San Antonio 100: Spicy Puntas de Puerco at Paloma Blanca

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Dining at Paloma Blanca, the culinary darling of Alamo Heights that deftly celebrates Mexican cuisine, isn’t just an experience. It’s an exercise in indulgence. On a warm day, with a slight breeze, lunch on their patio, with a jalapeño martini in hand and guacamole prepared table-side is pretty much, as one is so often wont to say, absolute perfection.

Regardless of when you go, be it that lunch-perfect day, a leisurely Sunday for brunch, or a Friday evening with friends before a night on the town, you can order their most delicious option on the menu: puntas de puerco.

The dish, a staple of traditional Mexican menus, is a succulent offering of garlic-roasted pork in a pungent chipotle pepper sauce. It swiftly brings the heat, and each bite leads to the next with increasing ferocity and desire. This is not a meal for the weak-palated or those unwilling to expand their tastebuds’ horizons, and it rewards as such, with unparalleled satiation. Served with rice and charro beans, or sub a salad, and the always-ubiquitous side of tortillas — their corn variation, made in-house, should be your only logical choice — Paloma’s puntas de puerco is a feasting delight not to be missed.

The waitstaff is super friendly and eager to make your stay a memorable one for as little or as long as you care to spend. After all, whiling away an afternoon at this establishment is very easy, and, frankly, very suggested, if it can be afforded. To that end, an extraneous order of their on-site prepared flan will help accomplish this goal. And go ahead and order that second cocktail. The full bar beckons with its sweet siren’s song, a decadence you surely deserve.

Paloma Blanca, 5800 Broadway, (210) 822-6151.