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  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: mmmmmm, Durham
  • Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 14:37:35 -0500

I must've gotten out of the habit of ranting about food on this list, but so yeah, Xiloa is crazy. Sometimes crazy in a very good way, and sometimes crazy in the sense that the wonderful woman who owns it must be crazy to work as hard as she does. And sometimes crazy like when one of the 9th Street homeless dudes rambles in holding a big bowl of soup & demands crackers. Man, that guy smelled *terrible*.

Xiloa is a weird mashup of coastal-Nicaraguan-meets-New Mexico. Try the frybread taco with the red shredded pork & the really tasty tangy slaw, or the nacatamales, which are the Nicaraguan variation on tamales, the variation being that they're triple-sized, wrapped in banana leaves, steamed or sometimes braised, and packed with rice, vegetables, chicken & raisins.

She'll make anything you want vegan, if possible, and she keeps 6-8 different varieties of homemade agua frescas on ice at all times.

Not all the dishes are as excellent as the two I mentioned; seasoning seems to be uneven, and the owner told me a month or two ago that she was having trouble finding cooks who understood her recipes & her cooking style; they kept wanting to take shortcuts or alter the seasoning to fit their more Mexican palates.

It doesn't help that she's clearly a bit obsessive about her food & her restaurant; during the first month she was open, she was pulling 12-15-hour days, 7 days a week, to the point that she'd lost her voice & looked about ready to keel over.

But if it's possible to overcome these fairly standard new-restaurant growing pains on sheer willpower & determination, then they'll do fine.

Oh yeah: Xiloa is on 9th Street next door to Banhs.

xo

Ross

James Hepler wrote:
I'm going to go ahead and take this opportunity to
hail Xiloa as a great new place to eat. For lunch you
can order the guacamole and that right there is a
decent meal. And it's not guac like you would picture
it. So good, and I don't even like guac.

I've heard Rue Cler is terrible for service at
dinnertime. This is why I try to avoid new places in
the first few weeks. But I had friends that left
after waiting for too long, were roped into coming
back by an eager server only to be told "the waitress
is slammed so don't get your hopes up". I'm sure it
will work itself out.



--- grady <grady AT ibiblio.org> wrote:

Not saying that Piedmont *should* charge more. I'm
saying that the setting, the quality of the service, the food, the
ingredients, and the care that goes into their preparation are all in
line with a price-point that's somewhat higher than what they're charging,
compared to pretty much every-other-restaurant of that caliber. The
fact that they charge what they do means either they got a really good
deal on their lease, or that Abby, Andy & Drew are willing to work extra
hours & take home less profit. The latter, while admirable, can also lead
to burnout, so here's hoping they've figured out how to make what they're
doing sustainable.

As for your desire for Durham to have more
restaurants like Federal and Piedmont, well, don't get *too* greedy. Most towns
don't even have *one* restaurant that good & that inexpensive ;-)

I do dig what you're saying about Durham & the range
of restaurants; it's a conversation that I've had with other people
as well. You've got your [delicious] $5 Banh's, or the various
tacquerias, and then you've got Starlu and Four Square and Magnolia Grill. In
between there's a mixed bag of chain restaurants &/or places with
midline prices but mediocre food.

Rue Cler seems to be trying to hit that same $8-$15
sweet spot. I haven't been there for dinner (which I've been told,
by at least a half-dozen different people, is excellent), but at
lunch yesterday, $10 for a Salade Nicoise featuring a big plate of those
pre-washed greens, a single hard-boiled egg, and half a can of tuna was
*not* doing the trick for me.

The prewashed salad green revolution has pretty much
killed the restaurant salad, near as I can tell. Nearly
everyplace I go, I wind up with a *huge* plate of greens that's out-of-balance
with the other ingredients, *and* (presumably thanks to the
"pre-washed" sticker on the bag) inevitably the salad prep cook hasn't bothered
to actually touch or inspect the greens, so the giant pile is laced with
little shriveled/gooey blackened bits of rotting lettuce. I
pulled 3 or 4 particularly unappetizing examples out of the Rue
Cler Nicoise yesterday, but I've also had similar experiences at
too many other restaurants to name.

Of course, I guess the lesson I should take away
from this is to not order a green salad unless it's in-season, and you
can reasonably trust the restaurant to have a reliable local source of
fresh greens. Duh. OK. Point taken.

Back to more talk of nice, reasonably-priced food in
Durham! I had a really nice plate of Italian-style braised pork
shoulder just now for lunch at the Park Diner. $7.95 with 2 vegetables and
all the fresh bread you can eat. The only catch is that they're only
open for lunch M-F.

And have I raved here about Vit Goal Tofu Restaurant
yet?

Ross

Virginia Ingram wrote:
I love Durham. I love the food in Durham. I love
that Durham is well-known for it's food.
However, I 100% disagree that they should be
charging more for the food at Piedmont. I was there
last night and it IS delicious. But Durham needs to
be more competitive with restaurants in the Federal
and Piedmont price-range. There are way, way too
many 2 course one of them $17 dollar places in
Durham.
----------------------------------------

From: "rick sawyer" <rickbang AT gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 9:17 AM
To: "RTP-area local music and culture"
<ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: mmmmmm, Durham
What's the vegetarian option like? Or,
alternately, where do they source
their ingredients?

vegetarian options are scarce but available. they
source their
ingredients locally, for the most part. when
ordering, make sure that
you ask if there is hidden pork in the vegetables.
they love the pig.
r.
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