April 14, 2017 Walking Oaxaca and Dinner – El Destilado nine course tasting menu

April 14, 2017 Walking Oaxaca and Dinner – El Destilado nine course tasting menu

We woke up at 8:30 and ate Some else’s dinner of cochinillo and potato salad cooked into scrambled eggs for breakfast.

After breakfast Suzette wanted to walk through a craft market she had seen up the hill.  We looked at the map and decided we could walk along the hillside in upper Oaxaca to a recommended coffee shop named Voldeter and then up the hill to an overlook of Oaxaca on an stair steps named Frontin.  We took the bus the five or six blocks to the park and walked through and then began traversing the hillside.  We soon came to a lovely park named Corresti or something like it.  Here was a lovely small hotel where we asked directions to the coffee shop.  In another two or three blocks we arrived at the coffee shop.  Suzette ordered a cup of coffee, which was flavorful, so we bought a 1.1 lb. bag of the coffee that was grown near Veracruz and roasted in Voldeter. I ordered a cup of hot chocolate. We then walked to the stair steps and walked up them, although I had to rest four or fives times for a few minutes each time we made it to the top of a hillside overlooking Oaxaca, where a stadium stood.  The view was wonderful but not spectacular, no ocean or lake, just a town.  The great view was from Monte Alban with the whole Central Valley laid out below.  The thrill in this case was making the walk up the hill.  I felt like I was finally getting into shape.  We walked down and took a taxi back to the hotel.

I rested for a while and Suzette swam.  At 6:00 we dressed and walked up the hill to await the silent procession in honor of the crucifixion of Christ.  We took a seat in front of the restaurant we had eaten at with the French girls on Alcala beside the small plaza on the south side of St. Carmen de Dolores.  Finally at 7:15 the procession got into full swing.  Here are some pictures.

At around 7:45 we made our way toward El Destilado,  but on the way found a regional crafts fair on the next street lined with booths from many different villages displaying the best crafts of their villages.  In about fifteen minutes of intense shopping Suzette found some small brightly painted wooden animals that she had been looking for and bought 8.

At 8:00 we arrived at El Destilado at 409 5th of Mayo for the Chef’s Tasting Menu dinner, which was our designated reservation time.  The Destilado restaurant is tiny and the staff apologized that it was not quite ready for us.  It appeared that they were trying to settle another couple in for dinner, which in a restaurant with six or seven tables, the level of personal service lavished on each customer, and a serving staff of three or four to handle both the small bar and tables is a bit of a problemo.  The staff explained that it would be a few minutes while they addressed the needs of the couple that arrived just ahead of us and we were graciously offered a drink on the house.  We chose the cocktail we had had previously, the chicalana?, a mixture of ginger beer, mezcal, rum, a little soda water, garnished with a few small flakes of dried ginger root; a very refreshing drink.

In a couple of minutes we were moved six feet from the table in the small bar to a two top table next to the bar in the restaurant.

We had had drinks and an appetizer of grilled octopus and ceviche one evening during happy hour and eaten a late dinner of three dishes last week, which are described in earlier entries in this blog.  Tonight we had made reservations for Chef Julio Arguilerra’s Tasting Menu for 900 pesos with the additional beverage pairing menu for an additional 550 pesos.

I shall summarize each course and its accompanying drink of this amazing dinner and the plating of the dishes, which is as interesting as the dishes themselves in many cases.

1. One small triangular quesadilla wrapped in a black tortilla from the Isthmus, served in a wooden spoon resting in a ceramic bowl.  I think the filling was fresh Oaxaca cheese, if anything at Destilado is that simple.  The dish was paired with a lovely slightly bitter cocktail of Campari, vermouth, and mezcal.

2. About ten minutes later Chef Julio appeared with egg cup holding an egg sawed open at the top and filled with a raw fresh egg yolk and  a bit of tiny black bean compote garnished with a guacamole sauce and a dab of Crema on which rested a nasturtium leaf.  There were nasturtium leaves and flowers in several of the dishes we were served over the course of our three visits to El Destilado.  The Chef said, “They were growing on the roof when I came to the restaurant.”  Voila!
The fresh egg yolk was served with a small elliptical stone bowl about 1 inch deep filled with a small shot of Pierre Almas, a Mexican corn whiskey made in Oaxaca from 3 types of native corn, very clear clean tasting and slightly sweet, like an unsweetened sour mash whiskey. Both the rich egg yolk and the whiskey were very interesting and made us feel like we had made the correct choice to choose the tasting menu.  I call dishes like this “foodie heaven” because it stretches one’s palate in a very exciting way.

3. Robalo (Sargent fish or common snook) Tartare, mixed with finely minced black lime (Chef Julio described his preparation of black lime as a fermentation process that includes boiling the lime in salt water and then dehydrating the lime in the dark for 1 month).
The Robalo Tartare was served on a toasted flour tortilla chip and garnished with slices of cucumber, a light habanero and lime flavored Crema, and finally verde Lagos leaves. The tortilla chips were  served  on a black Oaxaca bowl filled with sea salt crystals on which were laid sprigs of verde Lagos (purslane).

This and the next dish were paired with a glass of 2016 Monte Xanic Bodega’s Vina Kristal (a Sauvignon Blanc that had a good body with a fair amount of acidity and lots of character).

4. A bowl with about 1/3 cup of a broth made from an onion, served with a onion compote and garnished with a couple of leaves of fire grilled fresh kale.  Grated onto the fried kale was a Mexican cheese similar to aged Parmesan.  I asked why the onion compote tasted slightly sweet and the Chef told me he reduces the onion in butter and vermouth and balsamic vinegar for a day until the onion caramelizes.  Another wonderfully interesting dish.
5. A dish with a lightly cooked squid black ink angel hair pasta tossed in a cream sauce made with cow’s milk and flavored with huitlacoche (corn smut, a fungus that grows on corn).  The small pile of pasta was garnished with queso Fresca and a dollop of double cream and dusted with the condiment that combines ground dried shrimp, chili, and salt that you occasionally see rimming a coctel glass or a glass of michelada.
The pasta was served with a glass of Mala Vida beer, a Belgium style double blonde pale ale, brewed by Cerveza Fauna in Mexico.

We loved the pasta.  The opposite of toothy al dente.  This was soft fresh, melt in your mouth pasta, made more creamy by the addition of the battleship grey huitlacoche cream sauce.

Comment on beverage

6. Grilled Robalo Filet served with Broccolini with a soy sauce, honey, sake, ginger and onion sauce wth the fish and a mayonnaise sauce made with basil infused olive oil sauce served with the broccolini.  The soy sauce reduction appears to be Chef Julio’s take on a teriyaki sauce reduction, with the use of honey  instead of sugar and the addition of onion to give the sauce greater richness and ginger to give it the zip that approximates the addition of ginger to sashimi.  Chef Julio is from the Bay Area, so appears to be familiar with Japanese Cuisine.
The dish was garnished with fresh nasturtium flowers.


Besides the Sauvignon Blanc, we drank the Campari cocktail with this dish also.

7. Pallete cleanser – a citrus curd on the bottom and then several scoops of grapefruit and pineapple sorbet garnished with fresh mint leaves and a dash of Tajin chili condiment on top.
This was not a throw away dish but an interesting dish with lots of fresh citrus flavor to cool and clean the palette.

8. A slice of chicken breast on a pile of risotto garnished with Granola and flowers of broccolini, served with house made brown mole sauce and a slather of house made mole sauce combined with crème fraiche. The mole sauce was wonderful, but the aspect of this dish that really caught my attention was the thick slice of chicken breast that was so tender it melted in my mouth.  I asked the Chef how he prepared the chicken breast and he said, “I salt brined it in a 5% solution of salt water for one day.  Then I dried it and grilled it.”
We thought the Granola was an very interesting although we had eaten it on a previous dessert of tres leches cake at Destilado, but the Chef informed me that that was a different Granola.  “This Granola for the risotto included sesame seeds, almonds, and walnuts”, the Chef said.

The dish was served with Cinco Sentidos (five senses) Pechugo de mole poblano mezcal made from agave in the State of Puebla.  Here are pictures of the front and back labels.

The waiters are very knowledgeable about both the preparation of the food and the fine details relating to the beverages and we had a lively running conversation about both during the meal, which enhanced our appreciation and enjoyment of the meal.
For example, the waiter told us that the five senses mezcal will activate five senses.  I did not ask which senses and I did not find that it affected me differently than any other good mezcal, but perhaps I need a more in depth study of mezcal that will require another trip to Mexico.  The conversation we did have after I studied the bottle regarded the name, mezcal.  The Five Senses Mezcal appeared to me to have been made exactly the same way that tequila is made, from the same agave plant.  The waiter told me the reason why it is not named tequila is because it is not produced in an area designated by Mexican law as a Tequila growing region.  Check Wikipedia for more information.
I categorize tequila, mezcal, and sake among the alcoholic beverages I shall probably never fully appreciate because I do not wish to drink enough of them to gain an appreciation of the nuances of terroir and variations in production techniques.  So I am unable to describe how wonderful Five Senses mezcal tasted and how it affected my senses.

We loved the Granola with the chicken, the risotto, and the mole.  Suzette enjoyed combining the straight brown mole with the crème fraiche flavored mole.  Both of us enjoyed taking bites of the mole with Granola, risotto and chicken.  The addition of a home made granola to the dish added an element of fun and crunchy texture to the other softer ingredients of the dish.  The garnish of broccolini flowers also added a bit of textural crunch to the dish.

9. Desserts. There were three dessert courses.
The first was a piece of Japanese cheese cake, which I have never had before.  It is a light fluffy cake.  It was accompanied by a scoop of black sesame ice cream and garnished with slices of strawberry that had been grilled, dehydrated, and then rehydrated in simple syrup that gave them a unique chewy flavor.  The top of the cake was garnished with a baby mint leaf.

This dessert was served with a small shot glass of Oax Sky, a liquor containing 94% distilled black corn and the remaining 6% consisting of essence of caramelized barley and sugar.

The next dessert was a scoop of mamay ice cream served with chunks of mamay fruit that appeared to have been prepared in the same manner as the strawberries in the previous dish; grilled, dehydrated and rehydrated in simple syrup, plus sliced almonds and bee’s honey.  This dessert was served with an Old Fashion made with Mezcal, bourbon and bitters.  I need to mention that the scoop of ice cream was serves in the elliptical  shape usually found in fancy French restaurants, giving this dish a decidedly French feel to it.

The third and final dessert was presented in the same manner as the first course, two wooden spoons leaned into a ceramic bowl, each holding a small square of tres leches cake.  But these tres leches cakes were like I had ever tasted.  One was saturated with the usual thick liquid combining evaporated milk, condensed milk, and cream, with the addition of grapefruit flavor for the citrus flavor that the chef had cooked the sauce into a citrus caramel.

The other spoon contained a square of the chocolate tres leches cake we had eaten during our prior meal.  It was no less delicious, with its chocolate cake saturated with a chocolate caramel sauce made with Oaxaca cacao and drizzled with a crunchy peanut and walnut granola.

At 11:00 we finished our two and one-half hour meal and happily paid. $75.00 each with tip for all the food and drinks.  Expensive by Mexico standards, but not by American standards.  That is the secret of fine dining in Mexico. You can eat some of the most exciting food in the world inexpensively at sophisticated restaurants like El Destilado.