Review: St. Mary's Mexican Food

The plan was to cook after the temperature dropped.

Who wants to be in a hot kitchen when it’s 100 degrees outside?

But then the thermometer started to rise: 103, 105, by late afternoon, it was 109.

Time to make alternative plans — like have someone else make dinner.

But guests are expected in two hours. There is a desire to at least look as though an effort was made.

St. Mary’s Mexican Food to the rescue.

The small eatery, owned and run by the Salazar family for more than 45 years, is on Tucson’s west side and sells many of its dishes in pint and quart sizes.

Which means you can pick those containers up, take them home, spoon them into serving bowls, and lay out an elaborate meal without ever turning on the stove.

Here’s what was on our menu that recent sweltering evening:

Flour tortillas

St. Mary’s are thin, tender, hand-tossed, made fresh daily and, frankly, divine — which is especially astounding considering they are made with vegetable shortening, not lard. You can get the very large ones ($3.75/dozen), but our favorites are the medium ($3.50/dozen) — they are not quite as thin as the large, so when we stuff them with all the goodies, they don’t fall apart. Plus, the tendency is to eat less. Our contention is that St. Mary’s makes the best tortillas in town (OK, Anita Street Market is pretty impressive, too). We generally get two dozen just in case we eat half of them on the ride home.

Carne seca

St. Mary’s offers this tasty beef dish prepared ($14 a pint, $28 for a quart) and unprepared ($13 and $26). The beef is brined in salt and dried for about four days, then roasted in an oven and shredded. If you are willing to rehydrate the dried meat and add your own touches, get the unprepared. But we were on a deadline, remember, and had no interest in spending any more than a few moments with the stove. Besides, we’ve never been able to make ours as good as St. Mary’s. We got the prepared — juicy, with chopped green chile, onion, tomato, garlic and pepper. We sometimes wake up in the middle of the night longing for St. Mary’s carne seca — the smoky flavor is so distinctive, so delectable, and lives long in the memory. The quart was just enough for about eight medium burritos — remember that if you want leftovers.

Beans

Maybe it’s the lard that gives the refried beans ($4 for a pint, $8 a quart) such an over-the-top deliciousness. Maybe it’s because they are made with care. Whatever the reason, the legumes at St. Mary’s — mashed and creamy — are at a whole new level. Honest, we are not ones to ooh and aah over beans — unless they are St. Mary’s beans.

Rice

The Spanish rice ($4/pint, $8/quart) is kissed with tomato sauce. We found the rice we got for this dinner to be a bit sticky, but that was unusual — it’s generally light and fluffy.

Tamales

The red chile tamales ($14.50/dozen) were packed with beef and spicy enough to tease, but not burn. The vegetarian at our table was completely happy with the green corn tamales ($15.50/dozen), available to her because they are made without lard (as are the red chile). But we longed for more Cheddar cheese and a larger strip of roasted green chile — and, frankly, as scandalous as it is, lard just makes the masa better.

The extras

If you throw together little dishes of diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, onions, sour cream and grated Cheddar and/or crumbled Cotija cheeses (pick those up at your corner grocer), the table will look colorful and your guests can create their own dishes. And you want salsa, but why not make your own? A salsa fresca does not require heat. And you want to have at least one made-by-you item on the table.

(Mexican food goddess Diana Kennedy’s easy salsa fresca recipe: foodandwine.com/recipes/fresh-salsa-mexicana-from-jerez)

A few tips

St. Mary’s is often busy with long lines waiting to order at the counter. Call ahead and your food will be ready when you get there. Another reason to call ahead: we have gone late in the day — earlier on weekends — and found the tortillas are completely gone.

If you aren’t interested in dolling up a St. Mary’s dinner for home, you can eat at the bare tables there and order carne seca burritos ($4.50) or whatever else strikes your fancy. The restaurant is clean, with posters of works by Diego Rivera and others on the walls, but the ambiance comes from the hungry diners anticipating their first bites.

And finally: It’s easy to drive right by this restaurant. Look for the small burnt orange building on the northeast corner of West St. Mary’s Road and North Columbia Avenue. The name is one the facade, but it’s not easy to see.