The fourth Seattle Food Blog get-together was hosted by Molly from Orangette and she chose La Carta de Oaxaca for a meeting place. In attendance were:
Accidental Hedonist
Amuse Bouche
Culinary Fool
Orangette
Tasting Menu
We all started out with tortilla chips and guacamole ($3). The tortilla chips were light, airy and full of crunch. Dusted with salt, they were highly addictive, especially when dipped in the silky guacamole. I think they must add cream and/or whip it because it’s a surprising texture, but has lots of good avocado flavor.
I ordered my favorite dish of Mole Negro Oaxaqueno with chicken ($8). The mole is so dark it’s almost black and coats a falling-apart tender chicken leg. Some people complain that the mole is too sweet, but I think it’s absolutely heaven and hands down the best mole I’ve ever tasted.
I also split an order of Entomatadas ($9), which is now my new favorite dish. It was a thin cut of beef that was marinated and grilled to perfection. It came with two fried tortillas topped with wonderfully salty Oaxaqueno cheese and a choice of sauces. You could choose between red and green, but our waiter highly recommended the red. It was tomato-y-delicious and soaked into the tortillas in the most wonderful way.
I also tried a tortilla topped with shrimp (can’t remember the name of it), which was the only dish I disliked. The shrimp were hard and rubbery from soaking a little too long in a citrus marinade. Plus they had a sour acidic taste that overwhelmed any other flavor that may have been present.
Lastly, I had a bite of a Tamale de Mole Negro with chicken ($6). For some reason I thought I had already tried the tamales here, but then I realized I hadn’t. I kicked myself for missing out on them on all my prior visits. The tamale had the same delicious mole sauce as the chicken I ordered, but it was mixed in with chicken and tender and fluffy masa and then formed into a giant square tamale. It was wrapped in a banana leaf, which imparted amazing fragrance and sweetness. Come to think of it, this may actually be my new favorite dish at La Carta de Oaxaca. I’m already dreaming of my next visit.
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