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”.

We’re always hot on the heels of current affairs and it’s become apparent that there’s a bit of a wedding on this Friday.

Now in Mexico, we don’t have such strict rules about guest lists, we say the more the merrier – It’s a fiesta after all. So we’ve decided that everyone who hasn’t had an invitation to the shindig at Buckingham Palace can come and celebrate round at ours. The margaritas will be flowing and there will be street food a-plenty – It’s not a street party without some street food now is it?

But it’s the special bond of marriage that we’re really celebrating, so exclusively on Friday we’re also offering free food and a round of margaritas to anyone who comes in with their loved one wearing their wedding dress or wedding suit! You heard it, free food and drinks on us – You just have to come wearing what you got hitched in.

To avoid any confusion with people who’ve just got a bit glammed up and are looking for a freebie, we are insisting that you bring along a photo of you and your loved one on your big day, to prove to our managers that it is actually your wedding attire.

As a special note to Wills and Kate – We’ll also happily pick up your bill for your lunch or dinner on Friday. Let’s face it, our Covent Garden restaurant is only at the other end of The Mall and it’s the perfect way to avoid all of those scary relatives. Come on down. We’re open til 11pm.

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.

We’re getting really excited about Dia De Los Muertos which is now less than 2 weeks away, and we’ve got lots of exciting plans for you, so keep your eyes on the blog to find out more. In the mean time, we loved Ruth Alegria’s blog post, that shows some highlights from what Mexico City will be offering up, plus it gives you enough info become an overnight aficionado and impress the pantalones off all of your pals.

Now, concentrate everyone, another really great Mexican ingredient to learn about – The amazing Huitlacoche – Believe it or not, it’s a type of corn which has a fungus growing on it, that gives a really distinct flavour and an amazingly intense black colour. If anyone has any other recipes with Huitlacoche, we’d love to hear from you, who knows you could get featured on our menu?

There are amazing things happening just around the corner from Wahaca Covent Garden every Thursday, in fact we’ve been down to check out the real food market stall before. We thought that Naihm from Eat Like a Girl really captured the amount of effort that goes into making it happen, and we’re very grateful indeed. (We also thought the black bean and chilli looked amazing so watch out for us queuing up for a bowl next time!).

Like most food obsessed Londoners, we’ve been following the buzz around Pierre Koffman’s pop up restaurant on the roof of Selfridges, and Chris from Cheese and Biscuits was lucky enough to be able to try it out, have a look at the review here. If Pierre’s looking for his next free lance job, then he’s very welcome to help us out with our next burrito, Pibil Trotter anyone?

Our mouths were also watering reading about Helen from Food Stories’ trip to Brindisa to learn all about the differences between the Jamons on offer down at Borough Market – The lucky swine. We’re always keen to hear about how London restaurants are giving you lot a chance to get involved behind the scenes,and we’re busy thinking about how we can do something similar at Wahaca, so watch this space.

Thursdays in Covent Garden are market day and I was all over excited and hungry! It is great to have it on our doorstep once a week.

Carolyn (who does Wahaca’s product sourcing), Tommi (co founder and chef) and I all headed down for a spot of lunch and to chat to Niamh (@eatlikeagirl) at her stall to try out this weeks fare.

We tried some delicious Frank Hederman smoked salmon with Niamh’s own pickled cucumbers and chunky fresh bread. She’s spent the last few weeks pickling and canning her cucumbers as well as her home cooked filo pastries with butternut squash, spinach and chilli. We love a bit of chilli! All of this was topped off with a cheeky glass of Prosecco. hmmmmm…

We hope next time to try Frank’s smoked mussels in olive oil, which has come highly recommended… Niamh said she’d find out whether they’re available. Please let us know!

On to pudding…

I have a weakness for chocolate and other spoiling treats! We found this little stall selling mini shots of different puddings for just £1 – called the Dessert Deli. Chocolate shot with honeycomb on top was my favourite but I think the others were favouring the Crème Brulee.

Can’t wait for next week.

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Another Thursday, another trip to the Covent Garden food markets for some treats! Unfortunately I’ve been down with a stomach bug, so as delightful as the crab and saffron tart looked… I thought I’d better pass.

All was not lost however, I managed to scoff a vast assortment of pastries – including the spinach pastries below, and these amazing swirls of pastryon a stick studded with spiced lamb and peas (I believe it was inspired by Keema naan). Anyway, it was all delicious, and I managed to finish it all off, in the short walk from Covent Garden market back to the restaurant. Check out her blog at Gastro Geek.

You can read more about Gastro Geek’s stall on the Channel 4 website here.

For more information on food bloggers teaming up to host stalls at Covent Garden Market have a look at the UK Food Bloggers Association community site. Roll on next week!

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I went to see Eat Like a Girl today at Covent Garden market. I had no idea there was a food market on Thursdays…. shows you how much I get out of the buildling!!!

Niamh had a delicious Frank Hederman smoked salmon from Ireland, which she served on her own soda bread (made this morning at some ungodly hour) and pickled cucumbers  -  Perfect on a muggy London summer’s day.

Unfortunately because I had to get back to work, I couldn’t drink the accompanying prosecco from Bisol. But the market is full of treats, I will endeavour to try something from each stall in the oncoming weeks!

Although Niamh’s stall wasn’t connected to the UK Food  Bloggers Association Gastro Geek is hosting a stall in conjunction with them next week. It seems they are a regular occurance.

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It all started at our Christmas party last year.  Wahaca hired one of the rooms in Soho house, after a few drinks the guys started to arrive from the two sites.  Mark started to talk about football saying that he used to organize a league and had a football team.  After a few drinks the guys started to get excited about the idea of the two restaurants playing each other – Bring it on!

I remember our first practice, was in Green Park after work in early weeks in January, when it used to get dark very early. We end up playing in the dark, rain and mud, but nevertheless we played. We all got really dirty and ended up in a tie-only pub in Mayfair, it was hilarious with everyone there looking at us, was such a great fun.

Two months from there, we were all ready for our first match in Hyde park between Covent Garden and White City.  I remember Mark arriving with a full box of white wine for the cheerleaders in the middle of the match …after 10 min they were cheering and making up songs. A great effort from Marco from the White City restaurant who get all their cheerleaders in uniform!

Every match has got its own story but there’s always an injury at the end of the match, the last was Marcel, one of our head bartenders.  Gavin said that he was only defending himself!! Was he having a laugh…?! We had to wait for the ambulance for about an hour. Always, always  happy endings …Marcel 3 hours later joined us for a drink. Which made up for the fact that he’s off work for a week and a half.

We are very exited for our new kit and the match next week, we love going out together like a big family and have a great fun whatever happens, keep tuned for more from pitch side – Oaxaca style!

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