What are chilaquiles? Probably the best breakfast you will ever have. The loose translation from Spanish means “leftovers” but the taste is far from “leftover”. This Mexican dish has become pretty popular in the US, and is available at many Mexican restaurants all over.

In more authentic Mexican restaurants, they deep fry their own tortillas to make the nachos that they serve in their dishes. Not only are these sinfully good, the stale day-after ones are also the main ingredient in chilaquiles. They take the nachos, soak them in a pan of warmed homemade salsa (or mole), strain them and put them on a platter. They layer the soaked nachos with cheese (in the US its a mozerella type) and refried been, then broil them. Some people add chili, beef or chicken on top as well. It’s a great dish to have when you’ve danced a bit too much and slept a bit too little the night before.

This is the best recipe I’ve found to date.

I’ve only been lucky enough to have chilaquiles once in Toronto at El Jacalito. I was excited to try them, but left disappointed. I’ve done some research in hopes of finding another restaurant offering the dish, but so far, no dice. I’ve had one other recommendation from a trusted reader, La Mexicana in Yorkville, so when I try them I’ll add an update to this post.

The best I’ve had to date are in San Francisco and at Mexican Town in Detroit. If you know of any other places in the GTA please let me know and then I’ll write about them after I go.