Omnivore - Holy Taco delivers most surprisingly awesome meal of the week
Holy Taco breaks free from its Mexican confines, to delicious effect.
It was Ms. Debbie Michaud's birthday on Tuesday, and so of course I had to take my friend, editor and boss out and ply her with tequila. We ended up on the patio of Holy Taco in EAV, where I often go for such tequila-related activities. Generally I find it hard to resist the sluttily delicious pork belly torta here, but I was drawn this time to some items on the menu that break out of the Mexican theme so boldly they seem quite out of place. In a good way.
The dish of the week goes to the lardo toast appetizer: super thin slices of lardo (cured pig fat), draped amongst a jumble of confit French horn mushrooms and whole confit garlic cloves. Roasty garlic, silky porky pork fat, bursting juicy mushrooms, crusty country bread. That's a lot of umami. It's also what I will be served in heaven every morning for breakfast (you taking notes, God?).
As a fresh foil, we had the watermelon and tomato salad, which was a gorgeous study in summer, the juicy watermelon and tomato paired with creamy avocado and a smattering of radish greens.
I ordered the tuna salad as well, which was kind of like a deconstructed nicoise but not as lame. A pile of high-quality, super-salty cured tuna was topped with the freshest local salad greens and surrounded by various treats: fingerling potatoes, pole beans, a boiled farm egg, dehydrated tomatoes, olives and caperberries.
It was a thoroughly un-Mexican meal. And one of the best meals I've had in months.
(Photo courtesy Holy Taco)