17 replies to this topic

[esperanza]

I've lived in Mexico and eaten Mexican food for nearly twenty-five years—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Everything from nacho fries at my favorite Southern California greasy joint to the most hyper-ethnic comal-roasted gusanito has been tasted and tested and frequently prepared at home (no, I haven't roasted a worm—yet).

Except—except that last Friday night in Mexico City I dined at Patricia Quintana's Izote, where the celebration of corn is raised to new heights and 'authentic' takes on a completely new meaning. Tradición, sazón, and alta cocina mexicana combine here to give the diner a transcendent experience.

The room is intimate and lovely. At eight o'clock in the evening there are only two other tables occupied. We ask the waiter to take his time—we are in no rush, although we're quite hungry after our day-long trip from Guadalajara. He brings a half-gourd filled with assorted breads accompanied by several salsas. The deep red is picante and tastes of the marvelous chile mora. The green, a salsa cruda, is aún más picante and is heaven. The other red, paler in both color and taste than the first, doesn't reach the same level of superb.

We order wine: Casa Madero Shiraz (Mexico) that is rich, smooth, and full in the mouth.

We study the menu. The waiter hovers a little too close, and we tell him again that we are in no hurry. Ready to order, we ask for the plato de tamales: de queso con epazote, de flor de calabaza, de cuitlacoche, de chanchimitos, de pollo con jitomate. We also request sopecitos de camarón a la mantequilla de chipotle. We ask the waiter to leave the menus so that we can order our meal a bit at a time.

The tamales are tiny, two bites each, and perfect, the masa plumped like pillows, the fillings stunningly different from one another in textures and flavors. It's hard not to be greedy; I want to taste everything again and again. The queso con epazote is salty and savory, the pollo con jitomate is slightly ripe-tomato sweet, the flor de calabaza tastes of green things growing. The cuitlacoche tastes of deliciously seductive mystery.

The plate of sopecitos arrives, enough for each of us to have two. Each tiny masa saucer is filled with puréed bean, topped with shrimp, and sauced with chipotle. The combination is at once earth and sea and smoky spice; it works better than anything I've eaten anywhere recently. It's hard not to grab the plate and slide toward me! me! me! They are that delicious.

The waiter comes to remove our first course plates and I order sopa tarasca de frijol bayo. This soup, which I've eaten in a dozen Michoacán restaurants and frequently make at home, is one of my favorites. I have to taste Chef Quintana's version. The presentation alone is celestial: the shallow bowl is sectioned into a pile of tiny cubes of white cheese, a pile of shredded, hair-fine, golden fried tortilla strips, and another pile of crisp-fried deep maroon ancho chile shreds. The waiter holds a jarrito of hot soup high above the bowl and pours it over the garnishes. In a moment the cheese begins to melt and I eat. After twenty-five years of sopa tarasca, I taste its full potential for the first time.

The room is filling up. A table of young people behind us is ordering margaritas in a rainbow of flavors: black raspberry and tamarind lead the list. Plates of exquisitely presented food go by our table to other diners: what was that? And what did they order? And who is that elegant woman at the table next to ours, the woman who is autographing that stack of CDs?

Now it's time for the hardest decisions: the main courses. One of my companions orders the cordero al vapor en hoja de plátano con salsa borracha, salsa de chile mora, salsa verde cruda, y salsa de chile ancho con jugo de naranja y tomatillo de milpa con chile de arbol. The other companion orders pechuga en hojas de aguacate con calabacitas rellenas de hongos de la temporada y magdalenas de zanahoria. I am torn, torn, torn, but finally order filete de res al comino con salsa de guajillo y verduras a la plancha.

Of course we share. The cordero is steaming hot in its banana leaf, opened at the table, and its bursts of flavor flood my mouth. I try it with each salsa and prefer the chile mora, which perfectly complements the slight gaminess of the moist, tender meat. The pechuga tastes the way only Mexican chicken can: juicy, rich, flavored with the avocado leaf and sauced with an unidentified but perfect sauce. The calabacitas are the wee round ones—the size of golf balls—that I've only seen here in Mexico, with the tops sliced off, the insides scooped out, and stuffed with chopped mushrooms. The magdalenas are carrot-orange and the ideal foil for the rich chicken. My filete arrives perfectly (I know I've used 'perfect' over and over again, but there's nothing else to call this cooking) medio rojo, the salsa de guajillo drizzled over it. The filet is perched on a thick slice of grilled onion and topped with a mound of perfectly (!) cooked spinach. There are a few pieces of new potato at the side. Again, I want to hoard every bite of it.

The waiter clears our plates and deftly slips a new white cloth onto our table. Postre? We don't want to miss anything—we are already joking about coming back again the next night. As one of my companions said, "I'm too full already, but dessert goes to another stomach, right?"

She orders natilla a la vainilla de Papantla con bolsita de chocolate rellena de trufa y frutas del bosque. My other companion orders pastel de marzapán y chocolate blanco, and I order tarta zaachila de chocolate con nuez, helado, y cajeta.

The rich, creamy natilla is served in a soup plate, dotted with fresh red raspberries, with two chocolate truffles in the center of the bowl. One is white chocolate and the other is milk chocolate. The pastel de marzapán is a tiny cake, two inches high and an inch or so wide; it's pure marzapán, covered with white chocolate and decorated with two white chocolate leaves. The little cake is sauced in some sweet heaven. My tarta is in a double crust, drizzled with cajeta. I cut into it and it oozes thick, hot, black streams of sweet chocolate that mingle with the buttery cajeta and the ice cream at its side.

There's no way we can finish this excess of dessert. There's no way we can resist licking our spoons one last time.

Dinner for three including wine: 1475 pesos, approximately $130 USD
Would I do it again? In a DF minute.

Izote
Presidente Mazarik 513
Col. Polanco
Distrito Federal
México

[sladeums]

esperanza,
WOW!

thanks for that review...very impressive

only on eGullet

I'm at a loss...thanks again

[caroline]

Sounds quite wonderful Esperanza. You are a much, much better food reporter than my husband. Whoops, I'm not damming with faint praise. what I mean is the meal sounds great, but your way of conveying it is great too. I'm hungry!

Rachel

[gnkindrick]

Wow Esperanza...that was truly amazing. When I eat there, I can only hope that I'll enjoy myself as much as I enjoyed reading about the time that you ate there. Thanks so much. Your review was an inspiration.

[Richard Kilgore]

Thanks for the wonderful report, Esperanza.

[caroline]

Esperanza, I've been mulling over the menu you described. Am I right in thinking that Patricia Quintana sustains the Mexican theme until dessert arrives and then you basically have desserts that might appear in an upmarket menu anywhere with a few Mexican ingredients named? Desserts are always a problem for any restaurant doing fine non-western food and I just wondered if this was another case.

Rachel

[nickarte]

I have eaten there about a dozen times , was there on Thursday, Oct. 7th. and had a wonderful meal. I must say, however that it can be inconsistent, at times relatively dull. It is always better when "she" is there, not surprisingly.
Aguila y Sol, Moliere 42, 5281-8354 also in Polanco and belonging to cookbook author Martha Chapa, is also interesting: it´s menu is more fusiony ( Sopa de Tortilla with caldo de pato or duck,"bruja" a kind of fish like swordfish, in a salsa de cacao, NOT mole). The room is more posh and, at least in our one experience, the results more uneven. But I still say it´s worth it. El Cardenal is off our list...

[shelora]

After the glowing review of Izote, I was considering it as a choice for New Year's Eve. But, there is no website or email address for Izote after searching on the web.
I thought maybe they would have a menu posted with prices or something. Is this too organized?
Perhaps, some of you out there could make other recommendations for a New Year's Eve in Mexico City for four adventurous travellers.
S

[nickarte]

After the glowing review of Izote, I was considering it as a choice for New Year's Eve. But, there is no website or email address for Izote after searching on the web.
I thought maybe they would have a menu posted with prices or something. Is this too organized?
Perhaps, some of you out there could make other recommendations for a New Year's Eve in Mexico City for four adventurous travellers.
S

Izote or Aguila y Sol are good choices, but New Year´s eve is a BIG DEAL here, and many places have special dinners and get booked up, so I would make a resevation by phone well in advance (OK, not yet, but a few of weeks before at least). Neither is terribly expensive by US/Europe standards- $50 tops per person, and that´s with nice wine, etc., although could be done for $30 if you´re frugal.
New Years day, everything is closed, and I mean everything! You will be lucky to find a Sanborn´s open. A nice thing to do, however, is go to Teotihuacan, as it is a local tradition to climb the Pyramide del Sol on New Year´s day, presumably to bring luck. It´s a little crowded, but in a nice way, that is, full of Mexican families being traditional...There´s a wierd restaurant in a cave called La Gruta out there,at one of the entrances to the site, I think you can find mention of it in Chowhounds. It´s kind of cool, and the food is actually pretty good.

Edited by nickarte, 21 October 2004 - 04:33 PM.

[ASM NY]

I just came back from lunch at Izote. It was my first time there, and I was shocked to see how empty the restaurant was. Interstingly, we had called Aguila y Sol to go there for lunch but we could not get in.

Izote, however, did not disappoint. We had the same appetizers that Esperanza mentioned, the tamales and the shrimp sopes. They were tiny but delicious.

I had after that a cream of corn with chipotle essence which was outstanding. It looked more like the oil that comes in the jar with the chipotle chillies, but it added a tremendous dimension of flavor to the dish.

As a main course I had the duck mole. It was very sweet, but outstanding. The duck seemed to have been roasted, and the skin was very crispy, but the duck wasn't cooked in the mole. It was just placed on top of if. The flavor however, was very intense.

I will still be trying out Aguila y Sol in a couple of weeks, but I am glad that today we weren't able to get in!

[caroline]

HI ASM Ny, I'm glad you had such a good meal. And welcome to Mexico. What time did you go? If it was much before 3 the restaurant would have been empty because 2:30 to 3 is the time for the main meal.

And perhaps it is not so surprising that the duck was not cooked in the mole. In general moles are prepared independently and then thinned with the broth that the meat or fowl has been cooked in. In this case, there may have been no broth. But moles are so thick that it is difficult to cook things in them. This is an issue that is under some dispute in Mexico.

All the best,

Rachel

[ASM NY]

We were there from 3:00pm to 5:00pm, your usual business lunch crowd. Thanks for the heads-up on the mole. I just remember too many times seeing the pot with the chicken and the mole, I always assumed they were cooked together.

[bjcohan]

But, there is no website or email address for Izote after searching on the web.
I thought maybe they would have a menu posted with prices or something. Is this too organized?

The menu used to be posted at www.patriciaquintana.com, but the site is no longer active. It's a shame. It was a good website and included discussions of Mexican wines and other aspects of the cuisine. I remember printing it out for my cyberphobic husband before he went to Izote a couple of years ago while visiting his parents in DF.

(Sadly, on the day he went, the chef was clearly absent and he reported that his meal was good, but somewhat disappointing. I'm hoping that she will be there when we go to Izote on our next trip.)

Barb

[Parmhero]

Izote

I was in Mexico City this week on business, and had dinner at Izote with a colleague.


Izote's interior.


The restaurant is modern, attractive, pristine, with nice table settings and features. It is one long narrow room. The bar and kitchen are in the rear.


The service was excellent.


When seated, you are brought a basket of large blue and yellow corn chips and a couple slices of French bread, plus three types of salsas--two red and one green--in little clay bowls. The chips were fresh and crunchy. One of the red salsas was blistering hot but with a nice lingering finish as the hotness dissipated.


For our first appetizer we had a serving of chile rellenos, which was covered in a chocolate mole and dusted with grated cheese. The chile had a slight al dente crunch and the mole was rich, flavorful and thankfully not sweet, as was the mole pablano at Fonda El Refugio the night before.


Next was the tamale appetizer.


The four fillings differed slightly, but consisted mainly of a soft, mild buttery cheese with various additions, such as spinach and herbs. One tamale was filled with an orangy dry herbed masa stuffing. The tamales were all tasty.


My colleague’s main course was a snapper fillet with a saffron cream sauce, garnished with a leaf of red leaf lettuce. The fish was moist and succulent.


My main course was slow-roasted lamb shank served in a banana leaf. It was rich, meaty, and delicious, with a dry tomato-based sauce that packed some subtle heat.


Dinner was served with a basket of small warm tortillas and these three salsas.


Dessert number one was a chocolate box with chocolate truffles, blackberries, raspberries, and a vanilla custard sauce, dusted with cinnamon.


Dessert number two was crepes filled with a hazelnut chocolate filling and a vanilla custard sauce, dusted with cinnamon and cocoa.

All in all we both thought it was a great meal. Two thumbs up...

Edited by Parmhero, 01 December 2006 - 10:47 AM.

[chefsteban]

Oh My!!...Looking at those great photos of Izote's food make me wonder why I am in San Diego.
I have had the extreme pleasure of cooking with Patricia three times and have come away each time with renewed sense of what Mexican food is all about. I am planning my next Mexico trip and a visit or two to Izote will be at the top of my list. Thank you Esparranza and Parmhero.

[Anne Paris]

Hello,
Thank you Parmhero for a superb review a few years back.

Having spent a lot of time in Mexico City in the 90's, I have not returned in more than 10 years and am looking forward to new culinary experiences when a group of us travel there next week.

I've done a fair amount of research, but would be interested in hearing any recent experiences at IZOTE. We have a reservation for a small group (dinner mid-week) though I understand that Chef Quintana is away. Some of you have mentioned that her presence makes all the difference. Also, any idea of the price range including drinks (sorry to ask, since my personal interest leans more toward quality of the cuisine. However some in our party will surely balk if it's ADRIA level!)

Many thanks!

[Anne Paris]

(Correction: My apologies regarding the credits for reviews on Izote in Mexico DF: it was Esperanza who wrote so eloquantly of her first experience, and Parmhero who more recently added complementary photos. Many thanks, as well, to others of you who have built the thread. I hit "add reply" too quickly. )

[theabroma]

El Cardenal is off our list...

Oh, dear! What went awry at El Cardenal?? I was really charmed by that old place ... where tablecloth crumbing is elevated to an aerobic activity (it was practically threadbare by the end of the meal).

My experience with Izote has been mostly south of the uneven line ... tamales bien chiclosos, always gorgeous presentation, but visuals not often or consistently supported by the taste and flavors. Though it certainly is a lovely space.

PQ consulted some time ago on a Polanco restaurant called Isidora's ... found there to be notable similarities to many plates in their execution at both places ... but Isidora's was, to my tastes, the more successful of the two - including wonderful deployment of cuitlacoche in several manifestations (althought the crown on that still goes to Hacienda los Morales : tournedos stuffed with cuiltacoche and napped in a flor de jamaica beurre blanc.).


Regards,

Theabroma