After my week in Las Vegas I headed to Miami to spend some quality time with my family and to celebrate Passover. Though I am a Boston girl through and through, Miami really has become my second home.
My parents and sister moved to Miami in 2005 and ever since I've had the privilege of escaping to the sun a few times every year. Over the last eight years I've discovered my favorite beaches, outdoor cafes, public parks, music venues, bars and of course, shopping destinations.
Though I have my personal favorites, on this trip my parents wanted to introduce me to a restaurant I hadn't been to yet called Xixon.
Xixon is a tapas restaurant on Coral Way as you head from downtown to Coral Gables. Everyone who works at Xixon is a native Spanish speaker and very few of them speak English. I was a Hispanic Studies major in college and I lived in Cordoba, Spain for my junior year, so I came to the rescue of my parents, who speak not a lick of Spanish.
My mother gave her name to the hostess (which the hostess repeated back in the most beautiful Spanish accent, making the name Susan sound much more exotic) and she showed us to our table.
We were seated in the restaurant's wine cellar. The tables in the cellar are all made from wine barrels.
The wine cellar is not just the coolest place to sit in the restaurant, but you can actually go into the refrigerated part of the room to select your own wine for dinner. Here is my dad perusing the options:
The wine cellar has some fun decor including these painted tiles. The way the light was shining on the tiles made it look very angelic, almost like an alter you'd see in a church.
My dad selected a wine from the Toro region of Spain. Last year he took a several week long wine class and now he's our in-house expert. He explained to me that, "Toro has significantly less restrictions on what it takes to be certified from that region. As a result, there are a lot of young, more adventurous wine makers coming from that area."
The wine was very good and a lovely way to start our meal.
My parents are very supportive of my vegetarianism and let me order half of the dishes we would share. We started with the queso en aceite (manchego cheese in olive oil). You could absolutely eat these drenched cheese cubes on their own, but we liked eating them on the crusty bread from the bread basket.
Next to arrive was the champinones al jerez (mushrooms in sherry sauce). I am a huge mushroom fan and these had such strong flavor. They are served warm and we gobbled them right up.
The tortilla espanola arrived next, which is a potato omelette. This is probably the most traditional Spanish tapa and it is also what I survived on when I lived in Spain. The Xixon version was excellent with a slightly browned and crisped top.
My parents ordered the sardinas fritas (fried sardines) which smelled so fishy! The waitress put the plate down next to me and I immediately felt like I was sitting on the beach and salt water was creeping up my nose. I made them move the plate.
The sardines come with the bones in, so my mom asked my dad to de-bone hers. I almost left the table. They both loved this dish and my dad looked like a cat that ate a mouse when he was finished.
Their next selection was the bacon wrapped dates which came in a creamy cheese sauce. I think this plate gets the award for most decadent dish of the night.
We all shared the patatas bravas (spicy potatoes) which is my favorite tapas dish. I order this at every tapas restaurant I visit. Xixon serves their potatoes like breakfast home fries and gives you three accompanying sauces - a garlic aioli, a spicy tomato and a mustard.
We couldn't finish all of the potatoes so I asked our waitress if we could please take them home. She said, "Claro!" (of course) and then proceeded to tell me that the best thing to do is to reheat the potatoes in a skillet the next morning and then crack an egg over them. All three of us looked and each other and said in unison, "Done!"
Bonus points to our waitress who also gave us extra dipping sauces to take home too!
The last dish was the steak, served over mushrooms and with a side of potatoes. There was also one piece of roasted red pepper that looked like a tongue sticking out from the plate!
My parents meant to order the sizzling steak that comes on a screaming platter (like fajitas) but they picked the wrong one. Even so, they both really enjoyed this dish.
Though Xixon has dessert, we already had a second venue in mind for post-dinner. My parents both ordered coffee, cortadito for my mom and an espresso for my dad. I hate coffee, but I would like to drink from these mini mugs, please.
Overall, our experience at Xixon was an excellent one. I loved sitting in the wine cellar and getting to pick our own bottle. The food was wonderful and transported me back to Spain with every bite.
If you decide to visit Xixon, be sure to go with someone who speaks at least conversational Spanish. It's a necessity.
Keep up with Xixon on Twitter, @XixonCafe. I tweeted them several times while in town and they always replied right back.
Do you have a favorite tapas restaurant?
