Kakawa Chocolate House (Santa Fe)

It was worth 9 hours in the traveling chair to arrive in Santa Fe if only for the experience at Kakawa Chocolate House. Kakawa is a chocolate shop within walking distance of central downtown Santa Fe and within sight of the famous Canyon Road art gallerias. After a day of wandering and a Reflexology spa treatment, Mom and I decided we needed to indulge further. At the suggestion of Fodor's, we ventured to Kakawa

The ancient people of Mesoamerica used kakawa (a Nahuatl word, translated as cacao) in elixirs. They believed that it was food from the gods and only those of high-status were allowed to consume it. Cortez discovered chocolate when visiting the great Aztec Emperor, Montezuma, and brought it back to Europe where sweetened versions of the elixirs were formulated.

There are two types of recipes for the elixirs brewed here. Mesoamerican and European. The Mesoamerican elixirs are brewed to recipes thousands of years old and are for those who prefer a bittersweet, spicy experience. Throughout mesoamerica, chocolate was primarily mixed with water and made into highly spiced aromatic unsweetened drinks and considered to be the sacred and favorite elixir of the rulers and warriors.

Among the list are Atole, Acuyo, Aztec Warrior, Chili, Mayan full spice, pepper allspice, rose almond and zapoteca. Only a few of each are offered each day.

I opted for the Atole, which had a kick of an after taste that lingered in my mouth. It combines the staff of life, roasted blue corn with chocolate. Ingredients include purified water, blue corn atole, unsweetened chocolate, honey, chili and salt.

Fodors recommended the Aztec Warrior Chocolate Elixir, which after a sampling was such a unique concoction -- but far to potent for me. It had unsweetened chocolate, herbs, flowers, nuts, spices, pasilla de oaxaca chili and mexican vanilla.

Mom chose from the European list: "Chocolate will never be the same for me after sampling the Marie Antoinette elixir and the gluten free chocolate torte. For a common chocolatier like me, the decision was easy - non-dairy please. The torte defined decadent. Imagine chocolate the texture of butter, trimmed in raspberry compote. It's true, the shared slice was far too rich for me... "

The Marie Antoinette is one of the European chocolate elixirs brewed for those they are named after. This recipe of course comes from the french court of Versailles during the reign of Marie Antoinette in the 1770s. Marie brought her own liking and recipe from drinking chocolate with her from Vienna to the Royal Court of France. The drink had 70% chocolate, almond milk, orange blossom water, raw unprocessed cane sugar, ceylon cinnamon, mexican vanilla and culinary orange blossom essential oil.

We went back for a second time today, both mom and I trying European elixirs. I had the Italian Citrus that harkens back to the Italian court of Tuscany in the 1660s. It had a deep, mysterious and bright chocolate flavor made from Chocolate, lemon and orange peel, raw cane sugar, ceylon cinnamon, mexican vanilla and Ambergris essential oil.

While there, we also sampled some coconut milk and a raspberry peach pie that had the best crust known to man.

The owner of Kakawa, Peter Wolf, will delight you in the history of chocolate and its health benefits. He is more than happy to sample all of his flavors with you, educating you on their recipe. He reminded me of a bohemian version of Carrie-Anne Moss character from the 2000 movie Chocolat. He's been operating this shop for the past 5 years.

The shop itself is convenient to all the beautiful galleries of Santa Fe and a great place to stop for a morning or afternoon libation. It's a cozy place with local art displayed on the walls where one is inspired to linger over chocolate for hours.

I should also mention that the elixirs are not the only thing on the menu. Mark has a full case of truffles and other chocolates available with unique flavors such as Rosemary or Basil truffles. I tried both of these. The basil being the more savory of the two. I also had a smoked rock salt caramel, which had the "Ohmygod" factor to it... taking in the smokey smell of the salt as I bit into it.

I asked the proprietor for a recipe book to bring to my friend Mark Hare, an accomplished chocolate maker himself to share these elixir recipes, but alas, no such book exists yet. He's working on it though.

www.kakawachocolates.com

Acadiana

To celebrate Steph’s promotion to Colonel, I gathered together with three former coworkers turned good friends for a night out at Acadiana on New York and 9th. A lovely day, it was still a bit chilly for al fresca dining so we opted for an inside table as soon as our party gathered. Steph was running a bit late, so Jen, Jackie and I waited at the bar where they had a decent number of Abitas on tap. I chose a gin and basil cocktail though from their signature menu which I do not recommend. Tart.

Waiting, I tried to pinpoint the type of person who would enjoy frequenting this restaurant and the only thing that came to mind was: tourist. Nothing about the restaurant read DC: from the Cajun menu to the bland décor in an odd location overpowered by more Caps fans than Cap and Traders or trendsetters.

When Steph finally arrived, we took our seats where an overly ambitious waiter tried to take my unfinished drink from me at the risk of his tip. What I needed was food though. Thankfully, the biscuits came out complimented by a strange honey and mayonnaise concoction sure to turn my stomach later, but too good to resist now. Scarffing down a second basket of biscuits, my starter trio of soups arrived. I was the only one to order an appetizer, but at Darryl’s recommendation, I needed to try this dish. They were off to a bad start and I wanted a positive.

Each soup came in a tiny square demitasse lined horizontally along a long plate. The first was a tomato-based soup that the waiter pronounced 3 times to my complete lack of comprehension. Tangy and ok. The second soup was a crab and corn bisque which was probably my favorite of the three. Creamy with a slight kick. I unfortunately saved the worst for last: a chicken gumbo overly peppered with smoky, uncomplimentary spices.

My main dish was the snapper with pine nuts. Mistake. First, I am deathly afraid of any fish that may have fish bones in it from a childhood incident where I watched my father choke half to death on a fish bone stuck in his throat. If only… I digress. Plus, such fish is sometimes served with the head still on, especially at ethnic places. If any animal comes out on my plate still looking like the animal it once was, it is sure to head straight back to the kitchen. Nevertheless, it is rare for me to order such a fish, but I do like a snapper and I don’t find snapper on the east often. This means the restaurant is either adept at importing pacific fish and likely has its own fisheries, or my snapper was frozen and trucked across country as if I ordered it in Omaha. I have this thing about ordering fish when I’m not near water. So what made this dish even worse than the risk of ordering a boney fish? Every pine nut I crunched in my mouth I thought was a bone. And one was actually a bone. So I was forced to turn the fish into the consistency of the mashed sweet potatoes that accompanied the dish before forking its way to my mouth. It was also served with swiss chard which I didn’t touch and supposedly doused in a citrus butter, which didn’t come through. The final thing that made this dish such a bad choice was it came skin on and skin up. Fish skin. Seriously? Perhaps chef Brant Tesky learned this was a fancy way to serve up snapper, but it just reads “fish with head still on it.”

Everybody else seemed to enjoy their meal. Steph in her uncomplicated description of her blackened redfish, covered in a crab sauce, called it “good.” Jackie had the duck, which she described as tangy and citrus based: neither flavor was in the menu description. And poor Jen, who is not a seafood fan, was faced with limited menu choices. She ended up with a grilled romaine salad. Yes, the lettuce was actually grilled. She liked it. I found it strange. The macerated figs and farmers cheese made it for her, although I prefer to macerate my own food versus the restaurant doing it for me.

Neither I or Jen thought to check the menu beforehand as we normally do to ensure there are enough choices for a younger palette. In this case, there were not enough choices. They had every flavor of fish imaginable, but only one steak dish and not a lick of chicken on the menu. Call me crazy, but Cajun ought to have some chicken. Hello Popeyes! Which is exactly where I’ll have to go the next time I crave Cajun in DC because Acadiana is permanently off my list.

Bad service. Crappy drinks. Scary fish. No menu variety. Bland décor. And lets just add the fact it is in a neighborhood with the new 10pm meters as if it were some sort of real destination dining establishment. Insulting. The only compliment I can give Acadiana are its biscuits, but really: how hard is it to pop some pilsburys in the oven and douse them in honey. I can do that at home.

I was so disappointed that a place related to a couple of my favorites, namely Ceiba and DC Coast, could produce such a meal. I’m not surprised for the bad service given the relation to my nemesis restaurant TenPehn, but come on guys!

Thankfully the evening was rescued by my great company.

http://www.acadianarestaurant.com/