Eaters Digest is delivered as a free newsletter via email, as well as on our website. Sign up for texts from me to get an alert the moment it’s in your inbox. To read the full story, click here to become a Lookout member – and access all of Lily Belli’s food and beverage reporting.
Eat this: Mole negro at Copal
I’m kicking off 2024 with a personal goal – I’m going vegetarian for the month of January. After researching Lookout’s Santa Cruz County burger guide and a month of holiday feasting, I want to shift the way I’ve been eating for a few weeks, and I’m taking all of you with me.
This month, this column will focus on vegetarian and vegan cuisine. Every week through the end of January, I’ll share an exceptional meat-free or entirely plant-based dish in Santa Cruz County that’s dynamic, exciting and worth seeking out regardless of your dietary preferences.
First up is the deep, rich mole negro ($23) at Copal, an Oaxacan restaurant on Mission Street in Santa Cruz. Mole is a traditional sauce from Oaxaca, a region in Mexico renowned for its vibrant cuisine, although the word “sauce” doesn’t do justice to the labor and skill required to create a good mole. The mole negro at Copal is made over the course of three days with more than 30 ingredients, including chocolate, tomatoes, tomatillos, toasted nuts, hierba santa – a Mexican culinary herb – and avocado leaf. Dried chiles toasted to cinders give the mole its nearly black color.
The glossy mole is spooned over a protein of your choosing – I chose a mixture of tempeh, garbanzo beans and roasted chayote squash – along with white rice and fresh, warm homemade tortillas, but the dark, smooth sauce against the white plate makes for a dramatic presentation. One can glimpse flavors of chocolate, wood smoke and sweet plantain through the rich, harmonious sauce, but it’s like trying to pick layers out of a croissant. It’s nearly impossible to resist dragging a torn piece of warm tortilla through every drop.
1203 Mission St., Santa Cruz. 831-201-4418. Copalrestaurant.com.
Best of the week ahead
Below, find a curated list of the best food and drink events in Santa Cruz County for the coming week. At the top, I share my picks of unmissable local happenings.
News of the week
ICYMI – Here are the food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed, plus important news from beyond our borders picked by yours truly.
- Stern opens The Midway in Midtown with focus on local farms (Lookout)
- Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing sold to owners of Sante Adairius, Private Press (Lookout)
- Do not eat these jarred food products, California health officials say (KTLA)
- January SNAP payments worth up to $1,751 for California residents end in five days (Washington Examiner)