Xalapa Mexican: Worth the Journey to the West

When a Mexican restaurant opens on the westside of town, you wonder who will go there.This curiosity is increased by its even more peculiar location on Huguosi, the destination snack street for regional Chinese cuisines, brimming with soup dumplings and donkey burgers. Who would travel for sopes and pollo de mole?

A lazy Sunday afternoon that stretches into the eveningis the time for mysteries to be solved. An order of two tamales (RMB 40) can only be fulfilled with one, owner Esteban Zottele apologizes. He explains that Mexican Embassy hosted a private party there the evening prior, nearly cleaning out the kitchen, “but we will give you this last one to taste.” And you find that you have reason to be thankful that the diplomats left this tamale on its lonesome along with remainders of thick house-made tortilla chips.

Xalapa eschews the contestable, and detestable, word “authentic.” Instead, what the kitchen does is in keeping with that beautiful, staid crystallization of culture called “tradition.” The sopa Azteca (RMB 28), a tomato broth with shredded chicken, cilantro flecks, and slicks of cream, has a nuance to its chili and flavor – both painful and pleasant – that only centuries passing since the fall of ancient empires could patiently permit. The town of Xalapa in Veracruz does lay claim to the origins of the jalapeno and this vein of unchained chili runs throughout the meal.

Tradition brings with it solemnity in the sturdiness that the enchilada’s corn tortilla maintains beneath a thick mantle of sauce. But this is not a wholly somber business. Two bright eggs yolks stream down the plate in the exceptional, heaving enchiladas Sonora (RMB 55) and the enchilada bandera (RMB 55) playfully imitate the Mexican flag’s red, white and green.

An already interesting experience of dessert –the pastel de Uruapan (RMB 30) – become more intriguing as the evening scene unfolds. A visiting professor from Mexico stops in with his local students to give them a taste of his country. The riddle unravels with the realization: Xalapa is a place to witness tradition transplanted.

Xalapa Mexican Restaurant
Daily 10am-11pm. 1/F, Huguo Xintiandi, 85 Huguosi Dajie, Xicheng District (6212 1218)
西城区护国寺大街85号护国新天地1层
200m northeast of Ping’anli station (Lines 4 and 6)

Also try: Cantina Agave, Q Mex

A version of this article appears in the January 2014 issue of the Beijinger

Photo: Mitchell Pe Masilun