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Review | Taqueria Sabor Mixteco showcases Oaxacan specialties in Silver Spring

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Review | Taqueria Sabor Mixteco showcases Oaxacan specialties in Silver Spring


Two of us are a few chomps into a tlayuda at the youthful Taqueria Sabor Mixteco when the chef approaches our table.

“Want to make it even more Oaxacan?” asks Juan Solano, 54. He says this with raised eyebrows and a smile. We nod and go back to eating the feast, an enormous tortilla packed with cheese, vegetables and chorizo, doubled over to form a dome above the contents and blistered from the grill.

A few moments later, the chef reappears with a ramekin of something black and mysterious and invites us to guess what’s in the little bowl.

Having visited Oaxaca before, I think I know the answer. Sure enough, Solano wants us to complete our tlayuda with fried grasshoppers, expectedly crisp and jolted with lime.

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Similar vignettes play out every time I’ve eaten at this charming storefront in Silver Spring, close to the Wheaton Metro stop and co-owned by the chef; Apolinar Cervantes, 47; and Marisol Gonzales, 52. The trio bring a lot of hospitality to the business. Solano previously cooked at the late and admired Mixtec and Enriqueta’s in Washington. Cervantes worked his way up from dishwasher to waiter at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, where he spent 22 years, while Gonzales, a onetime hostess at a children’s party restaurant in her native Mexico City, works as a nanny when she’s not at the restaurant.

Day or night, I’ve never visited without seeing Cervantes. His quiet enthusiasm alone pulls me back. The host takes his time detailing the dishes, instructs diners which of the three housemade salsas are best for which presentations, and offers free refills of agua fresca. (One glass of tamarindo or pineapple juice with hints of peach is never enough.) The food is apportioned as if you’re eating at Madre’s house. “Any sauce you want to take?” asks the host as he bundles the inevitable leftovers. I like the mild green tomatillo and the racy red arbol salsas, but the sauce sprung from the smoky morita chile, recommended for the tlayuda, lights my fire.

The chef is from La Mixteca, one of eight regions in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, which explains the restaurant’s name and the sweetness of his mole. A sauce made primarily for celebrations, Mixteco mole is offered with sugar for guests to pass at the table, he says. At Taqueria Sabor Mixteco, the sauce is created from raisins, cinnamon and chocolate as well as almonds, oregano and dried peppers including guajillo and ancho. The inky black combination drapes the very good shredded chicken enchiladas, striped with white crema and shored up with tomato-tinted rice and (vegetarian) refried black beans redolent of the garlic and onions that “go into everything,” jokes the chef.

The chef left Washington for Mexico City in 2008 to run a taqueria for several years before returning to the States. How delicious to have him back. I appreciate whatever meat — zesty chorizo, earthy braised beef tongue, pork sweetened with pineapple — dresses his warm, saucer-size corn tortillas. The canvases — thin enough to fold, thick enough to hoist without tearing — pick up color and texture from cilantro, sliced radishes, sweet chopped onion and your salsa of choice, although a simple spritz of lime is plenty sassy.

Maybe you’re in the mood for a torta. Credit for the two-fisted pleasure goes to Gonzales, whose mother made and sold tortas and tacos to workers building Mexico City’s metro when Gonzales was a young girl. As with so much that leaves the kitchen, the taqueria excels with the sandwich. Fluffy-crumbed telera bread is sliced in half, toasted and slathered with creamy mayonnaise (on top) and black beans (on the base). A choice of filling — make mine flame-colored al pastor — plus shredded, slightly rubbery Oaxacan cheese and crisp lettuce truly elevate the slices and make for one of the best tortas I know.

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One of the biggest comforts on a menu full of them is alambre, a rib-sticking collaboration of your choice of meat, onions and poblano peppers under a blanket of melted cheese. Those who like variety should ask for the juicy duo of braised beef and chorizo — and plan for a siesta afterward.

The list of daily specials might include one of the best chiles rellenos in memory. Fluffy egg clings to the velvet-textured poblano, which oozes warm cheese when it’s cut. A light sauce of tomato, onion and garlic burnishes the pepper. The one off note across several meals: chileajo, a Oaxacan pork stew from the chef’s hometown of Tezoatlán whose occasional bites of dry meat were partially salvaged by potato chunks swollen with the flavor of fruity costeno and guajillo peppers in the mix.

Gonzales whips up the flan, dense with cream cheese and scented with Mexican vanilla. Ask for a caramel-glossed slice to go if you’ve filled up on tacos, tortas or alambres. The dessert is a sight for sleepy eyes late at night: soothing nursery food no matter your age.

Color-drenched Oaxaca is channeled in a bright orange dining room where tables are covered in oil cloth and the ceiling is dressed with papel picado, Mexican paper cutouts. A few sombreros and upbeat chilena music complete the Mexican theme.

This cooking deserves something spirited to wash it back; the owners say they’ve applied for a license to sell alcohol. For the moment, if you ask about cocktails, the trio shows off ready-to-go jicaras, the small, shell-like cups used to serve mezcal.

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The biggest problem I see? Too few diners. That might be music to the ears of people who don’t want to raise their voice at lunch or dinner but not to the owners, whose labor of love deserves to play to a larger audience. Frankly, I’d trade the quiet for some noise, even a line out the door. Hence this shout-out.

Taqueria Sabor Mixteco

2462 Ennalls Ave., Silver Spring. 240-500-3833. sabormixteco.com. Open for indoor and outdoor dining and delivery and takeout, 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Prices: Dinner appetizers $3 to $14.95, tacos $3.75 to $4.95, main courses $12 to $29.75. Sound check: 69 decibels/Conversation is easy. Accessibility: No barriers to entrance; ADA-compliant restroom.



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Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily

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Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily


The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “on behalf of the Department of Education (ED),” on Monday released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Applications are due by May 29.

Last November, ED announced that it had entered into an interagency agreement with HHS to administer the CCAMPIS program. This is the first CCAMPIS competition conducted under this arrangement.

Approximately $73.5 million will go to institutions of higher education that awarded at least $250,000 in Pell grants to enrolled students in FY 2025. HHS will award about 148 grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.

The terms of the grant competition are not significantly different than prior competitions. As before, there are two absolute grant priorities that every application must address – leveraging non-federal resources and utilizing a sliding-fee scale for low-income parents.

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This year’s competition includes only one invitational priority that reflects the Trump administration’s general educational policy. The new priority, entitled “Expanding Education Choice in Early Learning Settings,” encourages applications that “expand access to education choice … including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.” Flexible childcare programs that include drop-in care and care during nontraditional hours are also encouraged.

One other notable difference from prior competitions is an expanded “Terms and Conditions” section that not only requires compliance with applicable civil rights laws, but also refers to Trump administration Executive Orders and guidance on racial discrimination that clarify “the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs.” This includes any “discriminatory equity ideology [as defined in Executive Order 14190] in violation of a federal antidiscrimination law.”

The exact scope of these terms is unclear because courts have not found many of the practices described in these Executive Orders and guidance documents to be violations of federal law.



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A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington

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A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington


The Newsfeed

This week, the team brings you stories about how communities including Filipino immigrants, Sephardic Jews and Somalis arrived in the Pacific Northwest

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Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.

Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle’s Filipinotown 



By Venice Buhain

The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn’t forgotten. 

One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID. 

“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.  

He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.” 

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The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum  

In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID. 

“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said. 

Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.  

While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.  

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“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said. 

The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals. 

Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle. 

“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It’s all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it’s more than one thing,” Cabanilla said. 

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Venice Buhain

Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.



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The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple

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The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple


The state of Washington is getting a seventh temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Marysville Washington Temple was announced Sunday night during a devotional in the Marysville Washington Stake by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy in the church’s United States West Area Presidency.

“We are pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Marysville, Washington,” the First Presidency said in a statement. “The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later. This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and express gratitude for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”

The other temples in Washington are the Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver temples.

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The church has 214 temples in operation. Plans for another 170 temples have been announced; many of those temples are in various stages of planning and construction.

Sunday’s temple announcement follows the new practice of the church’s First Presidency, which determines where temples will be built — and when and how they will be announced.

The First Presidency directed a General Authority Seventy to announce the first temple in Maine at a fireside there in December.

In January, church President Dallin H. Oaks said the Maine announcement set the pattern for future temple announcements.

“The best place to announce a temple is in that temple district,” he told the Deseret News.

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The First Presidency will continue to decide where future temples will be built. It then will “assign someone else to make the announcement in the place where the temple will be built,” he said.

This pattern came to him as a strong impression after he assumed leadership of the church in October, following the death of his friend, President Russell M. Nelson.

This came as a strong impression to him shortly after he assumed the leadership of the church, President Oaks said.

The church remains in the midst of an aggressive temple-building era. President Nelson announced 200 new temples from 2018 to 2025. All but one were announced at general conference.

Five dozen temples are now under construction.

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President Oaks now has overseen the announcement of two temples, neither at a general conference.

At the October conference he said that “with the large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”

Ten new temples are scheduled to be dedicated in the next six months.

  • May 3: Davao Philippines Temple.
  • May 3: Lindon Utah Temple.
  • May 31: Bacolod Philippines Temple.
  • June 7: Yorba Linda California Temple.
  • June 7: Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
  • Aug. 16: Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple.
  • Aug. 16: Cleveland Ohio Temple.
  • Aug. 30: Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple.
  • Oct. 11: Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
  • Oct. 18: Managua Nicaragua Temple.

Two-thirds of the 170 temples still to be built are outside the United States.

Temples are distinct from the meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ each Sunday. Temples are closed on Sundays, but they open during the week as sanctuaries where church members go to find peace, make covenants with God and perform proxy ordinances for deceased relatives.



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