Heart and Soul

We celebrated the Día de los Muertos in San Antonio last year. We admired the locals’ makeshift memorials to honor their dearly departed, we watched the parade and became part of the parade….

This year, we celebrated this Day of the Dead holiday at Xochitl with a special “Heart and Soul” menu

A bowl of guacamole and corn chips with our margaritas at the bar when there was a delay with our table. Xochitl used to make this table side with drizzle of truffle oil, but this one was just handed to us across the counter already made, sans the truffle oil. Nevertheless, the guac was still quite good and it did a decent job of holding our hunger pangs in check while awaiting our first course

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Piel (Skin)

 

A simple dish of chicharrónes, salsa verde, with julianne stripes of apple. The nicely seasoned fried pig skin broke apart with a nice crackle in the mouth with the matchstick sized strips of apple providing a refreshing sweetness contrasting the texture and taste of the skin and the salsa.

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

Higado (Liver)

 

For a while, we thought the restaurant had lost its heart and soul as we waited aimlessly for our next course. Eternity ended when the piping hot foie gras and duck confit empanada with shaved hubbard squash and pomegranate-chipotle salsa finally made its way to our table. Biting through the crunchy crust of the empanada unveiled the soft squishy but succulent foie gras and duck filling. There’s certainly nothing additional needed for this wholesome pocket of goodness but the pomegranate-chipotle salsa with its fastidious spicy kick had surely elevated this dish to a different dimension.

Sangre (Blood)

Morcilla, beets, fennel, and walnut-tequila vinaigrette. The spices in this blood sausage from D’Angelo’s gave a nice fiery kick to the overall flavor of the dish while at the mean time it was nicely balanced by the cooling effect of the snappy biting beets. For extra flavor and dramatic effects, shaved walnuts were sprinkled on top of the morcilla.

 

 

 
 
 
 

Corazon (Heart)

 

 

“If I didn’t know beforehand, I wouldn’t have known that this is heart,” said the Tourist Tree. Although appearing on the slightly overcooked side with the burn on the edges, the earthy flavor of this meat was intoxicating. This beef heart taco was accompanied by foraged mushrooms, garnished with a cilantro sauce and completed with an over the top fried bone marrow that oozed into your mouth like hot jello after biting through the properly battered and seasoned deep fried crust. What seemed to be a simple taco was indeed a complex dish of flavors and textures interplaying for maximum sensation.
 
 

Alma (Soul)

   

The pan de muerto is a traditional sweet soft bread that is eaten during the weeks leading up to the Día de los Muertos. This Xochitl version had a rather dried hard outer crust with a pillow soft inner. I enjoyed eating this not so sweet bread by itself but also by dipping into the unique tasting goat cajeta which was just goat milk and sugar boiled down very very slowly into a very light syrup. This was a dessert I liked very much since nothing on the plate was particularly sweet except the couple pieces of quince paste on the side with its dense fruity sweet intensity.

 

Completely aware of Tourist Tree’s allergies throughout the dinner, our waitress brought her slices of fresh fruit, with a few pieces of quince paste on the side. Tourist Tree was relieved that she did not get the usual allergy sufferer special: sorbet.

 
Except the unexpected eternal wait for our second course during the dinner, everything was enjoyable and delicious for the evening. I was particularly impressed that the kitchen had stepped up and produced a remarkable dinner with items not frequently served on the more sedated regular menu, amid a full house for the evening. We were also impressed that our waitress was totally on the ball with Tourist Tree’s allergy without any reminder at all throughout the dinner and took initiative to make sure that she was able to eat everything put in front of her. It was nice to see the restaurant was still vibrant and putting out quality products despite the earlier departure of the much talented original chef and the renovations that followed which usually spell the doom for any smaller restaurant.
 
http://www.xochitlphilly.com/