Mexican food has had a surge in popularity in the UK and I don’t mean the 2018 re-launch of Taco Bell in London. Small restaurants and food trucks are popping up all over the country shilling out authentic regional cuisine and fusions alike. With the necessary traditional ingredients now more easily accessible, gone are my days of ordering wholesale bags of tortilla flour and stuffing my suitcase with dried chillies, Mexican cheeses and dried mole sauce to last me months until my next visit home. Mexican cuisine is clearly piquing an interest not just as a dining trend, people genuinely want to bring it home and make it their own, and truthfully that is where Mexican food really shines.
In my experience with Mexican food in the UK, generally, most people equate it with the Old El Paso brand and that frankly has a lot to do with availability. If you’re ever thinking about venturing into making Mexican style food you’ll probably directly flock to Old El Paso because it’s widely available across all supermarkets and in most cases, it is the only option in your local store. Now, it is not Mexican food per se but instead, TexMex– hard shell tortillas stuffed with ground beef and topped with shredded iceberg lettuce, Monterey jack cheese (the orangier the better), guacamole, sour cream and of course salsa (the kind you’d submerge a Dorito in)–this kind of food certainly has its own particular charms, it’s not Mexican. However, there is one particular kind of taco that reminds me of the South West hard shell creation: flautas.
