“15 years!?” said another, who said she adores Dainzu and dines there frequently. “I used to live a few blocks away but I’ve only known about it for six years!” Our waiter said that the place is actually 25 years old, but was at a different location for the first 10 years.
Part of the problem may be that Dainzu is tucked into a cluttered street where you don’t see it until you are on top of it. Yet when you enter, you are likely to see a healthy number of diners and even hear English spoken by some.
The buzz about Oaxacan food arises from ingredients that make it distinctive within the milieu of Mexican cuisine. Of course, Oaxaca is a southern state (its capital is also named Oaxaca) with a somewhat isolated geography and culture, lending it both unique ingredients, especially spices, and unique preparation methods. Oaxacan tamales, for example, bigger and meatier than other tamales, are wrapped in banana leaves and contain a pungent mole (sauce).
In fact, Oaxacan moles are perhaps the most distinguished part of the area’s cuisine and are made of dozens of ingredients which are laboriously crushed and blended in a utensil that is another contribution of Oaxaca — the molcajete, a large, stone mortar and pestle. The ingredients of moles are wide ranging — cacao, cloves, cinnamon, almonds, sesame seeds, tomatoes, chile peppers, etc. — and the flavor is rich and complex, reminding some of Indian food. (Middle and Far Eastern spices brought to Mexico by the Spanish have been incorporated into Oaxacan cuisine, but local herbs epazote, pitonia and hoja santa, especially the latter, are also used in moles.)
Dainzu features at least three varieties of mole, which are normally combined with meat or chicken, and sometimes with rarer meats such as turkey. (Lizards and other unusual animals are sometimes eaten in Oaxaca, but do not show their faces on Dainzu’s menu, except for chapulines, or crickets, which are featured in a few dishes — and on the restaurant’s Web page.)
Our knowledgeable waiter said that mole-meat combinations are one of Dainzu’s most popular items, along with tlalludas or “Oaxacan pizza,” which are platter-sized tortillas covered with beans, cheese, a bed of lettuce and tomatoes and plenty of meat — both carne asada and adobada. Tlalludas cost 105 pesos, within the reasonable price range of most entrees at Dainzu — 105 to 125 pesos. Other items come in a bit higher, such as a steak filet grilled on the parilla (150 pesos) or the many shrimp dishes, but generally the prices were lower than at many fine restaurants.
Although strictly speaking, chiles en nogada are not from Oaxaca but nearby Puebla, we could not resist ordering them, as the menu announced that the meat-stuffed chiles covered with nut sauce and pomegranate seeds are available year round and not just when pomegranates are in season. We were not sorry.
Dainzu, Avenida Providencia 2920 (two blocks from the Soriana at Pablo Neruda). (33) 3642-8113. Hours: 8 a.m.–8 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. www.restaurantedainzu.com
