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Loving our Lunchtime Locals this Summer

To celebrate the launch of our new Summer menu, we’re showing some extra love to our lunchtime locals with a competition that’ll be the talk of the water-cooler. If you work within lunching distance of Wahaca and want to be in with a chance to win lunch for your team of up to 8 people, enter your details below. We’ll pick one winning person from each restaurant at random on the 31st May.

Lunch at Wahaca is the perfect office escape with fresh, tasty and affordable street food dishes that are full of flavour. You can be in and out in under half an hour (but only if you want to) and with a hearty burrito from £6.85 and street food dishes from £3.60, it’s time to give that alone at your desk sandwich the boot. Our new summer menu includes light and fresh favourites such as the scallop and shrimp ceviche and the ever popular plantain taco with chipotle adobo which will power you through your afternoon admin with a grin from ear to ear.

The rules: We’ll pick one winner at random from all entries received before midnight on May 30th. Each winner will receive a free food and 2 rounds of drinks at their local Wahaca for up to 8 people. Meals will be booked with Wahaca and can be taken any time before 01.09.13 between the hours of 12pm and 4pm. Winners will be notified by email.

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Grasshoppers on the menu at The Wahaca Southbank Experiment

From Monday 11th March, we’re launching a new experimental dish at our Southbank restaurant. Chapulines fundido is made with one of Mexico’s most sustainably farmed, yet unusual ingredients, grasshoppers.

We take fried chapulines and cook them with softened shallots, garlic and smoky chipotle chillies to create a delicious salsa, which is served with queso fundido, a mixture of gratinated mozzarella and cheddar cheese, perfect for scooping up with corn tortillas.

The Wahaca Southbank Experiment has always been a testing ground for new and interesting dishes for you to try before we decide whether to put them on the menu in our other restaurants, so we want to hear what you think of them. This time we’re asking you to cast your vote on twitter by using our cunningly devised hashtags, #ChapulinYES or #ChapuliNO to let us know what you think.

Chapulines are considered a much sought after delicacy in Mexico and are a real favourite of Tommi’s who always hunts them out on the menu when we’re over there. But as well as being a very tasty source of protein, from an environmental point of view, entomophagy (insect eating) is seen by many leading experts as the only logical answer to the critical pressure our growing population is putting on food supplies.

Insects are already eaten regularly by 80% of the world, but at the moment they’re seen as a novely food in the UK. Tommi gave us her take on her new dish, saying “It’s just not in our psyche at the moment, but we don’t have any issues eating shrimps or prawns so I think it’s just a question of creating a dish that will appeal over here. The chapulines fundido is a great introduction to the beautiful earthy flavour of these insects as it tastes amazing and a salsa is much more palatable for the more squeamish diners out there.”

Waiter, there's a grasshopper in my fundido!

As grasshoppers aren’t currently farmed in the UK, for our first month long trial the only practical way to put them on the menu was to buy them from an accredited cooperative of farmers in Oaxaca, but our hope is that in the future if the dish proves popular we’ll be able to work to set up a supplier closer to home, making them even more sustainable.

We hope that getting people thinking about insects in another light is a great step in the right direction of sustainable food production and hopefully one that will change our food map forever.

So get yourself down to The Wahaca Southbank Experiment this month and try them for yourself and don’t forget to tell us what you think by leaving a comment below, or get voting on twitter.

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Cracking Crackling

Pork scratchings with guacamole are probably the most popular snack in Mexico, especially when accompanied with an ice-cold beer and they’ve been a feature of our menu ever since we opened. Tommi’s a massive fan, as you might have noticed…

Tommi tucking into a Meixcan Scratching

In the last few months we decided our recipe was up for a refresh. We use specially selected cuts of back rind from outdoor reared British pigs which are slow cooked for four hours, then cooked twice more for that soft, but lighter crunch. Our new scratchings are finished off with a fennel seed dusting which we LOVE! It gives a subtle and earthy anise flavour. The saltiness of the pork is a wonderful foil for the creamy avocado, whilst the vibrant flavours of guacamole (fresh lime, chilli, fresh coriander) adds a delicious seasoning to the pork. All in all, it’s winning flavour combo.

Fennel dusted scratchings with guacamole

Mexican style pork scratchings are on the up these days. So good are they that Rene Redzepi of Noma fame put a rendition of the pork scratching on his world beating tasting menu after he’d done a month cooking in Mexico. He’s clearly onto something that guy.

So, next time you’re in and thinking of starting things off with your regular guac and chips, ring the changes and give our new fennel dusted pork scratchings a try. You may never look back.

If you’ve given them a try, we’d love to know what you think – you can let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Keeping it fresh. Wahaca Charlotte Street is now open

We like fresh. We always have done. So when we opened up our Charlotte Street restaurant, we wanted to keep not just the food, but the way we think about Wahaca as fresh as we could. We wanted to challenge ourselves to keep re-inventing what we offer. Don’t worry, we’ve still got the lunch and dinner time treats that you love so much, but we’re also offering a brand new breakfast, a torta and burrito takeaway, a deli for buying hard to find Mexican ingredients and the UK’s first mezcal bar.

Wahacito, our newly opened deli, will take up one of the 3 converted Georgian town houses that makes up Wahaca Charlotte Street (You’ll find it at number 23 actually). It opens its doors from 8.30am on weekdays (9am on the weekends) and it serves Mexican breakfast dishes like the amazing Huevos Rancheros – 2 fried eggs on blue corn tortillas (yes, they’re naturally blue) with a choice of salsas. Or the breakfast burrito, hangover slayer of choice for those in the know, which comes with either Brindisa’s amazing chorizo or some beautiful cured bacon, eggs, spinach, frijoles and salsa. We have a whole new selection of teas from The Rare Tea Company and a whizzed up agave and avocado smoothie. There are freshly baked breads, and devilishly good donuts which we make on site every morning. If you’ve never had a Mexican breakfast, you’re doing it wrong.

At midday, Wahacito transforms into a Deli and takeaway, serving Mexican-on-the-go for those busy days when you can’t eat in (or indeed those sunny days when you just want to sit on a rug and feel the grass between your toes). Here’s where we should introduce you once again to The Torta. If you didn’t know already, the torta is the not-so-humble Mexican sandwich that squidges roast chipotle salsa, fresh avocado, crema, lettuce, frijoles and things like chorizo, cactus or even pork pibil into a toasted artisan bap. You need this sandwich in your life. Whilst we’ll also be serving amazing burritos and tacos, we think it’s time that the torta had its day and Wahacito will be the place to get the finest torta in the land.

Head up the stairs at Wahaca Charlotte Street and you’ll find our Mezcalería cocktail bar. It’s more than a bit snazzy with a beautifully curving brass bar behind which you’ll more often than not find Jon Anders Fjeldsrud, our head of the bar. Jon has selected the mezcals for our list after scouring the hills around Oaxaca and has created some brand new mezcal cocktails especially for you. Our favourite of which is the Wahaca Mezcal Cup – A Pimms style long cocktail mixed with seasonal fruits bringing a smoky Mexican twist to this English classic. The bar will be open until 11.30pm Monday – Wednesdays and 12.30am Thursdays – Saturdays and will be available to hire for private parties and events.

So whether it’s a blue corn tortilla topped with a fried egg at 9am, a wickedly stuffed torta for lunch, or your first sip of mezcal with dinner, we hope you’ll enjoy the fresh touches at Wahaca Charlotte Street.

Here’s to trying new things.

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Wahaca at The British Street Food Awards

The 15th – 16th September sees the return of the British Street Food Awards and as part of this year’s prize for the vendor who scoops the “Best of the best” award, our very own Tommi and Mark, are going to be helping out with their best advice on growing their burgeoning street food emporium into a mini fleet, (if of course that’s what the winner would like to do).

In fact Tommi is also on the judging panel helping to decide who from this year’s clutch of newcomers is cooking up the best street food in Britain.

There will be a head to head cook-off of all of the finalists who have been specially selected by a nationwide team of food journalists and bloggers, so standards are set to be high. Tommi will be joined at the judges table by Gizzi Erskine, Yianni Papoutsis and Fay Ripley with Richard Johnson keeping them all in line. To give you a flavour of what went on at last year’s awards, check out their video from Harvest at Jimmy’s.

The British Street Food Awards will be happening alongside 2 boozy @tweatup events, Ginstock and Rumstock on the cobbled streets of East London, outside Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant. It’s set to draw an extraordinary fleet of vans, trucks and trailers to the area as well as live music, art and bunting. If you want to find out more information or grab yourself a ticket, then head to www.fifteenstreet.co.uk

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Going experimental down on The Southbank

The Wahaca Southbank Experiment is our new temporary restaurant, opening at Southbank Centre alongside Waterloo Bridge today. It’s not like a Wahaca restaurant that you may have seen before, we’ve challenged ourselves to be more innovative. It’s built from 8 recycled shipping containers and we’ve introduced a new menu with monthly changing specials, the most popular of which will take up residency in all of our restaurants. We like to think it’ll help to keep us on our toes.

Our 8 shipping containers have been modified to create an interlinked open space on 2 levels to include panoramic windows offering some pretty stunning views of the river and the passing parade of people floating by. If you’re after a cocktail, it also has a dedicated tequila bar serving award winning tequilas and single village mezcals.

We’ve enlisted the help of street art curator Tristan Manco who has invited 2 graffiti artists, Saner and Remed, to decorate the space for our opening, bringing some extra colour to the riverside.

Remed and Saner at work

Tommi has been up to her elbows in new recipes specifically for this site following our recent trip to Mexico and LA. We’re starting off with some punchy chilli tacos, salmon ceviche (a Mexico City fusion favourite) and a couple of different ways of eating beautifully slow cooked carnitas.

The Wahaca Southbank Experiment will be our new development kitchen and because the most popular dishes will be added to our regular menu, you are all our new recipe testers. Welcome to the team. We can’t wait to get the experiment started.

The Wahaca Southbank Experiment is located on the terrace under Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. It will be open daily for the next 18 months from midday – 11pm (10.30pm on Sundays).

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Bloggers cook-along at Wahaca Stratford

Check out this great video of our bloggers cook-along event that we held in Wahaca Stratford last week. Tommi cooked up 3 dishes from the new Wahaca book (Did we mention that we had a new book?) and then 9 willing blogger volunteers valiantly had a go themselves. All in less than 30 minutes to add a little bit of extra fun to the proceedings.

We were all very impressed with the bloggers who pretty much took the whole thing in their stride and created some beautiful looking recreations, so Tommi had better watch out!

If you like the look of these dishes, then you can get your hands on a copy of our book, Wahaca, Mexican food at home in any of our restaurants or they’re just a click away. You might also see the Beetroot salad cropping up on the new specials menu at The Wahaca Southbank Experiment from July 4th.

Thank you so much to all of the lovely guys from HJonesyFeeds, Cherrapeno, Mintcustard, Crumpeats, Humbugs & Handbags, Hot & Chilli, Robert Giorgione, Roswensian, and Pukkapaki for making it such a great event.

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Wahaca – Mexican Food at Home

Over the past 5 years we’ve had countless queries and requests from people wanting to recreate our magical Mexican street food in their own kitchen. We like their style. So with these hungry people in mind, Tommi has been compiling a book of her favourite recipes since we opened up our doors on Chandos Place and it hits the shelves on 21st June.

Just like the restaurants, the book is inspired by Mexico’s markets, cantinas and a love of parties, and it’s stocked full of recipes made using ingredients easily found in Britain so you can create authentic Mexican food without having to schlep across the Atlantic.

It has everything from breakfasts bursting with energy, hearty and healthy dinners, sensational puddings and zingy cocktails. There are little plates for sharing and larger dishes that are perfect for scooping up with a warm corn tortilla and a splash of your favourite salsa. And yes, it does have the much sought after secrets of our juicy Pork Pibil.

Having given away over 4.5 million packs of chilli seeds since we opened, there’s also a page dedicated to chilli growing with photos provided by the green-fingered readers of this very blog. A special thanks to everyone who entered our competition and sent in a photo (you’re on page 223!).

The book will be for sale in all of our our restaurants as well as in any bookshop worth its salt, but if you just can’t wait, you can order your copy online now.

Wahaca, Mexican food at home is our way of encouraging you to spread the word of Mexican food far and wide. We hope you’ll join in the fun.

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The all New Mexican Street Kitchen

Ever since we opened our Mexican Street Kitchen in Canary Wharf last year, we’ve had countless requests to move it around the country and park it up at your events. It seems you like the idea of street food on the streets.

But there was a problem. Moving our van into and out of Canary Wharf wasn’t simple, in fact for most of the year it was stuck in the park, either blocked by an ice rink in the winter or a music stage in the summer. Our van wasn’t realising its potential. It was time for it to hit the road.

Not wanting to disappoint our loyal customers in Canary Wharf, we decided the best thing to do was to open up the Mexican Street Kitchen #2 – This time in a classic foil wrapped Airstream trailer. Our new trailer has the same charcoal Robata grill, giving our steak and chicken an amazing smoky flavour that’s hard to beat. It’s parked up under the trees in Canada Square Park and it’ll be open every weekday lunchtime and in the evenings when it’s sunny. You’ll still be able to choose from a choice of tacos, burritos or salads and there’s a new option to add extra meat or vegetables if you’re feeling super hungry.

We hope you’ll like the new addition to our street food fleet.

Our original Mexican Street Kitchen will be parked up in The Southbank Centre for the month of June and from there we’ll be looking for its next residency, so please let us know where you’d like us to head.

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Win a trip to Mexico City

*This competition is now closed*

Together with our friends at Lonely Planet and to celebrate the launch of their new book The World’s Best Street Food, we’re offering 2 of our customers the chance to fly to Mexico City to discover where our love of street food first began.

Wahaca and Lonely Planet, making streetfood dreams come true.

The winners will be guided on a street food tour of the city and have the chance to experience the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the neighbourhoods that are home to some of Mexico’s best street food. There are also 10 runners up prizes of copies of Lonely Planet’s new book. To enter all you have to do is fill in your email address below.

If you’re not one of the lucky winners, fear not, friends of Wahaca can buy The World’s Best Street Food at a special rate of just £10 (incl. P&P) by visiting shop.lonelyplanet.com and entering the code STREET10 at the online checkout. The book explores 100 must-eat dishes from across the globe, where to find them and how to recreate them at home. We’re pretty confident that you won’t need to look much further than the Mexico section to find the most delicious recipes though!

Terms and Conditions
The competition commences at 12am BST on 26 March 2012 and closes at 11.59pm on 25 April 2012. To enter, simply provide your name and contact email address in the competition entry section above. Entry is free, and you can only enter once. One winner will be selected randomly from all eligible entries on 30 April 2012. The winner plus one guest will receive a 7 day/6 night stay in Mexico City (including return flights and accommodation based on twinshare) and two places on Eat Mexico’s Street Food tour (approximate retail value GBP2500). Flights must be booked no later than 30 July 2012 and the date of departure must be no later than 31 December 2012. Prize winner(s) will be notified by email. By submitting your entry, you agree that these conditions of entry apply to your entry. Full terms and conditions are available here. Lonely Planet respects the privacy of others, and your personal information will only be used to tell you if you’ve won unless you have opted to hear more information above. See Lonely Planet’s privacy policy at www.lonelyplanet.com/privacy/. Wahaca may also email entrants once in a while with newsy updates from the world of Mexican Market Eating.

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