Wahaca

Banter at the Bar, Cocktails, Events at Wahaca, Uncategorized, What's Happening

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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Events at Wahaca, Food & Drink, News, Our News, What's Happening

Burrito Burrito Burrito!!!!! Wahaca launches takeaway exclusively for Canary Wharf

Wahaca Canary Wharf today launches their exciting new take-away service for all those living and working in the local area to enjoy.

Using the soft tortilla as a base, burritos originated with wives bringing farmers their mid-day meals by using tortillas as wrapping. Now Wahaca does the same for busy customers who want fresh fast food. A meal in itself, a burrito gives the body everything it needs for the day, perfect for lunch on the go.

Pop in to Wahaca Canary Wharf and pick up a burrito or call 0207 516 9145 to pre order.

The full take-away menu is available to see by clicking here.

What bloggers say about our burritos:

“The pork was incredible and was wrapped with pink pickled onions. The tart, sweet crunch of the onions meant that the pork wasn’t too overwhelming and kept it fresh tasting.”

from londonburritomadness.blogspot.com

“It was great trying the range of burritos at Wahaca and I was surprised by just how nice the toasted ones tasted!”

from londonburrito

“We thoroughly enjoyed each one we tried, but were most impressed with the char-grilled steak burrito with

chipotle salsa and grilled spring onions.”

from londonist

“Favourites…included chargrilled steak and slow cooked pork.”

from onemilliongoldstars.com

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Banter at the Bar, Cocktails, Food & Drink, Wahacos

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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Cocktails, Food & Drink, Learn at Wahaca, Uncategorized

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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Events at Wahaca, Food & Drink, News, Our News, Recipes & Cooking Tips, Tell Us, Uncategorized, What's Happening

Can you help us find our Mayor?

Those of you who are in the know about foursquare, will probably understand what we mean with this post. For those of you who aren’t, please don’t think we’re desperately trying to hunt down Borris and invite him for a taco (although if you’re out there Borris, we’d love to talk to you about introducing Mexican style VW’s to our taxi ranks).

Foursquare is a great site that helps you to find new ways to explore your city by checking in on-line when you visit restaurants and bars, and linking up with friends to discover their favourite places to go out. It’s also a great way to pick up tips that only people in the know would be able to tell you – Apparently our “Frijoles are off the chain” according to James M (thanks,we agree), and One Tamarind Margarita isn’t enough for Fergus M!

Now, we’re pretty new to this site, and are hoping for your help in tracking down the Mayor of each of our restaurants (These are the guys who have checked in the most times, and basically love us so much they can’t stop coming back). We know who they are, but can’t seem to contact them.

Can you help? Do you know these Wahaca super fans? If you do, we’d love you to send us a tweet @wahaca, or post a comment below and tell us, so we can get their details from you.

Do you know these men?

Nick H

Richard S (Although this may not be a true likeness)

David G

So… Nick H (Mayor of Wahaca Covent Garden), Richard S (Mayor off Wahaca Canary Wharf) and David G (Mayor of Wahaca Westfield) Come on down! We’d like to invite you to a very special dinner tasting our new summer menu.

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Banter at the Bar, Cocktails, Food & Drink, Wahacos

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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Banter at the Bar, Cocktails, Food & Drink, Uncategorized, Wahacos

The Mystery of Mezcal

You might have heard the news about the opening of our brand spanking new cocktail and Mezcal bar in Canary Wharf which is already serving a fantastic range of tongue tingling cocktails to the good people of Canada Square. You might even have read our post with a little background information about the “Elixir of the Gods” that is Mezcal. But we thought we’d share this beautiful film produced by the Oaxaca State Government, which brings to life all of the passion that has been bottled up in the production of this mysterious spirit for generations.

We’re always keen to hear from you, so please let us know if you have any Mezcal stories, or any favourite Mezcal cocktails by commenting below.

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Banter at the Bar, Cocktails, Food & Drink, News, Our News, Wahacos, What's Happening

Cocktail & Mezcal Bar – Opening Canary Wharf

Opening today! Wahaca is proud to open its first Cocktail & Mezcal Bar serving a list of delicious Wahaca cocktails as well as our favourite Mezcals & Tequila, Mexican beers, wines, refreshing Aqua Frescas and snacks such as our Tortilla chips with freshly made Guacamole. Come visit us soon!

With views out over Canada Square Park, the cocktail & Mezcal bar is located on the second floor of the Park Pavilion – just above the wahaca restaurant. With a Mexican table football, swing chairs and a living plant wall that creates a vibrant, buzzy and unique spot for after work drinks.

A little information on Mezcal
Heralded as the “elixir of the Gods” Mezcal is the best kept secret to be smuggled out of the Americas in the last 20 years.  Mezcal comes from the maguey or agave plant which is grown mainly in Oaxaca.  There is a saying in Oaxaca “para todo mal, mezcal…y para todo bien tambien” (for everything bad there is Mezcal…and also for everything good).  Mezcal has a wonderful smoky/ peaty texture to rival the best Scottish Malts. The flavour comes from the agave plant being baked in huge pits in the ground.  The plants are then crushed to extract their rich, sugary juices.  Tequila is a form of Mezcal and comes from the Blue Agave plant (there are hundreds of different varieties of Agave plant) and has a smoother, less smoky taste. Wahaca’s tequilas are all 100% Blue agave and taste of vanilla, caramel and peppers.  Both plants need to sunbathe for up to 12 years before they have soaked up enough solar energy to produce the sugars to make the alcohol….so drinking them is like drinking sunshine in a bottle!

For all those that have ever had a bad night out on Tequila, we challenge you to discover the real thing at Wahaca.  With no impurities and made from 100% agave they are 100% delicious. Wahaca’s cocktails blend the best of our mezcals and tequilas with other Mexican flavours like tamarind, lime, hibiscus, grapefruit and mint.

For wahaca recipes – click here and here to visit some blog posts with some of our favourite recipes from Sammi.

Do you have any suggestions for Sammi? Let us know any ideas for some of your favourite cocktails and you may have your very own cocktail on our menu soon!

Photos taken by Amy Murrell

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Contributor Competitions, Street Art, Wahacos, What's Happening

Claroscuro’s Street Art at Canary Wharf

Last summer we ran a competition to find a street artist to graffiti our restaurant. After being blown away by the entries we got, Claroscuro emerged as the winners and have done an amazing job. To see how it all unfolded from a selection of the brilliant entries through to final artwork watch the video below.

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition and to everyone who voted as well. We were overwhelmed by both the quantity and fabulous quality of the entries and are looking forward to working with the street art community on other projects in the future.

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Food & Drink, Food Topics & Trends

Burrito tasting at Wahaca Canary Wharf

Last week we invited a group of Burrito lovers down to Canary Wharf to give us feedback on Wahaca’s burritos as we start to plan the take-away menu to launch in March. We had fun but also got some really helpful advice.

We started off doing a tasting of all the burritos we serve at the restaurant. We usually toast our burritos like the photo above but for take-away we are going to have to leave it with a soft tortilla so we wanted to see how they fare. Luckily we got some positive feedback on the soft tortilla burritos although there were a few who tried it toasted for the first time and really loved it!

Here is some feedback from our Burrito tasters:

“It was great to try the range of burritos at Wahaca and I was surprised by just how nice the toasted ones tasted! I was also very impressed by the hottest of the salsas. Usually I go for the chicken option so this tasting session was an ideal opportunity for me to try the other meats. The slow-cooked pork was particularly nice but sorry, pickled onions are not for me!”

Mark Jansen from London Burrito

“The slow-cooked pork burrito was heaven in a tortilla! The incredibly tasty shredded pork paired very nicely with fantastically zingy pickled onions and habanero chillies. Spicy!”

Elizabeth Dunne (AKA @eBeth)

“I really loved all the burritos – and it’s truly a tough choice for my favourite – but if I had to pick just one, I think I’d go with the char-grilled steak. Beefy, juicy and with the spice just right, I savored every bite.”

Chris Osburn from The Londonist

“It was really nice to see how much thought was going in to the takeaway burritos; if only I worked near the Canary Wharf branch! It was also good to have our suggestions trialled on the spot, and I think the final chicken burrito was much better for it. You were all very open to suggestions, as well as the decisions behind every aspect of the restaurant, particularly about the question of guacamole in the burritos. A tonne of avocados a week is rather a lot.”

Edd Hannay (AKA Burrito Safari)

The last bits were the most fun as we started playing with some ideas. Firstly we used a bit of Chipotle butter on a soft pork burrito – just brushed a little on the inside of the tortilla. The idea being to add some flavour to the edges of the tortilla. This was too naughty, too filling and just too much… for most of us but then a few thought it was just heaven.

I would definitely fall asleep at my desk if i had one of these for lunch… verdict was that it wasn’t right but a fun thing to try!

Next was Simon and Gail’s feedback on our chicken burrito as they sent Tommi back to the kitchen with some instructions and recommendations! Rather than using our Chicken tinga, which is a traditional Mexican recipe, they wanted us to use the grilled chicken with a tomato salsa to make it more fresh tasting. (Click here for Gail’s great blog)

Tommi came back with a delicious creation which did taste a whole lot fresher and has got us thinking further about how we can improve it… watch this space!

Thanks to everyone for coming along. For other perspectives have a look at these three posts:

One Million Gold Stars
Londonist
London Burrito

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