inside the beast by Darwin Bell via creative common on Flickr

With the temperatures soaring and planes doing the opposite, we thought we’d bring you some Mexican flavour.

We spied a great post about Creamy Avocado Salsa over on Mexican Foodie’s blog…

“If you like avocado you will love this creamy, rich fresh avocado salsa. The flavor of the ripe avocado shines and is enhanced by the other ingredients like lime, cilantro and serrano chili… Typically, you would use the salsa on chicken filled taquitos or flautas. It also works really well on shredded beef tacos or tostadas. I have been told that it also goes well with a nice piece of fish although I haven’t tried it that way. You might want to.”

Toasty, Tasty Tamales!

We also enjoyed reading about the epic Battle of the Tamales over on A Little Cup of Mexican Hot Chocolate. If the idea of tamales is making you feel peckish then find out how to make them here. Although you might need a whole day it will definitely be worth it.

Thank you very much to Darwin Bell and -Snugg- for the photos which we found in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.

For other great tamale pictures check out this Flickr group.

We’re having a lot of fun this week with the launch of our new restaurant in Canary Wharf, so we thought we’d devote some of this edition of the Weekly Blog Round Up to other launches we’ve seen in the blogosphere.

Could this be the first step in a movement away from carrying your wallet around?? Touch My Apps investigates…

Could you see yourself using a Wahapp to order your delicious Wahaca food?

Waitrose are launching another marvel “The Great Sweet Revival”. After finding out exactly which of these classic treats were most popular via a consumer poll, they will be offering Monty Bojangles sweets in stores near you. Admirably Monty Bojangles is evolving these classics to contain no artificial colours or flavourings. See what Ruby Room has to say here.

Other than launches, there’s been some other great stuff going on. Here’s a review by From Chile to Chocolate about a superb evening at The British Museum about Mexican Food, that included one of our favourite people, Diana Kennedy and Tommi.

And while we’re on the subject of The British Museum, here is a video and some photos posted on The British Museum website.

If you see anything that you think we should include in next week’s round up, let us know by emailing us at loswahacos@wahaca.co.uk or by leaving a comment.

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It’s hard to believe November has started. We thought about doing a round up of all the Day of the Dead and Hallowe’en posts that we’ve seen but instead thought we’d just share three great posts that help to transport us away from the gloom of November, to somewhere more exotic.

1. We got very excited when we saw a post abut how to cook Lamb Shank Adobo on Dinner Diary. It’s a great dish that they have done proud. Now we are in Autumn this slow cooked treats come into their own, but Mexican style!

2. World Foodie Guide has published a guest post about the food scene in Istanbul. You can almost taste Istanbul as it seeps through your monitor’s pixels. Would it be possible to do something similar for Oaxaca or Mexico City?

3. Meanwhile, over on A Slice of Cherry Pie, Julia has hosted another of her excellent contests that asked bloggers to submit their favourite Keith Floyd recipes as a way of saying a fond farewell. We love the fact that the Kenyan Goat Feast won.

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We are avid MasterChef fans. When Steven Groves, of Launceston Place, emerged triumphant last week, we cheered. His playful cooking makes him a worthy winner. Anyone who pumps smoke into a bell jar deserves to win.

So, given Tommi’s success on MasterChef , we thought we’d use it as our theme this week and see what recent winners and finalists are up to…

1. Steven Wallis, who won in 2007, is doing a demonstration at the Slow Food Hallowe’en Market of how to cook “an unusual and rich classic dish “Pepian” which has its roots in Guatemala and is normally eaten on “the Day of the Dead” (El Dia de los Muertos or All Souls Day – 1st November)”. We’re intrigued and are keen to pop down for some inspiration at the weekend.

2. Hannah Miles, who missed out on winning the big prize to Steven, writes a great blog called Hannah’s Country Kitchen. She recently launched a decadent book of all about baking cakes and cookies and is about to publish her second book called Sundaes and Splits. Can anyone see a theme here?

3. Matt Folas, who won last year, has done brilliantly. He’s foregone the usual route of being a trainee chef in big London kitchens and has opened his own restaurant in Dorset called Wild Garlic. From the website, blog and comments we’ve heard it sounds amazing and we’d love to try it out. It’s good to see another blogger in the restaurant world.

4. But it’s not just the competitors who’ve got new projects on the go. Greg Wallace is set to open a greengrocers in Putney called “Wallace and Co.” and John Torode has just launched a new restaurant called Luxe which AA Gill reviewed on Sunday.

5. For a witty rolling summary of this year’s MasterChef drama check out meemalee’s kitchen blog. It’ll have you laughing into your remote control.

We’re intrigued about what’s happened to all the other winners and finalists from the various MasterChef competitions that have graced our screens over the last few years. What are they all up to? If you have any clues please let us know…

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We’ve seen some great stuff on our friends blogs this week. Here are favourite posts from this week:

1. This article on PSFK about the emergence of underground restaurants is really interesting too. We went last week and loved it. I wonder if Tommi would be interested in cooking at MsMarmitelover’s underground restaurant. Just don’t tell the police.

2. We wish we’d been able to make it to the Tayyabs food and drink blogger get together which Dinner Diaries wrote up brilliantly. It looked like a lot of fun. Maybe we could organise something similar at one of new openings…

3. We saw this on Food Stories site and as a result wish that Mexico was somehow allowed to enter the Eurovision song contest because that would mean we could cook a Mexican meal to participate. The Eating Eurovision idea is fantastic and we are keen to get involved.

4. We were very jealous when we read Hollow Legs’s account of the sake and sushi pairing she got involved in. Sounds a lot of fun. But dare we say it not as much fun as a tequila and taco pairing. Anyone keen?

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