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The lesser spotted jaguar spotter

This January we’re sending Matt White, of Wahaca Covent Garden infamy, off to Mexico for a 3 week excursion into the wilds of the Yucatan on a mission to help a conservation group in their quest to protect Mexico’s wild jaguars.

In the summer we offered up a Scholarship fund of £2,000 for one of our managers to travel to Mexico on a trip that would expand their understanding of the country and indulge their passion for travel (and adventure). They were all given the chance to pitch their ideas for a trip to discover something new about the country. From all of the entries we had Matt’s plan had the biggest potential to really make a difference and allow him to achieve a lifelong ambition. Harking from South Africa, he’s always been fascinated by this illusive big cat’s African cousin, the leopard, but despite numerous attempts, he has never managed to spot (haha) one. We hope this will be his chance.

He’s going to be heading to Calakmul, home to Mexico’s largest population of jaguars, but even in this area there is an average of only one jaguar per square 25km, so the chances of actually seeing one here in the dense jungle are pretty slim. Calakmul is also home to the chicaleros, which you may remember being featured in an old edition of Ola London – These are the guys who tap the rubber trees for resin which they make into biodegradable chewing gum, all by hand and Matt will meet up with them deep in the rainforest.

The culmination of his trip will be meeting conservationist Mircea Hidalgo on a ranch in Laguna de Terminos in the Yucatan Peninsula, where he’ll be spending four days working with him downloading footage and replacing battery packs in the motion sensor cameras which they use in tracking the jaguars without disturbing their everyday prowling.

If you want to find out a bit more about Mexican jaguars, check out the Northern Jaguar Project, who have helped Matt get in touch with Mircea and organise the trip.

We look forward to hearing how it all goes with Matt’s expedition into the jungle, and be keeping our fingers crossed that he manages to catch a glimpse of the “beast that kills its prey in a single bound”.

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Start the year with a clear concsience

In the past 5 years, 20,000 of our specially designed spoons have mysteriously (a-hhem) dessert-ed us and this January we’re giving all those who bring one back to us the chance to clear their conscience without fear of retribution. In fact, we’re such a forgiving bunch at Wahaca that in return for that spoon you “borrowed” we’ll also give you a free plate of tacos. No questions asked.

We’re hoping that this amnesty will be our big chance to stop our spoons ending up into the wrong hands and being used for malicious means – As makeshift percussion instruments, serving taramasalata, or heaven forbid, being bent by Uri Geller.

If you’ve been resisting the temptation to pocket one all this time, we admire your honesty and in return, we’ll let you borrow one, so long as you bring it back in January. That way you can get a piece of the action without your values being besmirched in any way. If you ask, we’ll also give you a hug.

You know who you are, if you’ve got one of our lovely spoons hiding in your cutlery draw, bring it along and grab some tacos.

Tell your friends, The Mexican Spoon Amnesty is coming and reform never tasted so good!

Rules to control the fun: One plate of tacos per table, but don’t let this stop you bringing back the 5 spoons you have, our forgiveness is unlimited. You’ve got to hand your spoon in to your waiter at the beginning of your meal to claim your tacos. We’ll take the cheapest plate of tacos off your bill and at this point, we’d like to recommend how tasty our winter vegetable tacos are. Wahaca do not encourage theft of any kind, it’s very bad for your soul. Borrowing is OK though.

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New Dash of Wahaca salsas arrive on our tables

If you’ve been into Wahaca recently, you might have spotted the first of our new Dash of Wahaca salsas which have landed on the tables in the last few weeks.

It’s been a labour of love but for the last year Tommi has been working tirelessly on the recipes with a specialist company who has created the great looking bottles for us. To give you an idea of the amount of effort that has gone into each one, just check out the list of ingredients – All of which are totally natural with no nasty preservatives anywhere in sight. In fact, if you have a look, you can see all of the little bits of chopped up herbs and spices swimming around inside the bottle.

Tommi has made 3 salsas for us to start off with. A brand new searingly hot chile de arbol sauce and new (and even tastier) versions of our yellow habanero and our smoky chipotle chile salsas that have been used on the tables in the last few years. So now there are 3 very different flavoured salsas each with a different level of spicines for you to choose from.

The brilliant news is, if you want to take some with you to give your home cooking a dash of Wahaca (see what we’ve done there?), you can buy them in our restaurants for £2.50 a bottle, just ask one of the waiters. Over the next few weeks, we’ll post a couple of recipes on the website so that you can discover some new ways of spicing things up in your own kitchen.

As always, we’d love to hear from anyone who’s tried them out already. What do you think of the new bottles? Do you have a favourite? Would they make the perfect Christmas present? (Yes they would).