. Better yet, it makes me want to be a Mayan.

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