How many dinner clubs can one be in, you may ask? Well, the answer is, at least two. One of them is with fellow foodie friends formerly from work (really tried to end that last word in another F) where we primarily cook for each other in our homes, and one that started more recently with some old Americorps friends where we dine at different ethnic restaurants throughout the city, since their husbands are less adventurous in their tastes J
At the latest edition of Ethnic Dinner Club we went to Xoco, Rick Bayless’s vibrant, casual Mexican street-food eatery. While we usually try to go somewhere that none of us have been to, this time it was split – and I was so excited for my friends trying it for the first time. Let me put it this way – everything I’ve ever had at Xoco (and I’ve been…12+ times?) has been DELICIOUS. For a while I even did something very unlike me and ordered the exact same thing every time I went there – the Ahogada torta – because it was just too good NOT to, spicy chile d’arbol broth be damned!
The menu has a selection of big homey soups (called caldos), tortas from the wood-burning oven and more recently has added a few taco options as well. Another special thing about Xoco is their variety of hot chocolates that they make from scratch – meaning, from the literal cacao bean itself – right there in the restaurant. This time around I went for my first griddled sandwich, the chicken milanesa – a thin-pounded fried chicken cutlet topped with pickled red onions and jalapenos, Napa cabbage and a bit of jack cheese. My friends chose the baja chicken torta, short-rib tacos and chicken pozole, and we shared chips and guacamole.
Another enjoyable time catching up with my friends, another great meal at Xoco!