A salad of contrasts: You won’t find a jicama and mango salad ($8.39) at many Mexican restaurants. But they serve this refreshing dish at 1308 Cantina El Tiempo (1308 Montrose, 713-807-8996). It contains just three main ingredients — jicama, mango and pomegranate seeds. Not only do the textures of the components go together beautifully, but the tastes mingle together in interesting ways, with the bland jicama, sweet mango and tart pomegranate tossed in a sparingly applied cilantro-lime dressing. You wouldn’t want to do too much to this already complex series of flavors. And the dish’s mix of white, purple and yellow is pretty to look at, too.
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2008.