By Lauren Saria – | Arizona Republic – AZCentral.com – Photo Not Credited.
Smoke wafts toward the ceiling of the matchbox-size kitchen at Barrio Cafe Gran Reserva as chef Silvana Salcido Esparza cooks verdolagas over an orange-blue flame. Though the vegetable is widely considered a weed in the U.S., it’s common to find at Mexican markets and in Mexican cooking. Esparza uses her fingers to prod the petite, tear-shaped greens around the pan, stopping to adjust thick-rimmed black glasses that rest under a head of curly black hair fringed with white.
