gistfile1.txt

require 'nokogiri'
xml_source = '<item id="0001" type="donut">
   <batters>
     <batter>Regular</batter>
     <batter data-target="neat">Regular</batter>
     <batter>Regular</batter>
   </batters>
 </item>'

doc = Nokogiri::XML(xml_source)
doc.xpath('//batter[@data-target="neat"]').first.text 
## Will return inner text 
doc.xpath('//batter[@data-target="neat"]').first.values
## Will return date-target value