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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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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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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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Do you want to be on our tequila tasting panel?

Following a flurry of excitement amongst our facebook fans, we are now looking for an exclusive panel of 5 tequila experts from amongst you lot, the followers of our facebook, blog and twitter pages, to join us for a tequila tasting with a difference, to be held at Wahaca Soho on Wednesday 23rd February 2011 at 6.30pm.

Do you know your agave from your auto-clave, your piña from your pot still? What on earth would you do with a Tahona Stone?

If you would like to join this tasting, send an email to ola@wahaca.co.uk explaining in no more than 100 words why you are qualified to help us select the next top tequilas that will be featured on our bar list. The deadline for entries is the end of Monday 20th February, so get cracking.

On the night, we’ll taste a range of tequilas which have been sent to us by the Mexican Tequila Board that aren’t available outside of North America. They’ve kindly searched out 30 top quality tequilas from Mexico’s smaller distilleries just for us. It’s not just for fun though, at the end of the tasting, we’ll pick out 4 favourites, which will be appearing as guest tequilas in our bar over the next year. We’re hoping that by putting them on our list, we’ll help to introduce these brands to the international market, and their amazing products can start to be shared with the world.

The tasting will start at 6.30 with a cocktail to get us in the mood, then it’s down to the serious business of choosing our top tequilas. The tasting will be led by the all-knowing tequila aficionado Henry Besant, who will help guide us through a range of platas, reposados and añejos and will finish at about 8pm.

Don’t get confused, this is not the same event that is being organised by QYPE (That’s one’s going to be just as good though!) This one is just for all you Wahaca fans out there in the world-wide-webernet. (If you’re looking for the Qype event, head over to their page for details).

We’ll look forward to hearing why you think you’ve got what it takes to help choose our next favourite tequilas. Those still looking for a worm in the bottom of their bottle need not apply.

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Margaritas get Mims to Mexico

Those of you who have read my first post know that come March next year, I’ll be cycling 680km across Mexico in 8 days, raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support. It’s my first biking event and the most physical challenge I have ever set my mind to.

On the 19th December, Wahaca is helping me host ‘Margaritas will get Mims to Mexico’ – half price cocktails, good chat, the chance to win some great prizes in a raffle or two and a good old foosball tournament.

The most important thing to point out is that ALL PROFITS from this fiesta will be donated straight to Macmillan Cancer Support through my justgiving page (www.justgiving.com/miriam-smith) – meaning a margarita really could be the difference between life and death for a cancer patient.

I would love you to join me – I’ll be shaking the margaritas – so if you’re free on the 19th December and fancy a half price margarita and a game of foosball, pop into Wahaca Soho, 80 Wardour St, from about 5.30pm onwards.

And please feel free to invite your wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, girlfriends and boyfriends, your best friend or any random people you meet in the street or on the tube!

Hoping to see you there!

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The Cacao Margarita

There’s a lot going on around London this week. Not only is it The London Restaurant Festival (Don’t forget to come along and try out our award winning menu before Monday 18th), but it’s also London Cocktail Week – A Celebration of London’s mixology heritage and a tribute to the world’s capital of cocktail culture.

So to mark this momentous occasion in the discerning drinker’s calendar we thought we’d give you a sneak preview of one of the new cocktails that will be hitting our menus in the next couple of weeks – The sublime Cacao Margarita.

Seldom has such a wonderful match of flavours been left undiscovered for so long, than that of tequila and chocolate, and the Cacao Margarita is the perfect way to indulge in this mystical pairing. Think velvety spice, with undertones of agave alongside the subtle kick that this slow burn margarita gives.

And here’s how you make it:

Be sure to use a good quality 100% agave tequila, any cheaper imitations just won’t do it justice.  We’ve used a blanco tequila in this recipe, but it works very well with the slightly sweeter reposado and añejo too.

35ml measure of 100% Agave Blanco Tequila
10ml cinnamon syrup
35ml milk
60gr chilli chocolate

First make your cinnamon syrup by melting 100g of sugar with 100ml of water and a stick of cinnamon. Once the sugar has completely melted, bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes until it becomes a syrup. You can use the remainder to sweeten hot chocolate, or in your coffee.
In a saucepan, warm the milk and add the chocolate. Stir and continue to heat gently until completely melted.
Add all of the ingredients to a shaker with cubed ice. Shake well and strain the liquid into a chilled glass. Serve with a sprinkle of chocolate and a cinnamon stick. 

If you have a go at making the Cacao Margarita for yourself, we’d love to hear about it. Post a comment below, or why not whack a photo up on our facebook page.

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Murray Mound? Give Me Murray Mescal Bar any day

The sun is out and the summer screen in Canary Wharf has got to be hard to top as the best place to watch the tennis this weekend, especially if you’re in the Wahaca terrace bar sipping one of Sammi’s Margaritas, or sampling some of the great mescals.

The Canary Wharf Sumer Screen, conveniently located just opposite Wahaca in Canada Square Park, will be showing all of the remaining matches at Wimbledon. It’s free for anyone to come along and show the nations favourite Scott a bit of support.

For details on how to find us in Canary Wharf, check out our website, or head to the bottom of the really big pointy building – It’ pretty hard to miss.

To spice things up a bit, we’re giving you the chance to win a free drink at the Canary Wharf bar on Sunday during the final – all you have to do is correctly guess the final score in the last set of today’s Murray Vs Nadal semi final, and leave it as a comment below. So if Murray’s going to win 6-0 (wishful thinking) then just post “6 – 0 Murray” below. Entries have to be in before the beginning of the final set in today’s match. For full terms and conditions email loswahacos@wahaca.co.uk.

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The Bloody Maria

The second May bank holiday is coming up and maybe, just maybe, we’ll have nice weather! Either way, we’ll definitely be enjoying great food and great drinks, which brings us on to our second Wahaca cocktail, The Bloody Maria (not to be confused with her poor cousin, The Bloody Mary).

In the UK, The Bloody Mary is a very popular cocktail, usually enjoyed over brunch (or as hair of the dog!). The history of this great drink is much disputed, with more than one famous cocktail legend claiming the recipe as his own. But did any of them ever consider that the Bloody Maria may have been the real original?

Let’s look at the facts.
1) The main ingredient is the tomato – and tomatoes originate from Mexico. It was the Spanish explorer Cortes who brought the tomato to Europe from the Aztec city of Tenochtítlan which is now Mexico City back in the 16th Century.
2) Mexico produces the tastiest food and drink in the world. You just have to come to Wahaca to know that.

So there we have it.

The main difference is that The Bloody Maria uses Tequila as its primary spirit (as opposed to Vodka in The Bloody Mary). The Tequila gives the drink a greater depth of flavour. A well made Bloody Maria has the distinctive taste of the agave plant breaking through the fresh tomato juice. Another difference is that The Bloody Maria is generally made with a “Sangrita” mix, rather than the Bloody Mary’s tomato, tobasco and worcestershire sauce mix. The Sangrita mix is arguably fresher and definitely provides an interesting new dimension to the drink for those who haven’t tasted it before.

Here’s how we make ours:

1 part 100% agave tequila
2 parts freshly squeezed tomato juice
1 part freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 part fresh lime juice
Fresh minced green chilli to taste

Shake all of the ingredients together and strain into a highball glass, then add a slice of lime that has been dunked in chilli powder for garnish.

Come to our new upstairs bar in Canary Wharf to try our version, then impress your friends with your new found cocktail expertise!

If you make a Bloody Maria, please let us know how you get on and send us your pictures so that we can upload them to our flickr group!

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Tamarind Margarita

The weather is getting warmer here in London, giving us at Wahaca that burning excitement for Summer – and we know just the place where you can enjoy it.   Come down to our new bar at Canary Wharf where you can sit on a swing, overlooking the square and sip a Mexican cocktail!

Allow us to whet your appetite over the coming weeks with posts about our cocktail favourites.  First up, the Tamarind Margarita.

The fun thing about cocktails is that you can experiment with different ingredients and different quantities so that you tailor them to your own tastes. We make our cocktails the way we do because that’s how we like them and we hope you do to! Don’t be afraid to play around.

To make our Tamarind Margarita, add the following to a cocktail shaker:
- 35ml 100% agave tequila
- 12.5ml triple sec
- 20ml sugar syrup
- 12.5ml fresh lime juice
- 20ml tamarind puree

We always use 100% agave tequila and we recommend you do too. Just like food, cocktails made from good quality ingredients = good output. Tequila has to be made from at least 51% agave, so 100% just means that it’s all of the good stuff.

Add ice to the shaker and attach the lid so that it stays on during your Tom-Cruise-in-Cocktail impression, then mixxxx it up. We don’t suggest you start throwing your shaker around immediately, the aim is to shake vigorously until the contents of the shaker are combined, not wreak havoc in your kitchen.

Dip the rim of your glass in fresh lime juice and then into salt to create a salt rim. Now pour the content of the shaker into your glass through a strainer to catch the ice.

Now all you need to do is enjoy this authentic taste of Mexico and send us your pictures and comments to let us know how you got on.

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Tequilas for sipping

For many people just the word tequila summons up memories of nasty tasting shots, drunk in one gulp with a wince and a fast ensuing hangover. But for those in the know, those misconceptions are fast becoming outdated, and if you know what you’re looking for, there’s a world of beautiful tequilas that tantalise the taste buds, either straight up, or mixed in delicious cocktails.

We’ve got a whole range of plata, reposado and añejo tequilas and all of them are 100% agave, meaning that they don’t contain any sugars that aren’t taken from the blue agave plant, making them great quality and giving them a beautiful flavour. You can come and try them in any of our bars including our newest opening overlooking Canada Square in Canary Wharf, but as you’ll see in the video below, we’d recommend that these shots are best sipped!

If you have a favourite tequila cocktail, we’d love to hear about it, just leave a comment on this post below.

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