Paco's Tacos, MoVida Terraza, Melbourne

I mentioned this a while ago, but I was travelling to Melbourne for work a LOT last year, It is one of my many, excuses for not blogging as much as I would have liked to.

I'm now back on the travelling wagon, but I have decided to use that to my advantage and blog my lonely, and not so lonely, food adventures that have been generously subsidised by my employer...

My most recent venture was to Paco's Tacos, a newbie to the Melbourne food scene, riding in on the wave of mexican madness that is hitting Australia, and Melbourne in particular, at the moment. Paco's is located on the MoVida Terraza, and part of the MoVida mega-group that includes MoVida, MoVida Acqui, MoVida Next Door, and now, Paco's. A van-like building, that somewhat resembles a 1950's drive-in cinema diner (or at least my American movie ideal of one...), is surrounded by re-purposed wood furniture, reused steel formed into a cage/pergola and a lot of greenery - but what else does one expect from Greenhouse's Joost Bakker?

The, large, open, servery-style windows of the van are framed above by blackboards listing the taco & drinks menus, and give you a look into the kitchen where dapper ladies and gents in kitsch 1950's aprons mix drinks and take orders.

I was meeting a couple of my high-school friends for dinner, lets call them K, A & R, who all work in the CBD. R snuck down earlier to save us a table, and had been met by A by the time I worked out how to get to the 'MoVida Terraza' . K sidled up later, but we'll forgive her and she'd just started a new job (congrats K!).

As usual, we all started talking first, and forgot about the food & ordering part. After a quick look at the blackboards, and with a few suggestions from R (who is lucky enough to work close by and have Paco's as a regular lunch spot), we were ready to go. R strongly recommended the BBQ corn, so A and I opted for the corn as well as a taco (or two in my case - all in the name of research!).

K, A & I shared a jug of Sangria ($35), to get us in the spirit, and I will admit, it was much better than my recent attempt at Sangria. Chilled, fresh and fruity, without totally overpowering the red wine behind it all.

I have always been a sucker for corn on the cob - I am the weirdo who eats buttered corn on the cob at music festivals -so the current BBQ Mexican corn trend is well received here. The Paco's version ($6) did not disappoint. With slightly more cheese than the Mamasita version, and a bit less melted on, it was still darn delicious.

camarones taco

There are six taco options, plus a special on the night we visited (all $6). I opted for the pato asado (roasted duck with spicy mole, lime and marinated red onion) and pescado (marinated fish, chipotle and radish), while A &a K both went for a camarones (prawns, pepita sauce and salsa verde) taco. R, having been there before, steered away from the tacos, and went for the nachos ($12).

pescado (front) and pato asoado tacos

I was really looking forward to the fish taco, the combination of the fish, chipotle and radish sounded like it would be a winner, but the overall result was a bit lacking in flavour, and quite dry. It seemed to be missing the chipotle, and much worse for it. The tortilla was quite dry and crumbly, making the whole thing quite difficult to eat. Overall, a disappointing choice.

The duck was a bit of a wild card selection, but it turned out to be a good one. The duck was moist, and slightly spicy thanks to the mole sauce. A vast improvement on the pescado - I could have easily eaten five of these.

chilli chocolate mousse

We added the dessert in later. R & A were keen to try the chilli chocolate mouse with candied walnuts, so we ordered two to share. I'll admit I've never been keen on the chilli & chocolate combo, but this was the best interpretation I've tried yet. A thick silky chocolate mousse, with just a hint of chilli, leaving your mouth slightly tingly after each bite, but wondering why, until you remember that there's chilli in the chilli-choc mousse! But, I have to admit, the candied walnuts were the best part - and the only bit we finished from both serves!

Adios amigos,
-Alphie

Mamasita, Melbourne

Ok, so the blog has, once again, been a little neglected of late. I have been travelling a lot for work, in fact, while I was writing this, I had not been in home in over a week, and it looks like it’ll be like this for a while. The upside though, is that I am spending most of that time in Melbourne, where some of my favourite people reside. One of these, is a great friend of mine from our university days in Sydney, and one of my bridesmaids, Ms Aqua.

The last time I was in Melbourne (about 2 weeks ago...) we tried to get in to Mamasita, but as they don’t take bookings, and we turned up at 7, albeit midweek, we weren’t able to get a table til 9 (yes, on a Wednesday!). So, we took a raincheck and headed off somewhere else. This week, we went in prepared. We arranged to meet at 6, on a Tuesday, and whoever was there first was to get a spot in line ASAP.

I turned up first, at 5 past 6 (eek!) and nabbed a spot second in line! And, when the floor manager/line-keeper-in-order-er made his way over to see what we were after, line-place-holder-no-1 was on the phone, so I got bumped to no 1! It was already looking like a good night. As my dining partner, Ms Aqua, was not yet there, I was seated at the bar with the exhaustive drinks menu to wait. But before I’d had time to find the cocteles section of the menu, Ms Aqua, had arrived and we were shuffled into seats a nearby table.

Ms Aqua sensibly steered me away from the cocteles, given that it was a school night, so I went with a glass (or two) of the house bubbly, a non vintage Vallformosa MVSA Cava (or sparkling) from Catalunya, Spain. Ms Aqua went for the 2009 Bella Ridge Tempranillo from the Swan Valley, WA.

Our friendly and bubbly waitress then explained the menu to us, thankfully, as Ms Aqua and I were seriously struggling trying to decide what we should order – it all sounded so good! The menu is split up into nine categories; primeros (to start), tostaditas, tacos, quesadillas, ceviche, comida para la familia (food for the family), ensaladas, acompanamientos and postres (desserts). I would have loved to try something from each category, but with only two of us, that was never going to happen. So we relied heavily on our lovely waitress to guide us in our choices.

elotes callejeros

We started with the elotes callejeros; street style chargrilled corn, with queso, chipotle mayonnaise and lime, as it came heavily recommended, both by our waitress and a number of reviews.

 tostaditas de carnitas

Closely followed by the tostaditas de carnitas; slow braised pork shoulder with encurtidos and jalapeño; a tiny crispy tortilla, topped with a generous pile of soft pork, some pickles (the encurtidos), jalapeño and a little shard of crackling – delish!

quesadilla de huitlacoche

The last item we chose from the taqueria menu, was the quesadilla de huitlacoche; two soft tortillas encasing huitlacoche, mushrooms, roasted corn, epazote and queso fresco. After a bit of googling, I have discovered that huitlacoche is a type of corn fungus, sometimes referred to as ‘Mexican truffle’ or ‘corn smut’. Call it what you like, but it makes a delicious quesadilla.

 

buñuelos de garbanzos

From the main/food for the family menu, we went for the buñuelos de garbanzos; chickpea fritters, with field mushrooms, sweet potato and jalapeño herb sauce, and a small serve of the ensalada de quinoa; quinoa, corn, spinach, coriander, chilli and ‘pico de gallo’ salad.

ensalada de quinoa

Suprisingly, the chickpea fritters didn’t really resemble chickpeas, but were delicious none the less (and vegan!) and the quinoa salad was so incredibly moreish I could have eaten the whole serve myself. Crisp and flavoursome, the grains of quinoa popped like pomegranate seeds in your mouth, ahhhhh, I’m getting excited just thinking about it!

-Alphie