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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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Sip a free tequila for Day of the Dead

Wednesday 2nd November see’s the culmination of Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations and we wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun, so we’re joining the party by giving away a free glass of tequila and sangrita to anyone who comes in for lunch or dinner tomorrow.

In Mexico, Day Of The Dead is a festival to celebrate the lives of friends and family who have passed away, and often sees groups of people partying on down at their family cemetery. This festival’s incredible colour and imagery is a great example of why we love Mexico quite so much. In fact, you can check out some more about it here.

Everyone who wants one gets a free tequila, the only thing we ask is that you sip it, and don’t shoot it down in one. This isn’t your average tequila – We’re giving you a measure of multi-award winning El Tesoro de Don Philipe, one of the world’s finest. To complete your full introduction to the world of top tequilas, we’ll be giving you a glass of our homemade sangrita to accompany it – Just as it’s drunk in Mexico.

We hope we’ll see you down here to join in the fun.

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Tequila tasting at Wahaca Soho

On Wednesday night we hosted the second of our tequila tastings in Soho, with the aim of selecting a new range of special guest tequilas to put on our bar list over the next year.

Since opening Wahaca, we knew we had a job to do when it came to tequila in the UK. It is such a misunderstood drink here, and there’s good reason for that – The prominence of low quality tequilas that leave you with a burning throat and a lingering feeling of regret has done huge damage to its reputation as a quality spirit. So we pledged to only stock tequilas that were of superior quality, 100% agave, and that had passed our own taste test. Move forward 4 years and we’ve got a list of tequilas that we’re really happy with, and we are developing this pledge further. We have been working with the Mexican Tequila Board to search out tequilas that are not available outside of North America. Tequilas that have been made with quality in mind, rather than mass production. The kind of tequilas that are sipped by those that really know what they are talking about. Our aim is to not only be able to offer these tequilas to you, but also to give these smaller suppliers the opportunity to give their products international recognition for the first time.

The Mexican Tequila Board very kindly sent us an early Christmas present of around 35 bottles of just such tequilas. None of which are available outside Mexico, none of which we had tasted before, and all of which sounded like they would be welcome additions to our bar list. But we don’t want to just add any product to our list, so they needed tasting. You don’t get this opportunity every day, so we thought that we’d share them around with our most deserving friends. 

We invited our facebook fans to write in and tell us why they should be chosen to join us and we had a great response. We narrowed the field down and selected our panel of experts, who would be lending us their taste buds for the evening.

The evening was masterfully compered by Henry Besant, of the World Wide Cocktail Club, and who is about the most knowledgeable tequila aficionado in the country. He introduced us to a mixed selection of 9 tequilas that he had picked from our consignment and we diligently set to work tasting.

We ended the night having sniffed, slurped and swilled our way through 3 blancos, 3 reposados, 2 añejos and 1 extra añejo. There was debate, an exchange of words such as vegetal, herbal, woody and even bacon, and a pleasant feeling of having been involved in something that signified another small step in the right direction for tequila in the UK. Our voting system led to 4 winners, but there was a general consensus that in fact 3 of these had something extra special which made them stand out: A blanco named Tequila Gran Orendain, an Añejo named La Fortaleza (or Los Abuelos) and an Extra Añejo named Tequila Campo Azul.

Now, we should say here that the funny thing about tasting tequilas that you’ve never heard of before and which aren’t available outside of Mexico, is that occasionally you realise why that’s the case!  We did taste some slight duds on the night, especially in the Reposado category. We happily supplemented them with a comparative tasting of our current house pour, El Tesoro Reposado, and were all agreed that there wasn’t any need to force the issue, none of the Reposados could measure up on the night, so they’d stay in Mexico for the time being.

Thank you so much to Kate, Ed, James, Yashoda, Jesús and Paul for responding to our request and coming along and lending us their taste buds and opinions. Thanks also to the Mexican Tequila Board for supplying us with tequilas that wowed, challenged, delighted and surprised us in near equal measure. And finally thank you to Henry for leading the way once more.

You will be able to see the final results from all of our tastings up on our blog soon, and most importantly taste them for yourself as they each take up their monthly guest spots over the coming year. We really hope you’ll enjoy our choices.  If you have any thoughts on our tequila list, or general musing about this magical drink, please feel free to let us know in a comment below.

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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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Wahaca comes to Soho

It’s been quite a journey over the last 6 months turning 80 Wardour Street from a local boozer, into the 4th member of the Wahaca family. There’s been plenty of fun and games along the way, and we can hardly believe we’re saying it, but with a massive grin we’re happy to declare Wahaca Soho OPEN.

There have certainly been some highlights.

Since our first table went up in July we knew this place was going to be a bit special. Building site chic was never going to last though.

When we lost one of our pigs back in September, with a bit of help from our facebook fans, the lovely Catty found it sniffing out its new home! It was a total sty back then.

We soon realised that style is the name of the game in Soho. We thought that the new place would appreciate its own T-shirt, so its own T-shirt it would have. And not just any T-shirt, oh no, a competition winning T-shirt. We asked you lot to get to work and send us a design that brought to life the spirit of Wahaca. Over 50 local designers and Photoshop-savvy folk from around the country had a go, and it was no easy task selecting a winner. In the end we chose a design by Matt Burke, who is none-other than Head of Art, just down the road at Addiction London. They can now add the honour of Wahaca T-shirt designers to the growing list of accolades. Matt’s going to be a pretty regular feature in the new restaurant. His prize was a year’s worth of free food at 80 Wardour Street.

Artistic talent has been hanging around the site in hoards in the past few weeks, and to name just a few we were delighted to invite Remi/Rough in to graffiti the place.

Whilst Barton Hargreaves spent months circling Soho with his camera so he could build the montages which you’ll see climbing our bare-brick walls.

Jose was put to work constructing our foosball tables, which have already seen some seriously close-fought battles down in our tequila bar. Surely with 2 tables to practice on someone will be able to take on the mighty Hassan at Wahaca Canary Wharf.

Nate, a familiar face from Wahaca Covent Garden, has been hard at work with the new bar team – training them on the list of over 20 top class 100% agave tequilas and turning our basement into the best tequila bar in the town, and the perfect place to enjoy some of our new cocktails.

In fact, we’ve not made it easy on ourselves. From Wahaca’s very beginnings we wanted to minimise the impact we make on the environment and community around us. So throughout the build we have done everything possible to keep our waste levels down. In fact 90% of all rubbish generated from the building work has been recycled. You might notice that the wooden floors from the old Slug and Lettuce are now our ceiling, walls and bar (Don’t worry we made sure we gave them a good clean). And we’ve put plenty of clever little things in place to continue that commitment as the restaurant does its thing. Hidden in a back room are a handy glass crusher, and cardboard bailer that help make recycling easier. Two weeks ago the last arrangements were made so that now 100% of the restaurants’ waste will be recycled, we’re very proud to say that nothing from our Soho site will be going to landfill.

And now after some tremendous effort from so many marvellous people it’s time for us to stop talking about it, get the doors wide open and hand this restaurant over to you. We hope you like it.

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Free tequila? It must be Day of the Dead

From Tuesday 2nd to Thursday 4th November, we’re celebrating Day Of The Dead at Wahaca, with a free glass of tequila for everyone. Not just any tequila either – It’s our brand spanking new, multi-award winning house pour, El Tesoro Reposado that’s on offer to anyone sensible enough to realise that tequila doesn’t have to mean a wincing face and a morning of regret. Oh no, this stuff is good. There will also be plenty of our home made sangrita available (That’s the nice spiced tomato and orange juice that’s every tequilas favourite sidekick).

If you’re not sure what Day Of The Dead is all about, it’s one of our favourite Mexican festivals and worth checking out. It coincides with all saints and all souls day and in Mexico it’s a way of celebrating the lives of friends and family who have died. It sounds like it would be quite a sombre affair, but not a bit of it. Any excuse for a party eh!

We’ll also be giving you the chance to win a signed copy of Tommi’s book each day of our celebrations – To enter you need to fold up one of our origami skulls (that you’ll find in the centrefold of our new Ola London) and upload a photo of yourself to our facebook page. We’ll pick our favourite each day who will be the happy recipients of a book so they can recreate those Mexican masterpieces themselves at home.

So if you fancy a bit of a knees up, and want to get your hands on some of the world’s best tequila, (yes we think it’s that good), then come along from Tuesday 2nd to Thursday 4th November.

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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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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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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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Qype Autumn Menu Tasting

We invited Qype’s top reviewers to sample our new menu that we’ve put together for the cold months and this is what they thought, in bite sized chunks:

SMOKED HERRING TOSTADAS by Alex Sheppard

Photo by @kelsiemortimer on Flickr

The smoked herring tostada is something that I’d probably never have tried – I wouldn’t have thought fish and tacos would work well together. But I’m glad I did as it will be the main (but certainly not only) reason why I’ll be coming back to Wahaca. Not only is the fish MSC-certified and sourced from Hastings, they were delicious. The smokeyflavour stayed in the mouth long after they’d been eaten, but it wasn’t too overpowering. For me, they were the highlight of the evening.

PORK PIBIL TACOS by Almost Witty (Andrew Wong)

The pork pibils – from memory I think that was Johnny Depp’s dish of choice in Once Upon A Time In Mexico – and definitely the best. They dripped off the tongue as they should.

MUSHROOM AND HUITLACOCHE QUESADILLAS by Kate Matlock

The quesadillas…oh good golly… the crazy mushroom quesadilla that was creamy and gooey and unpronounceable. It’s a fungus (called huitlacoche) that grows on corn. Seriously. Can I just say it’s the best damn fungus I’ve ever tried because I will be back for more.

BLACK BEAN SOUP by Qyper ‘ShakinSwedens’

The black bean soup which was so full of surprises it almost deserves a review of it’s own. The bowl was filled with goodies like avocado and roasted chillies and then the black bean soup poured over by the waiter. Each mouthful was different with a burst of fresh coriander in one or the piquant chilli in another.

MOLE ENCHILADA by Jenny from The Red Mangetout

Photo by @tikichris for Qype on Flickr

The mole enchiladas initially looked like more black bean soup, except this time it was topped with crema and rice. Digging in, it became apparent that underneath the sauce lay an enchilada stuffed with tender chicken and vegetables. The mole sauce was rich and spicy, with a good hint of chocolate. This was one of the stand out dishes for me, and a good introduction to Mexican flavours, without being too scary for the British palate. My only regret was that by this point I was getting too full to manage more than a mouthful!

FISH A LA VERACRUZANA by Su-Lin from Tamarind and Thyme

Photo by @Kelsiemortimer on Flickr

The Fish a la Veracruzana was a large piece of pollack with tomatoes, olives and capers, all baked in a foil parcel. The perfectly cooked fish broke off easily into large moist flakes at the touch of a fork and its lightness was complemented perfectly by the freshness from the tomatoes. However, as well as rice, this was accompanied by a salad whose toppings I found a little too punchy and acidic for the delicate fish.

SEASONAL VEGETABLE BURRITO by Simon Doggett

Photo by Su-Lin on Flickr

The burrito caused a bit of a stir round the room with one particular controversial ingredient. The cabbage. Now, it’s a veggie burrito. Of course we expected veggies. But cabbage? Turns out this has been a bit of a talking point over the years between owners, chefs and us lot – it’s prevalent in a certain area of Mexico, but we really weren’t sure. Then again, those of them on the other side of the table were excited about something a bit different. I guess we’re waiting to see if it actually makes a reappearance! Before the tasting I was pretty clueless about ‘proper’ Mexican street food, and nine times out of ten would have plumped for the burrito option. But now, ya know, having been presented with the excitement beyond burritos, I’m not so sure about that.

WINTER BUERZA SALAD by Jess

Photo by @kelsiemortimer on Flickr

So perhaps I wouldn’t have normally ordered a dish like this at Wahaca. Firstly, it’s a salad, and secondly, it’s chocka with what might appear menu-wise to be too many ingredients, ending up as one confused salad amongst loads of hearty Mexicana goodness. But oh, what a revelation to have been fed this little beauty! It’s bursting with surprises – from the delicately deep fried anchochilli pieces giving the crunch to the fresh orange and pickled hibiscus over the feta and butternut squash, right down to the spelt hiding underneath it all.

BAJA CALIFORNIA TACOS by Mel fromTravels with My Fork

The absolute hit of the evening was next: a classic Baja-California Fish Taco – crispy fried fish with just the right kick of chipotle mayonaise served in a soft taco. I could have eaten a whole tray of these alone and am now contemplating throwing a fish taco party in the near future. High marks for this one.

CHURROS Y CHOCOLATE by Gail

When we reached the meal’s finale, a platter of golden churros arrived on the table – infuriatingly out of reach, initially. Once the people at the other end of the table realised that our conversation had died and we were all staring at them with intent – ok, at the churros – they surrendered them to us. Almost without a fight. Beautifully light cinnamon-dusted horseshoes of crisp batter, with a dribbly dark chocolate sauce – they were never going to last long. They’re better than any others I’ve tried, probably because they were obviously fresh and quickly fried. The perfect sharing dish for the end of the evening – as long as you get in fast, they won’t last long.

TEQUILA by Epicurienne

Photo by @kelsiemortimer on Flickr

Under Mark’s guidance, we tasted three tequilas from the Wahaca stable: a Blanco (white), served cold, a Reposado (rested) served at room temperature and an Añejo (aged), also served at room temperature, with a lovely, caramelly tang. As many will confide, I, too, have had the occasional clash with tequila, but the selection we enjoyed last night was an utterly different sensory experience to student union layback sessions in a vintage dentist’s chair. This was refined, smooth, flavoursome liquid, to be sipped and savoured, not consumed in one swallow. This was tequila for grown ups and it was better than good.

And… the last word from Qype Guru Tikichris who helped to set this all up

By inviting us twenty or so lucky Qypers along last Thursday for a sample of their new “cold months” menu at their stylish Westfield location, the good folks behind sensational Mexican street food restaurant Wahaca succeeded not only in delighting our appreciative taste buds and filling our bellies with more than ample amounts of their flavourful Latin dishes but in raising the bar for future Qype events as well. Really, I can’t even remember the last time I saw so much food laid out in front of me. That so much of it was incredibly delicious left me a bit dumbfounded (or was that the cumulative effect of all that lovely, free flowing Tequila Corralejo?)

Thank you Qype for making the evening so much fun, for providing so much valuable feedback and for all your kind words. And thanks for your great reviews which you can read in more depth here:

Tamarind and Thyme
Ravenous Libby
Epicurienne
Travels with My Fork
Qype Blog

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