Classic to contemporary

A full day veggie of eating

Yesterday morning started with the intent of exercise. Then Jen saw an advert for a pancake offer somewhere on Saturday and, within five minutes, our walk had been sliced in favour of the nearest place that served up pancakes.

So, whilst there was no doubt what Jen would be ordering, I was a little less certain at first, until I spotted Chilaquiles on the menu- a fairly classic Mexican dish that's eaten at breakfast or later if desired. Jen asked me what they consisted of, but I wasn't sure- I was just following my intent to try stuff I'm not familiar with. I was willing to bet on tortillas of some kind, likely refried beans, some kinda red or green sauce, and maybe some cheese. And I was right, save for the addition of my choice of fried egg or chicken. I opted for egg, partly as I like to see how places here do at vegetarian food as it's not really their skillet. It was also an opportunity to keep my instances of eating meat balanced.

Jen seemed pretty chuffed with her pancakes. My Chilaquiles were outstanding, specifically the red sauce which had a tang and texture a bit more like a good Italian pomodoro sauce, but the flavours and kick of classic Mexican. The sour cheese offset it nicely and, as always, refried beans just ground the whole thing with that savoury flavour and texture which shouldn't be right, but really is.

It was quite a touristic restaurant we are in, right on the Malecon (promenade), so for the food to be that good, and for about $8, we were pretty impressed.

Lunch was skipped as breakfast was big and we hadn't done the exercise to deserve the calories. Dinner came after a visit to the dentist to see about repairing my third broken tooth of the last 18 months. This time, we were in a funky little vegetarian restaurant with a lovely young team running the joint. We ordered an tasting plate, consisting of spinach and corn empanadas (blue corn tortillas), a black bean and rice burger, falafel, guac, fries, and then this falafel pastor thing, I.e. a veggie alternative to classic meat Pastor, the Persian inspired shaved spiced meat. On the side, Pastor sauce and another which I failed to identify and forgot to ask.

Everything was tasty enough, and a pleasant alternative. The pastor dish gave me an idea, though- basically, I could do the same kind of thing, but with my veggie burger. I'm thinking broken into bits, minus the panko, then fried to create a similar mouthfeel to the little pieces of meat you have trimmed from the kebab. I'll tweak the spicing and come up with a pastor sauce, playing around with what was in theirs- tomatoes (roasted, I think), tomatillos, fresh Serrano chillies, dried Ancho chillies and cilantro. Watch this space.

Overall, the experience of being there was nice. It's good to see places pushing a different agenda to the mainstream, and trying to knock out credible alternatives. A few tweaks on execution and they could have a really smart and punchy proposition.

If I don't eat with emote fish tacos or pollo asado today, I will consider the day, maybe even the trip, a failure. We'll be heading back out into some wild camp spots as of tomorrow's so it'll be back into some of my own food. I've still not made my take on Tostielotes, and I've a bag of tostitos there, as well as some leftover veggie chilli in the freezer, so I need to follow through on that one.Read more