Eddie Hernandez met Mike Klank in 1987 when he applied for a serving position at Klank’s soon-to-open Atlanta restaurant Taqueria del Sol. And even though Hernandez made it clear the back-of-house was not where he wanted to be when he offered to help Taqueria’s kitchen, it’s where he’s been for 30 years.
A staple of the menu since the year after Taqueria opened is the turnip greens de arbol. Creating the dish was a true test for Hernandez, who had never come across the root vegetable before. Still, he applied the traditional Southern technique of preparing turnip greens before adding fresh vegetables and Mexican spices to negate the bitterness of the vegetable.
The technique is what became Taqueria del Sol’s eventual benchmark, and what turned the restaurant into an Atlanta staple.
Watch the full video above. Turnip Greens de Arbol is a film made for the Southern Foodways Alliance, an ongoing documentary project that "documents, studies, and explores the diverse food cultures of the changing American South."
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