Chelo's Luna Contreras shares her last meal
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Last year, chef Luna Contreras was named Eater Portland's Chef of the Year just months after opening veggie-forward Mexican restaurant Chelo. She's not slowing down anytime soon.
The latest: Contreras is ramping up production of her small batch hot sauce line at independent retailers in Portland and Seattle, and hopes to have them in New Seasons by the end of the summer, she told Axios.
- Building on the success of Chelo, Contreras also has a "secret project in the works" in NE Portland she plans to launch soon. "Fingers crossed and manifestations have most definitely been made!"
✈️ We wanted to know: If she had one meal left, what would she eat?
- Contreras would travel to the small community in Guadalajara where she grew up.
🦐 Appetizer: As a kid, Contreras would go with her grandmother to the city center via bus and stop at a local seafood market along the way.
- There they would eat "siete mares" — a seafood soup featuring shrimp and octopus in a "spicy yet sweet tomato sauce, jam-packed with avocado, onion, cucumber and brightened by lime juice," she said.
🌮 Entree: Next up, street tacos. And a lot of them. "I remember fondly stopping for tacos in the evening," Contreras said. "My memories tell me it was a dozen tacos."
- Favorites include warm tortillas filled with crispy tripe, juicy beef tongue, housemade chorizo and carne asada topped with onion and fresh cilantro.
🍧 Dessert: Two is better than one. Contreras' last meal would end with a tamarind-flavored raspado (shaved ice) and a slice of flan from the convenience store across the street from her grandmother's house.
- "If I could relive this I would die a happy girl."