The best things I ate and drank in Santa Cruz County in May

The best things I ate and drank in Santa Cruz County in May are also excellent choices to usher in summer, the season of “why not.” As in, why not treat yourself to an outrageous fruity quencher, made by hand to order at a snack shop in Watsonville? 

It’s the right time to indulge in comfort food at an azul-colored food truck, and why not try its banana milk latte that all the kids on social media are posting about? 

The best things I ate in Santa Cruz County in: January | February | March | April

After a long day at the beach, the desire to be near the ocean follows us into restaurants like sand clinging to our ankles. At Lago di Como in Live Oak, a celebratory seafood platter offers a bounty of fish transformed by fire. At Mentone in Aptos, the briny house martini emphasizes its saltwater inspiration with a skewered anchovy. You can also add a bump of caviar to complete the experience, so, say it with me now … 

Move over slushies: Aguanadas ($9.89) are the ultimate summer drink. There’s nothing more refreshing or fun than this fruity agua fresca-meets-mangonada at La Michoacana Plus Ice Cream & Pizza in Watsonville, a colorful shop that sells an eye-popping array of treats, from ice cream popsicles to loaded Tostilocos. 

For the strawberry aguanada, fresh berries – grown in Watsonville – are crushed until juicy and mixed with fresh lime juice, water and ice, swirled with tangy red chamoy and poured into a barrel-shaped goblet rimmed with more chamoy. Then – yes, there’s more – the whole drink is topped with diced cucumber and mango, a Tajin-dusted wedge of lime and a short tamarind candy straw. Part snack, part beverage, it’s the only thing on my mind on warm days.

My drink of choice is a dirty gin martini made by someone who knows what they’re doing. Matthew Barron, the bar director at Mentone in Aptos, is such a person, and the Mentone Martini ($19) he created for the Michelin Guide-listed restaurant is unlike any other. 

If you want a crystalline beverage that evaporates on your palette, look elsewhere. The ingredients reflect the coastal roots of the Italian Riviera-inspired restaurant. Barron uses a gin washed in olive oil, which smoothes its edges in silk, shaken with dry vermouth distilled in Turin, Italy, and a bitter Corsican aperitif. The result is intensely savory and seductive, like slurping down a cold oyster drizzled with olive oil and all its brine. Driving the point home, the drink comes with both olives, a skewered anchovy and, if desired, a pearl spoonful of caviar ($10). 

In May, my mother celebrated a birthday that ended in a zero with dinner at Lago di Como in Live Oak. Aside from the cheers when she blew out her candles, the strongest reaction from the guests came when my entrée was placed on the table. 

The grigliata di mare ($52) is an impressive seafood platter laden with oceanic delights charred and infused with smoke in Lago di Como’s wood-fired oven: filets of swordfish and seared ahi, a giant head-on prawn and a twisting octopus tentacle. Served on a salad of fresh lettuces and vegetables, with bright salsa verde, it could easily be shared by two people, and exuded the easy indulgence and elegance that I’ve come to expect from one of the area’s best Italian restaurants. 

It’s impossible to miss a Cafécto food truck, wrapped in dark turquoise and sporting the visage of an old school caballero sipping a cup of joe. Owner Sal Murillo has two trucks – one parked on Westridge Drive in Watsonville and a second off of Water Street in Santa Cruz that he opened earlier this year. Both are open daily, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the weekends. 

The menu offers flavorful takes on Mexican American brunch and lunch, including burritos, sandwiches and tortas, tacos and bowls. No matter what time of day, the chilaquiles ($14) is a solid choice, with eggs, refried beans, queso fresco and creamy guacamole served over a pile of tortilla chips softened with a generous amount of herbaceous green salsa. 

As the name implies, Cafécto also offers specialty drinks made with coffee, matcha and chai. The banana milk latté ($7) uses non-dairy banana milk – basically bananas blended with water to a creamy consistency – sweetened with cajeta, dulce de leche’s goat milk cousin, and topped with fresh banana. Never had fruit in your coffee? Enter here and you’ll never turn back. 

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