Mixing It Up at Mextiza

"I am not an academic, historian, anthropologist, or botanist, but just an adventurous cook and a lover of the natural world who delights in the experience of traveling to discover and taste foods, some of which I had only heard about, but many that I was yet to discover in this infinite world…"

- Diana Southwood Kennedy, in the introduction to Oaxaca al Gusto

It's really sad that we know more about the cuisines of Italy, France and even Japan than we know about the food of one of our nearest neighbors. Mention going out for Mexican to most people and they think of burritos and enchiladas swimming in a sea of melted American cheese. But with the opening of Mextiza, Oswaldo Bibiano's paen to the pleasures of the Mexican table, there is finally an opportunity to experience a taste (pun intended) of the incredible breadth and depth this cuisine has to offer.

A view of the room.

Since 2004 and the closing of Claire Archibald's late, lamented Café Azul, it's been rare to see Portland restaurants venture much beyond a molé here or a nopales salad there. Bibiano's first restaurant, Autentica, on the once-spooky-but-now-chichi corner of NE 30th and Killingsworth, celebrated the foods of the chef's home state of Oaxaca and earned him a Beard nomination in 2010.

On recent visits for lunch and dinner, Mextiza exceeded even my optimistic expectations by miles. If you want to get a first taste, I'd go for a mid-week lunch, but if you want to really get a sense of what Bibiano's kitchen is capable of, get yourself a party of six and make a reservation for dinner. Otherwise be prepared for a wait at the bar, well-stocked with tequila and offering many tequila-based cocktails, if you come on a weekend night.

The cabrito.

I'd been looking forward to a well-made margarita all day, and our table ordered a round as soon as we sat down. Mine was an outstanding version of the classic, while the special margarita made with blood oranges that another of our group ordered was wonderfully fruity with a slightly flowery nose. Dave noted that their beer list was nicely put together, as well, featuring three Northwest microbrews and Modelo Especial on tap.

The menu is grouped into six categories from salads and chips to appetizers, entrée-sized sandwiches filled with the likes of shredded pork, chicken and tongue, small plates, entrées and sides. With our margaritas we ordered the chips and guacamole (see previous review) and the special app of the evening, calamari simmered in a chile sauce (top photo), a dish so heavenly it nearly stole the evening. The squid was tender but meaty, and the mildly spicy sauce begged to be sopped with the tortillas provided alongside…I could tell people were tempted to pick up the plate and lick it despite themselves.

Lechon Yucateco.

Two of our party ordered the cabrito, a Northern Mexican dish of slow-roasted goat with potatoes, pinto beans and a chile-vinegar sauce. The goat was mild and fall-apart tender, and the sauce added a piquant (but not overwhelmingly tart) note. I ordered the lechon Yucateco, chunks of tender meat sliced from a whole rotisseried pig with black beans, onions and salpicon that brought back memories of the wonderful flavors we'd experienced on our last visit to Mexico.

The most interesting dish was the huarachitos estilo DF, a fried oval of corn masa topped with black beans that comes with a choice of huevo frito con tuetano (fried egg and marrow), mushrooms, carne asada, chicken breast, nopalitos, fried cheese or chicken tinga. The corn masa and beans were classics, and the carne asada was good, though I'm dying to try the egg and marrow combo on my next visit.

We were all far too stuffed to have dessert and drinks, but maybe next time I'll be able to save room. And from the two references I made above about a next visit, you can be sure there'll be one!

Details: Mextiza, 2103 N Killingsworth. 503-289-3709.

Casual Subversion

First off, you walk in through the kitchen, like you know your host so well you come in through the back door rather than coming up the front steps and ringing the bell. Dinner sits bubbling away on the stove, bread is being sliced on the counter and an open bottle of wine is waiting to be poured.

But walk past the peninsula and parted red-checked curtains at DOC on NE Alberta and suddenly you're in a sophisticated dining room with subdued lighting, black glass chandeliers and a scattering of cloth-covered tables. It all suggests a bourgeois bohemian sensibility, and reminds me of someone's rich parents' condo in the Pearl.

The menu backs up this impression with a Northwest-meets-Italy selection of seven courses from pane through dolci (bread through dessert) and includes an appetizer, pasta, meat or fish, vegetable and cheese course as well. It has an impressive wine list, with the odd caveat that the first three bottles of red, white or sparkling wines that are opened become the night's by-the-glass selections. (I guess you go early or hope that your food selections go with those choices.)

The night I was there was another of those media-only freebie dinners to introduce the place to local food writers, so pretty much everything was spot-on except for the vegetable course that featured tough, stringy artichoke hearts and not-ripe-enough cherry tomatoes. The clear stand-out was the "secondi" of albacore, peaches, padron and lardo, with the strips of cured pork fat melting over the top of the succulent pink slightly-smoky tuna. (This will be going on the menu of my last meal should I be in the situation to choose one.)

The other standout was the antipasta, essentially a salad of beef braised with bing cherries, purslane (which most people pull out of their gardens thinking it's a weed, which if it's in the wrong place it is) and torpedo onions, a type of Italian red onion.

With pricing in the moderate-to-expensive range, it would be a nice place for sharing a a couple of courses with a glass of wine each, but I can't resist noting that it would be truly worth seeking out if the kitchen pushed to make the subversive layout match the food. While DOC's food is well-executed, it's not particularly unique for Portland, and I'd love to find a place that surprises diners with superb quality and simple executions of basic dishes. Like being invited to friends' homes who are superb cooks, that would be a kitchen I'd love to go to any time.

Details: DOC, 5519 NE 30th Ave. 503-946-8592.