Homemade Mexico City Nachos

Having really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos from Wahaca, I have now been making this dish quite often myself.

Homemade Mexico City Nachos

I used some tinned black beans, I also had some other mixed beans and sweetcorn. To this I added some tortilla chips, and then dressed the dish with guacamole, sour cream, grated cheese, a tomato salsa, Mexican cheese dip, and some homemade pickled red onion. I added some freshly chopped coriander as a garnish.

It was a really nice and fresh dish, and was a good but slightly different version of the dish I had in London.

Homemade Mexico City Nachos

Having really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos from Wahaca, I have now been making this dish quite often myself.

Homemade Mexico City Nachos

I used some tinned black beans, to this I added some tortilla chips, and then dressed the dish with chopped fresh red pepper, avocado, guacamole, sour cream, grated cheese, a homemade tomato salsa, and some homemade pickled red onion.

It was a really nice and fresh dish, and was a good copy of the dish I had in London.

Time for Tres Tacos

I was up in Manchester for some meetings. Before a long afternoon meeting I headed out into Manchester for something to eat. I needed to be quick, so I went local.

Many years ago I had some excellent tacos from Chilango in Manchester. When I was in Manchester in May 2022 I went to Chilango, they no longer sold their tacos, so I had a hotbox instead. 

So when I was up in Manchester this month (January 2023) I was intrigued to see that the branch of Chilango had closed and had been replaced by a branch of Tortilla.

They sell tacos and I like tacos, so I ordered some grilled chicken tacos with cheese, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

These were very fresh and tasty tacos.

Nachos

I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant.

I decided to go for a starter, choosing the nachos. I quite like nachos and have had them back home. These nachos were described on the menu as tortilla chips with sour cream, tomato salsa, guacamole, jalapenos and cheese.

I was quite surprised by the size of the dish, it was a large plate of nachos and I was unable to finish all the nachos!

The nachos had been toasted, so the cheese was melted. The sour cream, tomato salsa, guacamole, was all fine. I didn’t eat too many of the jalapenos though.

Overall a simple dish, which was quite tasty.

More homemade Mexico City Nachos

Having really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos from Wahaca, I decided I would have a go at making them myself, which I really enjoyed. This was good, so I did it again.

I used some tinned black beans, this timeI used a can from Aldi. Previously I used Old El Paso black beans, the ones from Aldi were a lot cheaper and were a good replacement.

To the beans I added some tortilla chips. I then dressed the dish with guacamole, tomato salsa,, sour cream, grated cheese, and chopped fresh avocado. I garnished the dish with some homemade pink pickled onions.

It was a really nice and fresh dish, and was a good copy of the dish I had in London.

Homemade Mexico City Nachos

Having really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos from Wahaca, I decided I would have a go at making them myself.

I used some tinned black beans, I added some tortilla chips, and then dressed the dish with guacamole, chorizo, sour cream, grated cheese and a homemade salsa.

It was a really nice and fresh dish, and was a good copy of the dish I had in London.

I did a variation before with refried beans and homemade pink pickled onions, which was also a good copy.

That Wahaca Time in Clifton

Now as we start to leave the third lockdown I have been reflecting on some meals I had out over the last few years which never made it to the blog. Sometimes I just run out of time to write up a review and sometimes I forget to write up the meal. 

I had forgotten that I had eaten at Wahaca in Bristol in 2017. I had got a money off voucher from a meal kit that I had bought in a supermarket, so though I wouldn’t normally spend the kind of money that this lunch would cost, with the money off voucher  it made it a lot cheaper and value for money.

This was my first (and to date) only visit to the Wahaca branch in Clifton, Bristol. I have eaten at a fair few branches in London over the years, but  I have only visited the branch in Clifton just this once.

I had a warm and friendly welcome and was shown to a table. It was later in the day for lunch so the place was quite empty.

I went with three dishes. The first of these was the Grilled Steak Tacos.

These are three flash-grilled skirt steak filled toasted soft corn tortilla tacos with chipotle & tomatillo salsas. You could have had it with grilled cheese, but I chose to go without. When I last visited Wahaca in London last year the cheese wasn’t optional, I don’t think it needs the cheese. The tacos were delicious, the steak was cooked well and the different salsas added heat and spice.

The second of my dishes as the Ancho Chicken Baja Tacos.

Two corn and flour tortillas inspired by the beaches of baja filled with grilled chicken thighs marinated with sweet & smoky ancho chilli, topped with  and jalapeño-pickled carrots. I really enjoyed these the salad adding freshness to the dish, with the warm tasty grilled chicken.

As for my third dish was a special, the Mushroom Fundido.

Mushrooms roasted in garlic, thyme, chipotle and hibiscus glazed, baked in mozzarella, cheddar and local queso fresco.

When writing this article I checked what the dish was called from my Instagram feed when I posted a photo of it back in March 2017.

I then did a Google Search for more details about the dish and this tweet from Wahaca came up.

As you can see what I got looked very different to how the dish should have looked. Having said that, the dish tasted a lot better than it looked.

Overall three tasty dishes, excellent service.

Quick lunch in Cardiff

Last November I was attending some meetings in Cardiff, after they were over I was walking back to the car park to get my car and drive home. I realised I was hungry and decided to get something to eat.

Cardiff has quite a bit of choice of places to eat, but I didn’t really have the time to look round find somewhere so in the end I chose Barburrito.

I’ve had Barburrito tacos before at Paddington and Bristol Airport, so it was something I knew I liked.

I had three Barburrito tacos with pork and chicken. You also get a handful of tortilla chips and salsa. I like how you have some choice over which salads and extras you get with your tacos.

tacos

Though I always think with Barburrito that the meat is generally overcooked, however I did enjoy my tacos and the salad and toppings tasted very fresh.

That time I was in London for tacos

On one of my last visits to London before the lockdown I did pop to Wahaca at Oxford Circus. I have been there quite a few times and have enjoyed the atmosphere and the food.

As we were in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, this was a couple of weeks before the full lockdown, the place was still open. I was a little cautious about going to a restaurant and sitting down with others to eat. With hindsight I probably wouldn’t have gone, but at the time the risk seemed quite low and there was sanitiser available, and I was washing my hands a lot.

Each branch of Wahaca has it’s own charm and style, there are similarities across the different restaurants, but each has an element of individuality.

I was given a warm welcome and there were plenty of seats available. I looked over the menu and decided to go with some old favourites as well as trying out a new dish.

For my first choice, I chose a dish that I have had a fair few times before, which was the crispy cauliflower bites.

crispy buttermilk-battered florets of cauliflower, with roast serrano allioli

These are crispy buttermilk-battered florets of cauliflower, with roast serrano allioli.

These were delicious and lovely and crispy. I enjoyed the allioli which complemented the crispy florets. They are very moreish and tasty,

My other favourite was steak tacos.

chargrilled steak served with grilled cheese, chipotle salsa & avocado

These are two tacos filled with chargrilled steak served with grilled cheese, chipotle salsa & avocado. I much preferred these when the grilled cheese was optional, I don’t think the grilled cheese adds much to the dish. The steak was full of flavour and very tender.

The dish I ordered that I hadn’t had before, was the grilled mushroom & cheese tacos

sweet ancho rubbed mushrooms with crispy grilled cheese

These are sweet ancho rubbed mushrooms with crispy grilled cheese. The mushrooms were delicious, again not a fan of the grilled cheese.

I really enjoyed the three dishes which were tasty and delicious. The service was warm, friendly and welcoming, the food arrived quickly and efficiently.

At the time I was planning to come back to London later in March, so didn’t think this was going to be my last lunch in London for a long time. At the time of writing I have no idea when or even if I will be going back to London for work. As we know restaurants are closed and looking unlikely to re-open in the short term. I am though looking forward to the time when I can go back out to eat, but hopefully I will be able to visit Wahaca in the future and have some great food.

Time for a salsa

salsa

Actually I am not sure if this is a salsa or not, as I didn’t follow a recipe nor did I check what making salsa entails… 

This was made using my new kitchen toy I got for my birthday, a mandolin,  (other similar models can be had on Amazon).

Ingredients for the salsa.

      • Red pepper (half)
      • Orange pepper (half)
      • Small red onion
      • Cucumber (quarter)
      • Sweetcorn (half a small tin)
      • Olive oil (splash)
      • White wine vinegar (slightly smaller splash)
      • Salt and Pepper
      • Chilli flakes (to taste)

Using the fine dicer, I diced the peppers, onion and cucumber before stirring them. I then added the sweetcorn, the olive oil and white wine vinegar. Add seasoning and the chilli flakes to taste. This was then thoroughly stirred and covered for a hour or two.

Serve with barbecued meats or with tacos.