The Memela

How a south Mexican staple supports a seasonal Japanese squash variety with texture, subtle flavor, and balance.

The Memela

Black futsu squash, Melogold, requesón, salsa negra

Every week at Lilia Comedor, we try to incorporate at least one masa concept into the menu. It doesn’t always make it because we are not necessarily a Mexican restaurant. We’re just inspired by Mexican-American ingredients, so some weeks there’s no masa on the menu at all. It’s very rare, but I personally like to eat masa a lot.

So when I thought about a memela, I knew that I didn’t really eat many of them growing up in Los Angeles, since the dish is originally from Oaxaca. The first time I tried them was when I was traveling from Arizona back to Los Angeles. At the time, I remember stopping by Venice Beach and there was a little corner stand that was pumping out the memelas as fast as they could.

And what I like about the memela is the texture. It’s thicker than a tortilla, so it does have a really soft consistency. But you should be able to cut it with a fork. It has a little bit of a tender chew, and a nice outer layer with a certain crunch to it.

Koji-Roasted Black Futsu Squash

When I was creating this menu item, I didn’t actually start with the memela. I started with black futsu squash, which is the type of heirloom squash variety from Japan that I found at the Portland State University farmers market. On the vine they’re pitch black, but as they ripen, they lose that color. To bring out the squash’s flavors, we roast it with koji.

So when you make koji, there’s fermented rice, but then there’s also a creamy byproduct that has a really funky and sweet flavor to it. This week, we cut the black futsu into wedges, and then right before roasting it, we rub it with the koji byproduct. But it’s not as sweet as you would think. Sometimes, people think of squash and they picture pumpkin or butternut squash, and they think of pie, but squash can also be really savory in a really good way. And koji kind of brings out those beautiful, more complex flavors that you normally don’t get in squash otherwise.

Roasted squash and fresh cheese: a long-term relationship

Roasted squash and ricotta have a beautiful relationship. Combined with an acidic component, the formula has been used so many times. So I used that as a foundation from my training but I put our own spin on it. And requesón just was obvious for me, you know, laying down that beautiful memela that’s really tender and putting in a good amount of fat like a fresh cheese of requesón as the base.

Melogold: Pomelo’s Floral Family Member

Melogold is a type of pomelo hybrid in the grapefruit family from Northern California. So right now in Portland, we’re midway through our winter citrus season, and that’s only the second week that Melogold has actually started. Melogold is like a grapefruit, but not as bitter, and it’s very similar to a pomelo, but with a lot more nuance to it. It has floral notes that really make it stand out, so much so that I got Daniel to use it for one of his drinks at Bar Comala.

Salsa Negra’s Unapologetic Spice and Complexity

When I experienced salsa macha for the first time, it was taking over the United States. Everyone was talking about macha. However, I didn’t want to do a salsa that was that close to salsa macha. It needed to be different. And salsa negra is that. It’s closely related, but there’s ingredients that you usually don’t find in fresh salsa. Using a combination of rare chiles, black garlic, and spices, it has a really strong depth and flavor profile that differentiates it from salsa macha. And not only does it add spice to the memela, but it also offers a complexity that ties the entire dish together. It’s spicier than most people expect. It’s unapologetic.

Trust in the process

Like most of our dishes, a lot of the ingredients and a lot of the steps that we do to every dish, we don’t necessarily divulge. If I were to put every single ingredient that we use, the description would be huge and people would be talking to us about it for 30 minutes. My philosophy is that we’re supposed to make our food seem like minimal, like it’s an attainable dish that anyone can do. But when they taste it, there’s a whirlwind of flavors that they weren’t ready for. If guests were to try to replicate it from purely visual memory, they’d miss those key points. That’s important because we want people to just trust us to do the work.