Dining Out: Xaok
On finding a very Oaxacan restaurant that reminds us of New York
We moved to Oaxaca for many reasons and a not insignificant one was the food.
“Big surprise!” you’re likely muttering to yourself. If you’ve been reading my work here, know my byline, or have followed me on Instagram you’re no doubt already accustomed to my particular brand of bullshit and know that my life revolves around either writing about food, cooking food, or eating food. Often I’m doing all three things at once! I’d love to say it’s not my fault, that I come from a family of ravenous lunatics, but that would suggest I feel shame about my lifestyle, which I do not. I am descended from people who in the middle of a meal start discussing what their next meal will be, a phenomenon which childhood friends would (out of earshot of my parents) comment on in disbelief. My family’s obsession with food goes way beyond interest, craft, or pastime. At this point it’s basically its own philosophy, The Way of the Stomach, and I am but a hungry pilgrim midway through my journey.
Needless to say we’ve got high standards when it comes to both cooking and restaurants, and over time we’ve come to love restaurants which have friendly servers who aren’t smothering, where menus are rooted in a particular country or culture but also don’t religiously adhere to how things are “supposed” to be made, where the interior of the restaurant isn’t too fancy or precious, and where the experience isn’t hugely expensive. In the city Oaxaca de Juárez, Xaok meets all of our criteria, and it has quickly become one of our favorite spots.
Xaok is one of Oaxaca’s more contemporary restaurants and is helmed by chef Uriel Garcia Hernandez. While the menu isn’t exclusively Oaxacan the flavors are decidedly Mexican. On a recent visit we ordered gnocchi with mussels and smoked sausage from Ejutla (a municipality within Etla) in a grilled tomato sauce with parmesan. While the basis of the dish was Italian, the chef used local products and the flavors had a Oaxacan familiarity. This type of marriage of cultures and flavors is something we’ve come to love, and I think is an indicator of thoughtfulness and skill within the kitchen. You can’t just throw things together and have them come out well.
What really made us decide we’d be coming back regularly, though, was a collaboration meal we noticed the restaurant was advertising both on Instagram and on a sign within their restaurant. The four-course meal was $600 pesos per person and the guest chef cooking with them was Andrés Ricoy from Origen, one of the better regarded fancy restaurants in Oaxaca city.
We’re not inherently drawn to modern restaurants. The restaurant we probably love the most in Oaxaca is El Milenario, a spot in Tule which was originally recommended to us by our friend Ehren Seeland, who runs the exceptional online boutique Hecho. El Milenario is quite traditional, serving a variety of very recognizable Oaxacan dishes which are made exceptionally well. But El Milenario’s strength is in its traditionalism, while Xaok’s draw is its progressiveness. And Xaok, more than anywhere else we’ve eaten so far in Oaxaca, reminds us of New York, and part of the reason I find dining there so pleasurable is because it evokes a certain sort of wistfulness. There’s a level of attentiveness, experimentation, and youthfulness that we haven’t yet seen in many other restaurants in Oaxaca, but which characterized our favorite places in NYC.
It didn’t hurt that the four-course menu came with both generous portions and with a clamato, which for the initiated is beer mixed with tomato juice and clam juice. Their house version included lemon tea and a black salsa made from dried chiles, and the glass was garnished with cucumber, bacon, and chamoy, a sweet and spicy fruit sauce used to rim glasses.
The courses for the special menu consisted of:
Quesadilla de camarón con frijol blanco, caldillo de ejotes milperos y mayonesa de serrano (a shrimp quesadilla with white beans and Serrano mayo, and a soup made with green beans).
Tiradito de pescado, emulsión de cenizas, geleé de jiotilla, fermento de cítricos y encurtido de rábano negro (tiradito, a Peruvian dish of raw, sliced fish served with an emulsified ash sauce and a geleé of jiotilla, a type of cactus fruit, with fermented citrus and pickled radish) by guest chef Andrés Ricoy.
Segueza verde con pulpo y mejilones, vegetales rostizados y emulsión de chorizo (segueza, a type of risotto-like stew with puréed herbs and tender octopus and mussels, roasted vegetables, and a chorizo emulsion).
Pataxte, vainilla y pericón (pataxte is quite similar to cacao, with vanilla ice cream and pericón, a type of native flower used in Oaxaca to create natural dyes).
The meal was rather spectacular, and the use of fermentation and pickling along with the application of fruit really made it a stand out experience. But I found myself having a few moments of frustration when, once again, I found myself wanting to ask questions that my current level of Spanish fluency just wouldn’t allow. I hope that sooner rather than later I’ll be in a position where I can actually ask the chefs about what they’re doing, and why, so that I can both learn more about the food in Xoak (and Oaxaca) and will be able to write about it a bit more intelligently.
The entry price of 600 pesos meant we paid around $35 a person for four courses and an alcoholic drink (not including tip). It was a hell of a deal in a restaurant I think we will be regulars at.
Has the restaurant moved from last year at this time?
The mussels and gnocchi -- really inventive. Nice photos.