Octavio Peña

Freelance writer with KQED, Eater, Serious Eats, Food & Wine, and more

Serious Eats •

This Rich, Creamy Horchata Gets an Unexpected Upgrade From Black Sesame

I have probably drunk hundreds of gallons of horchata in my lifetime. I love it so much that I named my frisky white-and-brown Pomeranian Horchata. Surprisingly, my favorite glass didn’t come from a Mexican restaurant but from Barya Kitchen, a Filipino-Mexican fusion food truck in San Jose, California. Their horchata is strikingly purple and nutty thanks to the addition of ube and black sesame.

This recipe is my take on that unforgettable drink. I build on the more traditional rice horchata I...
Serious Eats •

My Loaded Mexican Potato Salad Steals the Show at Every Cookout

When I was growing up, my mom would fry up a tall pile of flautas nearly every Friday. The crispy rolled tacos were usually filled with shredded poached chicken or mashed potatoes, but the real fun came afterward, when everyone piled on their favorite toppings. Bowls of crema, cotija, shredded cabbage, diced onion, pickled chiles, beans, and salsa covered the table, and no two plates 1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, minced 

When I was growing up, my mom would fry up a tall pile of flautas...
Serious Eats •

I’d Eat This Juicy Mexican Grilled Chicken Over Carne Asada Any Day

My most controversial opinion about Mexican barbecue is that carne asada is my least favorite grilled meat. At my family’s barbecues, I always reached for the chuletas (pork chops) or, better yet, the pollo asado (grilled chicken). I love how their rich, fatty cuts transform over the coals, with crisp, blistered edges giving way to juicy meat beneath—something I’ve always found more satisfying than even the best grilled steak.

Roadside vendors grilling whole chickens are a common sight in many...
Serious Eats •

These Juicy Grilled Pork Tacos Get a Bright Citrus Upgrade

I believe the Yucatán Peninsula is home to one of Mexico’s best regional cuisines. Many people are familiar with cochinita pibil and panuchos, but there are countless other dishes worth seeking out. Some of my favorites include papadzules (hard-boiled egg tacos in pumpkin seed sauce), sopa de lima (lime soup), and salbutes (fried tortillas topped with black beans and turkey). Many of the region’s dishes are defined by the bright citrus that grows there. One of my favorites is poc chuc, a Mayan d...
Serious Eats •

These Crispy, Cheesy Gringas Are My Favorite Taco-Night Upgrade

I never visit a taco truck without ordering at least one al pastor taco, especially if there's a flame-kissed trompo (rotating spit) spinning behind the counter, and a taquero carving crispy-edged slices of marinated pork with sweet, smoky pineapple from it.. But if I'm especially hungry, I'll order a gringa instead: a flour tortilla folded around al pastor, melted cheese, and pineapple, landing somewhere between a quesadilla and a taco.

After enough late-night taco truck outings, I wanted a w...
NYT Cooking •

Frijoles Charros Recipe • 30 min

Frijoles charros are porky stewed beans named for the Mexican cowboys (charros) who traditionally prepared the dish over a campfire. Here, that flavor is evoked with canned fire-roasted tomatoes, but if that’s not smoky enough for you, you can also drop in a couple chipotles in adobo. Tomatoes, bacon, garlic and anchovies (a non-traditional addition) all add savory notes to the beans. While any fresh chiles will work in the dish, Thai chiles carry a kick of heat and fruitiness that works especia...
Serious Eats •

The Easy Method Behind Every Great Agua Fresca, Including Horchata and Watermelon

I'm always surprised by how popular aguas frescas have become in the United States over the last few years. You can find them everywhere—from taco trucks to Starbucks to Disneyland. My favorite place to get aguas frescas, though, is my local flea market in San Jose, California, where vendors line up with vitroleros (barrel-shaped jugs) filled with aguas frescas in every shade of the rainbow.

Most Mexican restaurants and food trucks stick to jamaica (a tart hibiscus drink) and horchata (a sweet...
KQED •

The South Bay’s First Nigerian Restaurant Takes Off in San José | KQED

When Folake Adewole first moved to San José in 2017 to take a job as a travel nurse, there wasn’t a single Nigerian restaurant in the area. For the past 10 years, whenever she was craving beef suya or jollof rice, she had to drive up to Hayward — or, more likely, just cook it herself.In March, Adewole finally decided to take things into her own hands: She opened FolaFela, a small Nigerian restaurant tucked into a strip mall in East San José. It’s the South Bay’s first proper brick-and-mortar Nig...
NYT Cooking •

Sikil Pak (Pumpkin Seed Dip) Recipe • 20 min

Sikil pak is often referred to as Mayan hummus due to its creamy texture. Sikil pak is traditionally made by crushing pepitas in a molcajete, so it has more of a coarse mouthfeel. A food processor mimics the texture most closely, but a blender will work too. If you prefer your salsas on the mild side, start with half a habanero. Citrus plays a central role in Mayan cuisine: here it lends brightness and boosts the fruity notes of the chiles. This is a bold salsa that’s best enjoyed slathered on a...
Serious Eats •

This One-Skillet Mexican Chicken Dinner Is Smoky, Cheesy, and Built for Weeknights

Communal dishes are my favorite way of sharing a meal with family and friends—whether it's a flurry of hands tearing into a giant dosa or coordinating toppings for hot pot. In Mexican cuisine, an alambre is a popular shared dish in which diners use tortillas as a glove to grab a fistful of melted cheese along with meat and vegetables. The name alambre translates to "wire," a nod to earlier versions of the dish that were cooked on skewers rather than in a skillet. This large, shareable meal invit...
Serious Eats •

I Grew Up Eating This Comforting Mexican Potato Dish—It’s Still One of My Favorites

You're unlikely to find papas guisadas—stewed potatoes—on a restaurant menu. It's a dish you'll find in Mexican and Mexican-American home kitchens, especially on nights when the fridge is running low, and a bag of potatoes is still sitting on the counter. It's simple, filling, and made with ingredients most people already have on hand. It's also a dish my abuela would insist I eat when I had a runny nose, whether I was hungry or not.

At its most basic, papas guisadas are chunks of potato simme...
Serious Eats •

This 30-Minute Mexican Mac and Cheese Is Gooey, Crunchy, and Bright From Salsa Verde

I have a strange relationship with macaroni and cheese. It's a dish I associate with Thanksgiving—something rich, comforting, and worth going back for seconds. But it was also a college survival meal, food I ate so often out of a microwave that I eventually swore it off entirely.

While my student loan payments still loom, my aversion to mac and cheese does not. Somewhere along the way, I came back to it—this time with a better kitchen, a little more know-how, and higher expectations. My versio...
NYT Cooking •

Salmon Tostadas With Citrus Salsa Recipe • 30 min

Poached salmon is the perfect canvas for a spicy and tangy salsa. Cilantro stems, onion and garlic flavor the fish during its brief simmer. Habaneros and citrus juice synergize to produce an intensely fruity and bright sauce. It’s a popular flavor combination in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. You can cut back to a single habanero but avoid swapping for a milder chile since it won’t have the same fruity flavor. The chiles are charred along with onion and garlic to add a hint of smokiness, but feel f...
KQED •

A New San José Restaurant Offers the Largest Variety of Burritos in the Bay

If burrito eating were a professional sport, I would probably be one of the highest-ranked players in the league. I’ve eaten hundreds of burritos across the Bay Area, usually sitting in my car with salsas spread across the dash. But even a pro eater might be intimidated by the staggering selection at Cuco’s Burritos, which offers more than 14 different specialty styles — the most I’ve ever encountered in the Bay.
On my first visit to the restaurant’s brand new location in San José, I couldn’t de...
Resy | Right This Way •

Why Bombera Remains a Singular Oakland Restaurant

When Dominica Rice-Cisneros opened Bombera in 2021, she knew that she wanted to continue the tradition of “Mole Mondays” that she had established at Cosecha, her previous restaurant. Today, Bombera offers multiple moles each day served in various preparations alongside meats and vegetables.
“Enjoying and eating moles is something I’ve done my whole life,” says Rice-Cisneros. Moles are often categorized by color or place of origin in Mexico, but within those classifications exists a wide variety...
Serious Eats •

Salsa Macha Transforms These Mexican Brothy Beans Into a Memorable Meal

Growing up in a Mexican household, I ate beans at least a few times per week. It was typically  frijoles de la olla (beans from the pot) , refried beans, or morisqueta. Beans were essential but never the star of the show; they were a side dish paired with arroz and a stew. For a long time, I didn't think of beans as anything more. 

My opinion changed after a visit to Bombera, a Mexican restaurant in Oakland with a  Michelin Bib Gourmand designation. The most memorable dish on the menu is charr...
NYT Cooking •

Salsa Macha Pork Noodles Recipe • 30 min

These noodles are inspired by mazemen, a brothless ramen that is sometimes tossed with a saucy pork mixture. In this case, the sauce is salsa macha (a nutty Mexican chile oil) seasoned with cumin and oregano. Chiles de árbol incorporate heat while guajillos add a sweet fruitiness. The dish is freshened up with cilantro, scallions and a heavy dose of lime juice. You can also top the noodles with a raw egg yolk or a soft-boiled egg. The dish comes together in less than half an hour, making it the...
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