The fried chicken wing tacos at Espita Mezcaleria are dressed with a 12-ingredient lime cashew crema, 13-ingredient “chicken salt” made from aggressively spiced crispy chicken skin, and a 24-ingredient salsa that includes five types of chiles, smoked paprika, toasted cashews, apples, golden raisins, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, and onions.
It takes multiple days to make all the components. The labor-intensive salsa isn’t used in any other dishes on the Shaw restaurant’s Oaxacan-inspired menu that includes everything from ceviche and Wagyu beef crudo to a lamb rib and neck dressed in mole. Each order of two fried chicken wing tacos costs $12.
“I hear a lot of people say things like, ‘The tacos are amazing at Espita, but they should cost $3,’” partner Josh Phillips says. “I feel so strongly that not all tacos have to be $3.”
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