Eating Around: Mole With an Authentic Accent

ALFIO BLANGIARDO MAY NOT BE a household name among D.C. foodies yet, but if things go smoothly at Adams Morgan's Casa Oaxaca, which opened last week, Blangiardo's will at least be a name to be reckoned with.

The ambitious young chef trained at the Instituto Culinario de Mexico in Puebla and was schooled in stints in Belgium, Germany and Paris; he knows Oaxacan cuisine from his grandmother. who is from the region.

Defined by its coastline and mountains, this geographically diverse state is culinarily unified by its moles. They need not contain chocolate, the sauce's most famous ingredient, but can be made of anything from chiles to yellow tomatoes to tomatillos.

From his own menu, chef Blangiardo recommends tres moles ($19) for a quintessentially Oaxacan entree — the yellow, green and black (that is, chocolate) mole over chicken. Other menu items that nod to the region are the red snapper ceviche with pineapple ($12) and the cazuela de queso ($12), Oaxacan cheese flambeed with guajillo sauce and grasshoppers.

Blangiardo and owner Karen Barroso helped create the menu and cook together during the dinner hours. Blangiardo said Barroso, who also owns Arlington's Guajillo, was a student in one of his cooking classes in Mexico, after which they became friends. "Oaxacan cuisine in D.C. was Karen's idea," he said. "I wouldn't have thought of it, but people love it."

» Casa Oaxaca, 2106 18th St. NW; 202-387-2272.

Photo by Melissa McCart/Express