{"id":195,"date":"2005-12-01T13:19:51","date_gmt":"2005-12-01T20:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=195"},"modified":"2010-02-19T12:03:59","modified_gmt":"2010-02-19T19:03:59","slug":"el-camino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/el-camino\/","title":{"rendered":"El Camino"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>reviewed by Diane Hudson Dec Feb\/Mar 05<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-150\" style=\"margin: 6px;\" title=\"diningguide\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/diningguide.jpg\" alt=\"diningguide\" width=\"200\" height=\"124\" \/>El Camino, in Spanish: &#8220;the way, the road.&#8221; El Camino, in Maine: a hot new cantina in Brunswick just bursting with taste and absolutely full of fun.<\/p>\n<p>The menu, inspired by chef-owner Eloise Humphrey, is Mexican by way of California where she lived before returning to her native Northeast. Humphrey is committed to using locally produced goods: fresh Maine seafood, organic chorizo sausage, and other meat and veggies from local farms.<\/p>\n<p>Beverage choices include Geary&#8217;s Root Beer on tap ($3), seven different Mexican beers, a terrific concoction of lime and organic coconut milk ($3), tasty and festive Sangria ($6), and, of course, a host of Margaritas, one served with the ultimate twist &#8211; a bit of jalape\u00d2o pepper soaked in with the salt on the rim ($7.50).<\/p>\n<p>Our tasting adventure began with a big basket of light, crisp, homemade tortilla chips with a rich and zesty guacamole loaded with meaty avocado ($5.50) and fresh charred tomato salsa ($2.50), which my partner dubbed the best he&#8217;s ever had.<\/p>\n<p>Each entr\u00c8e has its own subtlety, including the Roasted Butternut Squash Taco with roasted garlic, onions, red and poblono peppers, sauteed swiss chard, aromatic white rice, and organic black beans ($8.50)\u2260 mouthwateringly splendid.<\/p>\n<p>My Pozole ($9), a stew of pork and hominy with a wonderful side plate of fresh basil, grilled scallions, Mexican oregano, diced jalape\u00d2o peppers, and cucumber salsa, proved heartwarmingly good. A generous serving of perfectly griddled organic homemade chorizo and potato quesadilla ($8.50) was a hit, as was the soft taco entr\u00c8e: two corn tortillas filled with grilled chicken and served with salsa and a side of either black or refried beans and rice ($8.50).<\/p>\n<p>Other taco fillings include grilled chile-rubbed skirt steak, chorizo and potato, pescado (fresh haddock), fresh Maine shrimp, or fresh Maine lobster.<\/p>\n<p>The dessert of the day, organic pumpkin flan with maple caramelized sauce and an elegant almond tuile ($6), was accompanied by a delightfully different hot Mexican chocolate drink ($3).<\/p>\n<p>El Camino: the way to go to treat all your senses to something really good.<\/p>\n<p>El Camino, 15 Cushing Street, Brunswick. Open Tuesday to Saturday, lunch and dinner. 725-8228.<\/p>\n<p><a onclick=\"return addthis_sendto()\" onmouseover=\"return addthis_open(this, '', '[URL]', '[TITLE]')\" onmouseout=\"addthis_close()\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pub=portmag\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:0\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js?pub=portmag\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/about\/contact-us\">send us your comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>reviewed by Diane Hudson Dec Feb\/Mar 05 El Camino, in Spanish: &#8220;the way, the road.&#8221; El Camino, in Maine: a hot new cantina in Brunswick just bursting with taste and absolutely full of fun. The menu, inspired by chef-owner Eloise Humphrey, is Mexican by way of California where she lived before returning to her native [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1910,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/1910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}