GDLicious: latina i and Anita li

Last night we took a drive down by the railroad tracks on Inglaterra, where a couple of restaurants with just the right dose of west coast kitsch and fusion sabor have taken the food scene by storm here in Guadalajara. We took a table upstairs at Latina i with a view of the piggies (scroll through the photos to find them) behind the bar and sipped a "negrony" and some delightful kiwi vodka concoction, accompanied by spring rolls with a kicking chile verde peanut sauce and some really fabulous cachos, or scallops, also with a divine sauce, before moving on to the sister restaurant down the block. Anita li is a little more upscale, a little flashier, with lots of crystal chandeliers and decor by lolo!. There, while Mike inhaled an espresso and a creme de vainilla, I headed straight for one of their very popular entrees, the flauta del mar, which was delicately doused with simply one of the best green salsas I've ever had the pleasure of trying, made on this occasion with chile guero and avocado. Aside from the refreshingly unstuffy ambiance, what I really loved was the vodka maracuya. Passionfruit is one of those flavors that always transports me back to my first encounter with Latin America, some (gulp) nearly twenty years ago, where the juice was served at nearly every little family restaurant and cafe in Ecuador. We'll go back (to both the restaurants and South America) as soon as appetite and opportunity combine.