I am at the Queen Victoria Market and walk by a young Mexican girl wearing a fancy sombrero with glittery bits, shouting TAC - OOOOOOH, come and get the world's best TAC-OOOOOOOOH as if she is a ring announcer with the WWE. Aside from her vocal skills it is hard to resist the aroma emanating from the tent she is spruiking so of course I buy one. Sceptical of course. But I am wrong and she is right, this is the WORLDS BEST TACO. I could eat a stackful of these things. You know when something is just so good you just can't believe it. And it only cost THREE DOLLARS. How good is that.
I was about fifteen when I first ate Mexican food. No that's not right, I was fifteen when I first ate in a Mexican restaurant. I didn't know then but I do know now, that the two don't have that much in common. Least not outside Mexico. The only things I remember about that meal are the flan, and being stuck in confusion outside the loos because my sister and I didnt know if we were senors or senorinas. Luckily the waitress, (who was also our brother's girlfriend), kindly came to our rescue without making us feel like country yokels - (which is what we were), thanks Lee!
I can now find my way to the loo in at least ten different languages and I now know that wearing a sombrero doesn't necessarily mean you are Mexican and you should be cooking Mexican food. Mexican food is tasty and spicy and complex and basic and fresh and moreish and SOOOOOOOOOOO delicious. It does not just taste like beans and corn chips which is what some of those Mexican restuarants would have us believe.
The taco I ate at the market bore no resemblance to anything I have ever been served in those franchised Mexican restaurants whose name I won't mention. It was a soft tortilla with diced, marinated meat that was quickly cooked and served on the warmed tortilla with onion and coriander. That's it. The bright red sauce is hot sauce, the other one is mild. The hot sauce made my eyes water and my lips burn, it was delicious.
If you are in Melbourne you can buy essential Mexican ingredients at http://casaibericadeli.com.au/ which is in Johnston St. Fitzroy. There are many websites with Mexican recipes but I like this one http://www.mexgrocer.com/mexican-recipes.html. where you are bound to find something you like. I ate my WBT at the Queen Victoria Market at the La Plaza de Mercado festival last Sunday (18/4) which I think only happens once a year (oh please let me be wrong). I will put up the date when I know. I will be back there next year for another fix of Tacos and to listen to the World's Best Taco Spruiker - providing the WWE don't find her first.
Adios y Cocina Feliz
