Not your ordinary chips and salsa at this Mexican restaurant

The guacamole and salsa tasting at Alma Cocina features three types each of guacamole and salsa with a basket of plantain chips and tortilla chips. / Photo by Fifth Group Restaurants

Credit: Ligaya Figueras

Credit: Ligaya Figueras

The guacamole and salsa tasting at Alma Cocina features three types each of guacamole and salsa with a basket of plantain chips and tortilla chips. / Photo by Fifth Group Restaurants

Dish of the Week: Guacamole & Salsa Tasting at Alma Cocina

Some Mexican restaurants toss out unlimited complimentary chips and salsa. Others charge for it. At Alma Cocina in downtown Atlanta, we’re shifting focus entirely from free versus paid and going straight for the shebang rendition of this quintessential Mexican snack: the Guacamole & Salsa Tasting.

Alma Cocina executive chef Chad Clevenger gets clever – and caters to the party of many palates – with this appetizer of three salsas and three types of guacamole served with a basket of fried plantain chips and tortilla chips.

Among salsas, you’ll find fire-roasted tomato, tomatillo-avocado and salsa negra. Then there’s the guac – a more standard one of avocado, tomato, lime, cilantro, red onion and serrano pepper; a smoked apple-pear spiked with Chamoy hot sauce and garnished with Manchego cheese and pecans; and a winter-perfect butternut squash version that’s sweet, smoky and salty with crumbled queso fresco. The guacamole rotation changes with the seasons. The squash guac will be around through March.

Scoop up these flavor-packed dippers with house-fried tortillas or strips of fried plantains seasoned with a mix of guajillo chile powder, sugar and salt. The fried fruit chips are addictive; good luck not ruining your appetite or just indulge knowing you'll be taking home platos mayores in a doggie bag.

What makes this antojito even more pleasing is the elegant wooden serving board custom made to suit the dish. Alma Cocina tapped local woodworker Michael McMeubel Courts  to design boards that fit the bowls for its three- and six- salsa/guacamole tastings. Fancy.

Alma Cocina, 191 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, 404-968-9662, alma-atlanta.com.

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