Nicolas Carter’s quest to find nachos in the capital…
Introduction
The Authentic Experience
The Place For Tequila
The Pre-Clubbing Show
Mix It Up With culture
Celebrate While You Eat
If you were to make a map of the world based on the restaurants available in London, India would be detailed down to the centimetre. Likewise the rest of the EU and Asia, the Middle East and half a hundred other places besides. On any map made like this, however, there would be massive gaps south of the United States labelled “Here Be Monsters” and the like. The fact is, England boasts about as many Mexican and Latin American restaurants as active volcanoes.
The reasons for this are fairly self-explanatory. Mexico’s immigrant community is almost all absorbed by the US, and the English have historically not been too keen on spicy food. With the influx of Indian food and the like, however, this is beginning to change. More and more curiosity is appearing; more and more options of DIY are popping up in the supermarkets. Without an example to base it off of, however, attempting to cook Mexican at home is likely to result in disaster, or at least in uninspiring results.
So what’s the solution? Where do you go to have good Mexican food? Where can you learn to grill up a nice meal of quesadillas, fajitas, enchiladas, tacos and burritos? It turns out there are a few Mexican restaurants in London and these, in exchange for a bit of your hard-earned cash, are happy to smuggle your taste buds across the Rio Grande.
Not all restaurants are created equal. Some of them are more focused upon the authentic cuisine of the nation, while others are concerned about atmosphere above all else. Others just want you to have a good time as soon as you walk in the door. To that end, here are five favourites of the expatriate Mexican community, places where sombreros aren’t laughed at and tequila is argued about long into the night.
– The Authentic Experience: La Taqueria takes pride in being, above all else, a simple little taco store at heart.
– The Place For Tequila: The Green and Red Bar has all the ingredients for an epic night
– The Pre-Clubbing Show: Los Locos is a place where nobody is ugly after 2 AM
– Mix It Up With Culture: Las Iguanas takes being in the Royal Festival Hall seriously
– Celebrate While You Eat: Holidays you’ve never heard of
– Nicholas Carter