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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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Children’s Day at the V&A Museum of Childhood

This weekend, together with The Embassy of Mexico in the UK, we’re celebrating Mexico’s Children’s Day with 2 days of free workshops and activities for children and families at the V&A’s Museum of Childhood.

Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th April sees a whole programme of activities for you and your little ones to get involved with as well as a voucher to grab a free children’s meal from our brand new children’s menu any time in the next 2 months.

Activities include storytelling, Mexican toy painting, piñata making, mask and face painting and Mexican dancing. So enough fun to keep any little person entertained for the whole day. By all accounts, it should be pretty swell.

Our new children’s menu launched in all of our restaurants today and gives little people the chance to explore the Mexican market too, with specially selected dishes that aren’t spicy, but still full of flavour and wholesome goodness. Kids can choose from a choice of quesadillas, mini burritos or fish tacos, a side dish and a drink all for just £5.

For details of how to get there and what time the events kick off, just head to the Museum’s website.

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Mexico take on The Balkan’s in a Battle of the Brass Bands showdown that’ll blow your socks off!

London’s Latin Music Festival, La Linea, is throwing down the musical gauntlet on April 14th with a Battle of the Brass Bands contest at The Barbican Centre set to leave audiences wowed. The musical dual will see Mexico’s super heavyweight trumpeting troop (in the form of Banda Estrellas de Sinaloa de Germán Lizárraga) take on Serbia’s Boban & Marko Markovic Orkestar, in a melodic clash of epic proportions.

We’re reliably informed that Banda Estrellas de Sinaloa already have this battle well and truly sewn up for Mexico, due in no small part to their leader Germán Lizárraga’s impressive musical career, spanning 60 years of brass blowing. But your support is always welcome, so we’re doing our bit to get your there by giving you the chance to WIN a pair of tickets and a meal for 2 at Wahaca, as well as Mexican supporters scarves for two runners up.
To be in with a chance of winning, just email ola@wahaca.co.uk with the answer to the following question.

Which of these instruments would you not traditionally find in a brass band?
A) A Trumpet
B) A Trombone
C) A Violin

The competition closes on Friday 5th April 2013, so get your answers in now and you could be joining the audience for this white-hot-brass-knuckle ride not to be missed. Winners will be selected at random and notified by email.

Any one not lucky enough to win tickets can buy their own and find out a little more about the event, through their website.

This concert is part of the La Linea, the London Latin Music festival and is produced by La Linea (lalineafestival.com) in association with the Barbican (barbican.org.uk). The winning prize includes 2 tickets to attend The Battle of the Brass Bands on Sunday April 14th at 8pm, and a meal for 2 at Wahaca to the value of £60. Entrants email addresses will be added to our marketing database and we may send you fun things to do with Wahaca. You can unsubscribe at any time.

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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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Win a sustainable chauffeur driven date at Wahaca every day of Climate Week

Climate Week is fast approaching and to celebrate Wahaca being voted sustainable restaurant group of the year for the 2nd year running, we’re giving away a fully sustainable chauffeur driven date night every day from the 4th – 10th March.

*Chauffeur pictured is not a Climatecars driver. Climatecars are London’s most environmentally friendly car service. And all of their cars have 4 wheels.

The 7 lucky winners and their loved one will be picked up from an address in London by our friends at Climatecars, London’s environmentally friendly car service, and driven to their local Wahaca where we’ll have a table for 2 waiting for you. After dinner, a car will whisk you back home to bask in the sustainable glory with a belly full of award winning Mexican deliciousness.

The winners will be announced each day of Climate Week through our facebook page, so become a fan and keep your eyes peeled.

To enter the competition just complete your details below and we’ll put you in our big sustainable Mexican hat, and draw our 7 winners at random throughout Climate Week.

Winners can be safe in the knowledge that Climatecars’ fleet is made up entirely of environmentally friendly hybrid cars which run on a combination of petrol and electricity resulting in significantly reduced emissions.

Climate Week is a supercharged national occasion that offers an annual renewal of our ambition and confidence to combat climate change. It is for everyone wanting to do their bit to protect our planet and create a secure future. You can check their website for all kinds of events going on around the country and see how you can get involved.

Buena Suerte!

The T’s and C’s: The competition is open to anyone who can be picked up and dropped off at a London postcode and is sadly not valid at Wahaca Bluewater, but we do still love you. Journeys must be to and from London postcodes and must be A to B journeys, with no extra stops. Wahaca will pick up the bill for your food, soft drinks and the first 2 rounds of boozy drinks. By entering you agree to receive informative and cheerful emails from Wahaca, you can unsubscribe at any time. Romance is not 100% necessary, but hey, a little love goes a long way, don’t ya think?p>

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Wahaca Covent Garden gets a facelift

After 5 years and almost a million and a half customers through its doors, our restaurant in Covent Garden is getting a facelift and will be closed from January 14th – 21st 2013.

Our architects have used special X-ray goggles to paint this picture of what our new stairway may look like

We’re particularly excited to be working with Nelio, a highly talented young French artist from the global street art scene, who is going to be bringing a fresh lick of paint and an installation piece to the restaurant. His work has been attracting a cult following around the world in recent years and it promises to be bursting with colour and energy.

Nelio will be bringing his beautifully vibrant work to Covent Garden

As well as some new street art, we’re also going to be installing a live plant wall that will bring some of our green credentials to life for everyone to admire. Our bar, which you have told us can get too busy in the evenings, is having an overhaul to make it more user-friendly for our bartenders and to help them get those drinks in your hands quicker. The same is true of our kitchen, which is having old equipment replaced with new, to make sure your food gets to you as quickly as it would in the markets of Mexico.

We're gonna need a pretty big watering can

We’ll be opening back up on the 21st January and would love to know what you think of our new surroundings, so please do get in touch. To keep up to date with how our work is progressing over in Covent Garden, check out facebook.com/wahaca or follow us on twitter.com/wahaca.

If you were planning a trip to Wahaca Covent Garden when we’ll be closed, fear not – Our Soho and Southbank restaurants are only 5 minutes away.

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S.O.S. Save Our Spoons! The Mexican Spoon Amnesty Returns

In 5 years 25,000 of our specially designed Wahaca Spoons have mysteriously dessert-ed us and we want them back. So this January, the Mexican Spoon Amnesty returns offering our forgiveness in exchange for your spoon shaped apologies. In fact, we’d be so grateful we’ll also give you a free plate of tacos. No questions asked. Last year, we helped clear the conscience of hundreds of light-fingered cutlery rustlers and for them, redemption never tasted so good.

Good as Gold? Are you one of the few people never tempted to pocket a spoon? We salute you. You can help us combat cutlery crime by becoming an informant and could win a meal for 2. Just take a snap of your friend trying to escape with one of our spoons and post it on facebook.com/wahaca and the most creative photo each week will win. Offering the perfect opportunity to bring that spoon back.

Snap your pals and help us Combat Cutlery Crime

Tweet your support and get the latest scoop on twitter. #spoonamnesty.
Wahaca does not encourage theft of any kind. It’s very bad for your soul. Borrowing is forgivable though.

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Wahaca Southbank Experiment wins FX International Design Award

Congratulations to the team at The Wahaca Southbank Experiment who have beaten off competition from around the world to pick up this year’s FX International Interior Design award for the best restaurant design in 2012. No small prize that.

The Wahaca Southbank Experiment - Best Restaurant

Huge thanks go to our architects, Softroom and designers Buro Creative, for bringing the amazing, if slightly wacky idea of building a restaurant from 8 shipping containers to life. We’ve got to admit, they do look pretty cool.

The Wahaca Southbank Experiement is a temporary restaurnat space, which will be housed on London’s Southbank until the end of 2014. We use it to experiment with new dishes. The ones our customers like best are added to the menu in our other restaurants, allowing us to have a development kitchen that everyone can be a part of.

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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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Wahaca presents Day of the Dead at the Old Vic Tunnels

Lots of you will know we’ve been celebrating Day of the Dead in our restaurants since we opened. We love this amazingly emotive and visual festival celebrating the lives of relatives and friends who are no longer around and thought that it was right to make the party bigger. Much, much bigger.

So we’re putting on a 4 day festival from 31st October – 3rd November. Together with our friends at The Old Vic Tunnels and with support from The Embassy of Mexico in the UK and Nomad, we’re taking over a maze of railway vaults hidden underneath Waterloo Station and creating a celebration of music, food and art.

This year’s Wilderness Festival headliners, Rodrigo y Gabriella will be kicking off their European tour with these 4 nights, blasting out some phenomenal new tracks alongside work by a host of acclaimed artists from Gabriella Iturbide, to Le Gun and Hew Locke. There’s going to be a live score composed by the Cabinet of Living Cinema to run alongside Alejandro Jodorowsky’s classic film Santa Sangre, just waiting to be discovered too.

Rodrigo y Gabriella are starting their European tour with us for Day of the Dead

There will be food on offer from a specially constructed Wahaca Street Kitchen serving up mouth-watering pork pibil and seasonal veg tacos and there will be drink courtesy of award-winning tequila Olmeca Altos, all fuelling what promises to be a series of unforgettable nights.

Exploring the tunnels further you’ll find other stages playing host to more music and performance including a set from London based bands ‘Vado in Messico’ and ‘Keston Cobblers Club’ and a show from visual artists Frida Alvinzi and Raisa Veikkola’s ‘Theatre of Dolls’, an other-worldly visual experience using 4-dimensional art pieces, puppets as storytellers and their own bodies as sculptural landscapes. You might also stumble across a new collection of Nancy Fouts’ three-dimensional works that she’s created especially for the Day of the Dead Festival that poke fun at the contemporary western concept of death. Communion DJs will be adding to the soundtrack of the night.

You can buy tickets now from oldvictunnels.com or by calling the box office on 0844 871 7628. Tickets include wahaca food from our festival’s temporary street kitchen as well as entry to the funtimes which run from 7pm – 1am each night. All profits from the event will be going to charity.

Saturday daytime entrance at £5 (2pm – 6pm) offers an opportunity to view the exciting visual artists on show and enjoy screenings of the Alejandro Jodorowsky classic film Santa Sangre with The Cabinet of Living Cinema performing a matinee live score.

We’ll look forward to seeing you down there.

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