london burrito bars

The rise of the burrito bar in London has been slow but stealthy over the past few years and a rash of them has been spreading over the capital. Although I'm late in celebrating it I'm enjoying this Cali-Mexican inspired fast food revolution not least of which because there's finally something for the veggies to enjoy. I'm also trying to convince myself that the blend of roasted peppers, coriander rice, beans and salsas isn't wildly unhealthy although add lashings of sour cream, guacamole and cheese and the sheer size of the things and I think I can assure myself that they are not waistline friendly.

Anyway, the reason I've held off for so long, apart from not being able to get any decent images of the tasty sloppiness, is that last night I finally visited Benito's Hat who have a new-ish branch in Covent Garden and my word, it was good. See the thing is that the quality can be variable - with no love in the ingredients the flavour suffers. Witness the poor attempt from the new Daddy Donkey stall this weekend which was a flavourless and over-hot mass of white rice, beans and sour cream. A serious lack of love, Mr LROC informs me that his braised pork version was better.

Similarly disappointing was the offering from Chipotle, an American chain import with an outlet on Charing Cross road. The store itself had a bland corporate interior, the burrito was good enough, but for a store named after a flavoursome smokey chilli, to not offer anything with actual Chipotle in, not a marinade, not a salsa, was beyond disappointing. The staff didn't even seem to know what it was.

Meanwhile, my personal favourites include Chilangos on Upper Street, whose marinated peppers are delicious and customer service are top notch, taking time to reply to comment cards personally. I also love their colourful and engaging interior - it feels like Mexican food when you're surrounding by vibrant images of 'the DF' and listening to their upbeat tunes.

Another special mention goes to Benito's Hat - having tried them yesterday I have to say I think they're the pick of the bunch. Fresh and tasty ingredients, friendly staff, a great atmosphere and the most tasty guacamole ever. The good news is that I might be a little closer to their Goodge Street branch more often, the bad news is that I don't think it's going to help with the diet.

the perfect margarita

This is a margarita funded on the scared rules of Thomasina Miers, and built on the chapel of the luxury spirit brand, but it also functions well as an end of week pick me up.

I've tried the passionfruit margarita at Wahaca and wanted to tried it at home, except Tesco Metro are clearly too cheap to sell real passion fruits, so Rubicon juice had to do.

The mix is 37.5ml tequila (I used Silver Patron Resposado for a luxury feel - this stuff is £50 a bottle) and 20ml Cointreau, with approx 3/4 of a lime and enough passionfruit juice to stop it feeling like a shot and lots of ice. An excellent way to start the weekend.


Each bottle of Silver Patron is apparently handcrafted in the mountains of Jalisco - the only region of Mexico 'allowed' the produce tequila - anything else distilled from the agave is technically a Mezcal - though those are strictly just from Oaxaca. And each is hand numbered, judging by this only just over 42,000 bottles have ever been produced of the Resposado, prpobably less of the Anejo. I think White Stuff may have sold more wired sweats...

If you like to be more obscure give xtabentum a try...

verana

Whilst I'm on the subject of Mexico, the extremely gloomy British 'Summer' weather has reminded me on one of my ultimate getaway destinations. I considered going there as part of our honeymoon but whilst the inside/outside aesthetic looks beautiful it also means that a slightly stronger resistance to creepy crawlies is needed than the average English girl has. Their website is certainly quick to point out the risk of Scorpions!








The hotel, which bills itself as luxury camping, is based on a hill overlooking Yelapa. A village which until recently had no electricity and which can only be accessed by a 30 minute boat ride from nearby Puerto Vallarta. Their starlit scented couples bath sounds divine, now if only they issued a stun gun along with the room key....

holga on holiday

I do love my Holga a bit. Although the whole lomography thing has become hugely popular, there's a simple joy in knowing you can't waste your shots, selecting what type of film to use and trying to compose everything. You find yourself searching for colours and textures that will work, the best light and then wait anxiously for the return of your square format snaps. It's pleasure in analog, pure and simple.

Mexico is a photographers dream - so many colours and textures and great, bright light. So I wanted to share some of my favourite holiday snaps from that trip.







I think my favourite is the bleached out palm.