Tortilla chips, salsa fresca and a virgin mojito

My first meal of the new year was a Mexican which might sound unusual in London but not much is open on New Year’s Day. We went to Wahaca which has a number of restaurants around the capital with some good non-alcoholic drinks options.

I ordered a virgin mojito which hit the spot perfectly with a bowl of tortilla chips and salsa though - tch, tch Wahaca - the salsa didn't taste quite as 'freshly made' as the menu claims - at least the previous day, I’m guessing, given that New Year’s Day is a public holiday. It also paired well with the fish taco I ordered though less well with my daughter’s burrito. A light drink like this needs bright flavours.

I’m assuming it was made roughly like this recipe in the Difford’s Guide. Anyway it was super-refreshing and proves yet again that soft drinks can be just as interesting a pairing for food as alcoholic ones*.

*There’s obviously an appetite for them. There's a whole Pinterest board devoted to them and very pretty they look too!

Citrus fizz and Mexican food

If you’re not drinking for whatever reason - because you’re driving, pregnant or just taking a break - it’s sometimes difficult to find something that makes a good match for what you’re eating. Soft drinks can be sweet and sugary. Water sometimes too plain.

I found just the answer in a Mexican restaurant called Wahaca in the amazing new Westfield shopping centre (which is HUGE) in West London the other day. Described as a Citrus Fizz it was a bit like a rum-less Mojito. Muddled mint, lime juice and a dash of sugar syrup over ice, topped up with sparkling water and garnished with a slice of lime.

Deliciously refreshing and perfect with zingy Mexican ingredients like salsa fresca and tomatillo sauce, it would be good with seafood too.

Moqueca and Caiprinhas

Last week our local tapas bar, Ocean, held a Brazilian evening with a talented local Bristol singer Frances Butt who is really into Latin music. (So much so that she has issued an album called The Girl from Wolverhampton - where she grew up though obviously not where her soul lies . . .)

The chef, Stuart Seth, cooked up a simple supper of two dishes a feijoada (pork, beef and black bean stew) and moqueca (seafood stew) which were served with caipirinhas, the addictively good Brazilian cocktail of cachaça and lime. Cachaça is the Brazilian equivalent to rum.

It wasn't particularly good with the feijoada - I doubt if it was intended to be - but brilliant with the moqueca which was flavoured with tomato, coriander and hot pepper (though it wasn't overly hot). I don't know if it's authentic to pair the two (perhaps our Brazilian members will tip me off?) but it was certainly stupendously good. Wine, I suspect, wouldn't have worked as well though a crisp Sauvignon Blanc would have probably been a reasonable pairing

A really nice idea for an informal supper. With music, of course . . .

Salmon ceviche and Soave

With its intense citrussy flavour ceviche - marinated raw fish - is a tricky dish to pair with wine.

One’s natural inclination might be to pick a white with a similar flavour profile such as a Sauvignon Blanc but the likelihood is that the more intense flavour of the marinade will strip the citrus flavours out of the wine.

At our local restaurant Culinaria at the weekend I picked a half bottle of Pieropan Soave to kick off our meal which held its own really well with a delicious starter of salmon marinated with lime served with guacamole (Mexican avocado dip). It didn’t interfere with the pure lime flavour but had enough personality to stand up to the zingy flavours of the dish. A decent Pinot Grigio, I suspect, would work equally well.

Image © karandaev - Fotolia