Wahaca

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Blog Round Up

We’re getting really excited about Dia De Los Muertos which is now less than 2 weeks away, and we’ve got lots of exciting plans for you, so keep your eyes on the blog to find out more. In the mean time, we loved Ruth Alegria’s blog post, that shows some highlights from what Mexico City will be offering up, plus it gives you enough info become an overnight aficionado and impress the pantalones off all of your pals.

Now, concentrate everyone, another really great Mexican ingredient to learn about – The amazing Huitlacoche – Believe it or not, it’s a type of corn which has a fungus growing on it, that gives a really distinct flavour and an amazingly intense black colour. If anyone has any other recipes with Huitlacoche, we’d love to hear from you, who knows you could get featured on our menu?

There are amazing things happening just around the corner from Wahaca Covent Garden every Thursday, in fact we’ve been down to check out the real food market stall before. We thought that Naihm from Eat Like a Girl really captured the amount of effort that goes into making it happen, and we’re very grateful indeed. (We also thought the black bean and chilli looked amazing so watch out for us queuing up for a bowl next time!).

Like most food obsessed Londoners, we’ve been following the buzz around Pierre Koffman’s pop up restaurant on the roof of Selfridges, and Chris from Cheese and Biscuits was lucky enough to be able to try it out, have a look at the review here. If Pierre’s looking for his next free lance job, then he’s very welcome to help us out with our next burrito, Pibil Trotter anyone?

Our mouths were also watering reading about Helen from Food Stories’ trip to Brindisa to learn all about the differences between the Jamons on offer down at Borough Market – The lucky swine. We’re always keen to hear about how London restaurants are giving you lot a chance to get involved behind the scenes,and we’re busy thinking about how we can do something similar at Wahaca, so watch this space.

Events at Wahaca, News, What's Happening

Day of the Dead

Image from Paul and Jill on Flickr

Every year, on November 1st (All Saints Day) and 2nd (All Souls Day), something unique takes place in many areas of Mexico: Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. This eerie sounding festival is Mexico’s celebration for when dead relatives, both young and old, are allowed to return to the mortal world for two days. Spirits come down and walk among the living, sampling earthly treats and joining in the festival.

Its similar to our Halloween, however instead of scary goblins and blood curdling monsters, the Mexicans welcome back the spirits of their families with the delicious smell of food in the air, tasty candies decorated like skulls, and lighted candles to guide them home again. Day of the dead is symbolised by skulls and skeletons (the Nahua speaking peoples of pre-columbian Mexico saw the skull as a symbol of life – not death.) which appear in abundance around this time in both shops and homes. Families and friends will gather together at the gravestones of loved ones where they will tell stories remembering them and engage in sprucing up the gravesite, decorating it with flowers, setting out and enjoying a picnic whilst paying respects to the deceased whenever they arrive! The meals prepared for these picnics are sumptuous, usually featuring meat dishes in spicy sauces and chocolate beverages. Because of this warm social environment, the colorful setting, and the abundance of food, drink and good company, the festival continues to be one of the most important in the Mexican calendar and is warmly embraced around the world.

The original celebration can be traced to the many Mesoamerican native traditions such as the Aztec festival presided over by the “Lady of the Dead” which was dedicated to children and the dead. In the Aztec calendar, this ritual fell roughly at the end of the Gregorian month of July and the beginning of August, but after the Spanish failed to eradicate the tradition post conquering Mexico the Spanish priests moved the event so that it coincided with the Christian holiday of All Saints Day (Halloween) This was a vain effort to transform the observance from a non-religious event to a Christian celebration. The result is that Mexicans now celebrate the day of the dead during the first two days of November, rather than at the beginning of summer.

Mexicans do not fear death they recognize it, embrace it, mock it and even defy it through this tradition!

Watch this space for some of our special Day of the Dead recipes leading up to our celebrations for this festival.