Frida Fixe

Xochitl honors Mexico's most famous visual artist with a special menu.

by Elisa Ludwig

Few visual artists have been known for their artistry in the kitchen. Perhaps this is just as well. Even if he was a great cook, you probably wouldn't want to borrow recipes from Kurt Schwitters.

But Frida Kahlo is one artist who also happened to be an excellent cook and hostess. Xochitl is offering a special menu in conjunction with the Kahlo retrospective on view through May 18 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's an interesting way of honoring the life and work of the Surrealist legend. And at $35 a person for four courses, it's also a steal.

Designed by executive chef Dionicio Jimenez, the menu reflects the foods Kahlo liked to cook and eat. In these mainly traditional recipes, diners can also taste her interest in the Mexicanidad movement.

One of the first-course selections is the hangover cure offered after Kahlo's wedding to Diego Rivera, pozole rojo de puerco Jalisco, or pork and hominy stew. It turns out to be a delicate soup of many textures, bloated nuggets of hominy, shards of lettuce and radish, and ever-so-thin slices of tender pork.

The second course includes chalupas de chicharron, soft-fried tortillas slathered with red and green chili sauces and punctuated with airy pork cracklings. Or there are the albondigas, impossibly soft turkey meatballs in chipotle sauce that will make you apologize for any disparaging comments you've ever made about ground turkey.

A December favorite of Kahlo's was Revoltijo, traditionally a dish of fresh shrimp and dried shrimp cakes. In Xochitl's version, gigantic creamy prawns in the shell, roasted potatoes and strips of nopale cactus soak up brightly flavored guajillo chile sauce fringed with the romerito herb, making an exotic yet earthy stew.

Another Frida-themed entrée will be familiar to regulars: Jimenez's stellar chiles en nogada, poblanos bursting with spicy picadillo and dried fruit, the whole delicious mess lavished in a creamy walnut sauce and rubylike pomegranate seeds.

Desserts include a subtle pumpkin flan with apple salsa and tequila-macerated fruit, the latter of which holds its own alongside the richer dessert items.

Xochitl is even offering a special cocktail, the corazon de Frida, tequila and muddled pineapple and lime juices flecked with cilantro. Though quite refreshing, it's not particularly evocative of the bloody, pulsing vital organ of Kahlo's self-portraits. Then again, when you're dealing with a Surrealist, maybe it's best not to take the whole tribute thing too literally.

(e_ludwig@citypaper.net)

Xochitl

408 S. Second St. , 215-238-7280, xochitlphilly.com

Hours: Tue.-Sun., 5 p.m.- 2 a.m.; closed Monday

Frida Kahlo prix fixe menu, $35 per person

Available through March 20