Pancho's, With A Touch Of Evil To Go

Feeling a little spicy this week, we decided to go over the border to Mexico. Gastronomically and cinematically, speaking. 

Located right on Main Street, is a fun little Tex-Mex restaurant that dishes up really good food, not to mention outstanding drinks. And although you're always guarenteed a good time dining in at Pancho's, we're all about the take-out this week.

Appetizers are a must, in fact, we've been known to take out appetizers only and call it a party! Some favorites are the jalapeno poppers, spicy fries and the Texas Buffalo Wings, or as we like to call it, "the three-alarm fire." For some reason, it's just not proper Tex-Mex unless there's sweat on our brow and tears in our eyes. 

Being a creature of habit, we usually go for the "Big Vegetarian Burrito"--Spanish rice, black beans, jack cheese, shredded lettuce wrapped in a flour tortilla with guac and salsa. However, being a strict carnivore, we completely desecrate the dish by adding shredded beef chili to it. As one of our vegetarian friends commented one night, "It's like taking a house of worship and turning it into a house of sin." Quite a compliment for a 12-year veteran of the Catholic school system.

If burritos bore you and tacos can't tempt you, Pancho's has an entire menu of alternative options. From fajitas to grilled options, click here to see the full menu.

To take the heat off the tongue, instead of beer, we suggest having a pitcher of icy cold mojitos (recipe to follow) or a nice chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc--cool on the tongue, dry, crisp and herbaceously refreshing. 

The perfect movie to pair with Pancho's is Orson Welles' 1958 film noir classic, A Touch of Evil, starring Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh and Marlene Dietrich.

The film opens at the Mexican border with one of the longest plot set-ups in the history of crime thriller plot set-ups with a man planting a time bomb in a car. Enter honeymooners Heston and Leigh and the thriller is off and running when the car they are driving behind explodes as it drives over the U.S. border.

Heston (who will always be Moses to this editor) plays Miguel Vargas, a drug enforcement official in the Mexican government. You just haven't seen Heston until you've seen Heston playing a Mexican DEA agent. It reminds me of the scene in the movie Ed Wood when Johnny Depp's character, Ed Wood, is complaining to Orson Welles, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, about how producers always want the wrong actors to play certain parts in their movies. Welles says, "Tell me about it. I'm supposed to direct a thriller for Universal. They want Charlton Heston to play a Mexican!"

However, once you get past the dark, distracting make-up designed to racially transform Heston, the movie is deep and dark and pure fifties noir. And can any movie with Janet Leigh be bad? This was the film that would propel her career. After this, came Psycho, The Manchurian Candidate and Bye Bye Birdie.

When Leigh goes missing Heston finds the gang that drugged and kidnapped her and gives them one of the best screen smack downs ever filmed.

Welles of course had problems with Universal and they cut him out of final editing, so the original cut of the movie is not the director's cut. The film has since been re-edited and stands as one of the most classic American crime noir films of all time. 

If you've had enough mojitos by the time this movie ends, you'll be convinced that Charlton Heston was from over the border and start swearing to the world that Moses was Mexican. 

Although Cuban in origin, mojitos are the perfect spritzer for a spicy palette. For the perfect thirst-quenching mojito, try this recipe:

• Find a large pitcher. If desperate, your mother's old Sunday sauce pot that you inherited (or borrowed and never returned) will work in a pinch.
• To begin, boil one cup of sugar with one cup of water. Remove from heat and add 10 ice cubes to cool it down. 
• In a small bowl add 1 c. lime juice
• Add 1 c. of loosely packed mint leaves to lime juice
• Muddle the mint into the lime juice (use a meat mallet to muddle)
• Pour in the sugar-water mixture
• 2 c. of rum
• 2 c. club soda

Important: Do Not Add Ice to pitcher. The cubes will eventually melt and water down the drink. Remember: Water your plants, not your alcohol.