Even if the grasshoppers hadn't been as tasty as they were, it would have been worth ordering them just to see the looks on my dining companions' faces as I took my first crunchy bite.
My mother looked on in horror.
Ms. Martini told me that she'd never kiss me again.
My father tried to ignore the situation altogether.
But the truth is that grasshoppers are considered a delicacy for a reason, and sautéed with garlic and tequila, spooned onto a warm tortilla, laid alongside a rich slice of avocado, and livened with a squeeze of lemon, they were, to say the least, delicious. I had wanted to taste chapulines for a long time, but I'd never seen them on a menu before. I suppose, understandably, that there's not much profit margin in preparing them for a run-of-the-mill dinner service.
And for that very reason, Tequila's has my undying admiration. By preparing them as a special, by offering them at all, Tequila's is challenging Philadelphia to up its culinary game.
The restaurant has been around-in one location or another-for 20 years, and in that time, it has managed to take Mexican cuisine to a level most people never imagine before they set foot into the dimply-lit, heavy-moldinged space on the 1600 block of Locust Street.
Aside from those sautéed chapulines (which paired well with the restaurant's own Siembra Azul Reposado Tequila), we had a more (or less, depending upon how you look at it) down-to-earth appetizer as well: Caesar salad. It's typically thought of as Italian but the dish was actually invented in Tijuana in 1924. Italian, Mexican, whatever: This one was zesty with garlic, supremely crisp, and smartly assembled. Also, the crunching of the romaine, I'm told, obscured the crunching of the grasshoppers, so everyone, apparently, benefited from it.
Molcajete de pollo, a sizzling-hot stone bowl filled with tender pieces of chicken and a marinara-like salsa made with tomatoes, chile de arbol, and garlic, was hearty and warming on a cold night. It was accompanied by corn tortillas, saffron-yellow rice, guacamole, and pureed beans, and the entire preparation was far too much for one person to eat-a happy problem if there ever was one.
And the carne asada a la tampiquena was a wonderful demonstration of how a perfectly delicious dish-here the meat was well-seasoned, tender, and cooked exactly as we'd ordered it-can get a bad reputation when it is mass marketed and overly-anglicized, as is the case with Taco Bell's abominable version of it. Don't be turned off by past fast-food experiences with carne asada-this is the real deal, and an excellent one at that.
We ended with the crepas de cajeta-simple, not-too-sweet caramel crepes that brought the meal to a nice, deceptively light close. It was also a dessert in perfect keeping with the overarching ethos of the dining experience here: Traditional dishes, prepared with care and fresh ingredients, and never overwrought or baroque in any way.
We ended up spending $112.20, which is a bargain if the entire dining experience is taken into consideration. It is, after all, a small price to pay for a meal that affords you the opportunity to taste a dish you've never had before. And in that regard, my meal at Tequila's was priceless.
