Submitted by: Dianne M. Bret Harte
In the mid-1920s my grandmother Lydia Roca Smalley lent her cook, Rosa, to work at the short-lived tearoom, La Cazuela—in the old Fish/Stevens house— established by my mother Yndia Smalley (Moore) and her friend Malcolm Cummings, son of the renowned archaeologist Byron Cummings. During her time with my family Rosa had learned to make my grandmother’s popular adaptation of the then-trendy snow pudding. Granmamá added almond flavoring, tinted the pudding the colors of the Mexican flag, and called it almendrado When La Cazuela didn’t make it, my mother, Yndia Smalley (Moore) found a position for her cook at El Charro. Recipe in hand, Rosa went to work for Monica Flin, who loved almendrado and added it to the menu at El Charro.
