Some of the city's freshest tortillas are bubbling on the griddles at Komal in historic south-central, arriving freshly blistered and blue, yellow or white. The highly anticipated mill and restaurant from a Holbox and Damián alumna is now open at Mercado La Paloma to offer freshly ground masa, a variety of appetizers and, eventually, a tasting menu.
“I love my culture and the basis of Mexican culture is corn,” said Fátima Júarez, founder of Komal.
Juárez oversees one of the region's only artisanal mills, which nixtamalizes and grinds heritage-breed corn from small farmers across Mexico. She is part of an intimate group of tortilla makers that includes the likes of Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project and Ricardo Ortega and Omar Ahmed, from the Nucleus of Truth.
At her new restaurant stand in the famous food hall, she and her husband, Conrado Rivera, offer the dough by the pound or in the form of tortillas, or in appetizers that recall her childhood in Oaxaca and her upbringing in Mexico City. Juárez grew up cooking with her mother and grandmother in her family's restaurant and still remembers playing with fresh dough as a child.
The corn is nixtamalized on site between 12 and 14 hours.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
There are approximately 60 unique varieties of corn in Mexico, and Komal offers some of them: yellow ball from Oaxaca, red Conico from the State of Mexico and Chalqueño azul, also from the State of Mexico; Future lots of corn will vary, depending on farmer availability. Komal sources its traditional corn through importing company Tamoa, which works directly with small farms and offers ethical compensation.
Júarez and Rivera moved to Los Angeles from Mexico City in 2016, when they both found work in Chichén Itzá: she preparing and washing dishes, he as a waiter and front-of-house manager, helping award-winning chef Gilberto Cetina run his Yucatecan food stall. in the same market where Komal now resides.
When Cetina launched Holbox at a nearby post, Juárez and Rivera joined him. She describes the chef as her mentor and older brother. Shortly into the new space, Cetina approached her to tell her about her culinary goals and she told him it was simple: she wanted to work with corn. He encouraged her and the mass supply in Holbox benefited.
“He always supported me,” Juárez said. “If I did something wrong, he always said, 'Don't worry, you got it.' It is very emotional for me because I have no family here in Los Angeles, and the Holbox team, they are my family.”
The family connection extends far beyond support and extends to the taste of their dough.
Many Mercado La Paloma employees miss their families, as they came to Los Angeles to build a new life but left many behind. Komal and his masses, Juárez said, have helped provide comfort and memories of their loved ones and former homes.
Fátima Júarez, co-owner of Komal, works in the kitchen line of her restaurant and mill.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
“Here in Mercado we are immigrants,” he said. “When I grind the corn in the mill, people say: 'I remember Mexico', 'I remember Guatemala'. People smell the corn and remember their family, they remember their country, all of it. “They always give me advice, they support me and this project is for everyone.”
She herself had missed the flavors of this corn. When he moved to Los Angeles almost a decade ago, despite its abundance of great Mexican restaurants, Juárez was missing the taste of corn. After years of searching for enchiladas that were reminiscent of her mother's version of homemade tortilla, or the snacks found on the corners of Oaxaca and Mexico City, she decided to build her own business, separating from Cetina's.
Komal's wholesale arm, which started a year and a half ago, supplies Holbox, El Matatán in Orange and chef Carlos Gaytán's three restaurants in Downtown Disney, among others. Each week she makes between 2,500 and 3,000 pounds of dough for her restaurant customers, and while she was happy to remain a wholesale operation, when a booth opened in the dining room earlier this year, she and Rivera jumped at the opportunity to convert Komal in a restaurant.
They hand-laid the Komal tiles, spread in different shades of yellow to imitate corn kernels. They plan to build a small eight-seat counter at the front of the booth.
Juárez and her female kitchen arrive around 4 in the morning to clean the corn, which has been nixtamalized on site for between 12 and 14 hours. They then grind it into dough, a process that can vary depending on the variety. The dough is sold by the pound, or as tortillas or as fried shaved toast, which can be ordered in advance.
Tlacoyos, made of blue and yellow corn, filled with ayocote beans
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
It also forms the basis of the small menu of appetizers, where grilled ovular tlacoyos, stuffed with ayocote beans, are topped with nopales and fresh cheese, or where thin, flexible quesadillas ooze Oaxacan cheese and fillings such as squash blossoms, oyster mushrooms or a fresh chorizo made by a team member from the neighboring Chichén Itzá food stand. Taco Sonia, named after her favorite taqueria in Mexico City, is served with beef shoulder, chorizo, and potatoes or nopales. Cheese-stuffed banana balls float in a rich, homemade Oaxacan mole negro. Thick pieces of pumpkin bread, studded with chunks of zucchini, can come topped with dollops of cream.
Over time, Juárez and Rivera hope to expand not only their hours of operation but also their menu: in a few months they hope to introduce a weekly tasting menu that will feature crickets, ants and other ingredients less used in the US. to accompany variations of its dough. .
“At those tasting dinners, she will explore all the things that can't be included on an everyday menu,” Rivera said. At those dinners you could even see collaborative dishes between Júarez and her neighbor and mentor at Mercado La Paloma, Cetina.
“Now that we have our space,” Rivera added, “we welcome everyone.”
Komal is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 3655 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
