I am a big lover of Mexican food – especially Nachos. Not the corn chip and plastic tomato sauce nachos you get at cinemas but the authentic ones served with beef (I’ll accept chicken too), refried beans, guacamole and sour cream that you will get at any Mexican restaurant worth its salt – or tequila.
In Mexico (pronounced Meh-ee-co if you’re trying to be fancy), May – especially the fifth is a time for celebration and is the national holiday, Cinco de Mayo. The holiday is celebrated regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla and in the United States to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War.
In recent times, the holiday is observed as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, i.e. a day to eat nachos and get drunk on tequila! I’ve been reading so many Cinco de Mayo posts on blogs I follow so its fair to say that I was quite excited to get an invite to attend Cinco de Mayo celebrations at Elbo Room in collaboration with Don Angel tequila and Asprii Spirits.
Having slaved away in the kitchen the entire day before the event, the celebrations seemed like the perfect way to unwind and taste some new flavours of margaritas.
There was a great vibe to the venue and I felt that Elbo Room worked very well for the event. The casual outdoor seating and wooden bar decorated with sombreros set a great tone for the night and the retro music had me tapping away my foot from the time I entered. My only peeve was the lack of air circulation and given Mumbai’s sweltering summers I’d urge Elbo Room to invest in a few more fans or misters to ensure their guests can comfortably while away the evening.
Don Angel and Aspri had a special Margarita menu for the night, which looked quite interesting primarily because it included my favourite fruits Mango, Strawberry, Kiwi and Pineapple. The drink that caught my eye at first glance was the Plum Margarita though I was sad to learn that it wasn’t available that night – as an aside I do feel that if a venue develops a special menu that care must be taken to ensure that all options are available, especially at the start of the night.
Nevertheless, I proceeded to try the Watermelon and Mango Margarita because I was intrigued that they were both made with fresh fruit rather than the syrup generally used by bars. Even though I am a Mango lover, I enjoyed the former drink more because the tequila overpowered the fruit in the Mango Margarita and overall was quite potent. In comparison, the watermelon was well balanced with the flavours of the fruit and tequila being well-blended.
I also had sips of the Strawberry, Kiwi, Jalapeno and Frozen Peach Margaritas from my friends to get a sense of how they stood up to the two drinks I had. My favourite of all of these was the classic Strawberry with my only peeve being that the glasses had way too much salt on the rim and it left a nasty first taste in the mouth.
The Jalapeno was too spicy for me and one could taste the garlic-vinegar from the liquid that the chillies are preserved in. And, while the Frozen Peach and Kiwi Margaritas were made well, I didn’t feel that the drink was balanced with each having either too much or too little of the tequila. Overall, I’d recommend that the cocktails be made with a 30ml shot of Don Angel and that only half the rim of the glass be salted.
After having a couple of the margaritas I was looking forward to the food, especially the nachos. Sadly, we were served what I call ‘Cinema Nachos’ which was quite disappointing. Other dishes on the menu included platters of Prawn Fajitas, Vegetarian Tacos and Chicken Supreme.
Of all the three, I enjoyed the Chicken Supreme the best. The long slices of chicken breast were tender and spiced just right – I must confess I polished off about 5 of these but since my dinner companions were vegetarian no one judged me.
The Prawn Fajitas were nice too but I would have preferred them to not be grilled as Fajitas are not traditionally served that way. While the Tacos were certainly yummy, we decided to rename them as Pav Bhaji Tacos because they didn’t taste remotely Mexican.
While the vibe of the place was good and the drinks were fine too, I felt that the food was an afterthought and simply there to ensure the guests didn’t get drunk on margaritas. Had we been served more authentic cuisine, the holiday would indeed have been a much better celebration!
Post by Perzen Patel
