Pati Jinich couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about over Lomitos de Valladolid, the simple dish of pork tenderloin pieces cooked down with tomato and onion that she sampled all over Mexico's Yucatan peninsula while filming her PBS show, "Pati's Mexican Table."
"I was always wondering why every restaurant and hotel was serving this dish in all these areas when it's not that great — just pork meat, cut into small pieces and then cooked and served in a watery tomato sauce, (which) you eat with tortillas and black beans," said the Mexico City-born Jinich, who's a chef and cookbook author in addition to hosting her James Beard award-winning PBS series. "People are so fond of this dish; it's called lomito — the 'ito' ending referring to something that's small or really loved. And it has the last name of a city in the name, which means the city is insanely proud of it. I kept ordering it, thinking maybe I'm getting something wrong."
