In Emmanuel Corona’s life, three places are particularly meaningful – Mexico City, where he was born; San Luis Potosi, where he lived for part of his childhood; and Milwaukee, where he took much of what he learned in Mexico and built a culinary career and home. Some of his first food memories are of watching his grandmother and mother cook. Many of the dishes Corona has on his menu now at La Dama are ones they raised children on. “They would make mole, mole paste for the whole week and those [ayocotes] beans [an heirloom variety that originated in central Mexico] that I use over here, too. Those are, like, really typical” of the places where he grew up. In their tiny kitchen, young Corona watched these women work. His grandma made blood sausage by hand. They both made masa cakes steamed in corn husks (tamales), and the egg, ham, tortilla dish eaten often at breakfast [huevos rancheros]. The family would push carts of their homemade tamales around Mexico City, selling the savory handheld meals. When they moved to San Luis Potosi, Corona’s mother’s hometown, Corona had his first taste of enchiladas potosinas, which look more like empanadas, and fell in love. Huevos rancheros is the very first thing Corona learned how to make. His mother taught him because it was an easy, delicious dish to keep him and his brothers fed when she wasn’t home. It is home. It is childhood. In the same way, Corona’s enchiladas potosinas – guajillo chile paste-seasoned masa topped with potatoes, queso, crisp lettuce and a green sauce – is a memory that’s now sprouted in his adopted hometown. Corona’s hands repeat the motions his mother’s fingers performed back home in Mexico – making the chile paste and mixing it into the masa dough, kneading, forming balls and cooking them in the comal (griddle). “She still makes them on Saturdays and sells them,” he says of the dish named after the city where it was born. “That dish means a lot to me. Every chance I get, I make them for myself and for my kids.