I hadn’t had Mexican food in a long while, so I was delighted when I was invited by Sixth Sense Communications & PR Consultancy to go for a media tasting at Viva Mexico together with eating buddies Skinny Epicurean, Superfinefeline and Nibble & Scribble.
The interior of Viva Mexico is bright and cheery which is typical of Mexican colours. I apologise for the shadows in the following pictures – the lighting was very dim so the pictures didn’t turn out very well!
The first appetizer was the Acapulco cocktail containing shrimp, fish, octopus and squid in a mix of sauces accompanied by bits of lemon, coriander and onion. The octopus and squid gave the cocktail a chewy texture. It’s an interesting cocktail but the sauce was a tad too sweet for me. I felt that it masked the hints of tangy flavours. The cocktail is served with some crackers on the side for you to dip into the sauce and munch away.
The next starter was called Chile relleno de jaiba and it certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted. It’s chilli filled with crab meat inside with a light batter surrounding the chilli. The picture above shows the cross section when the chilli’s been cut in half. The chilli is seriously spicy, so only go for it if you can take chilli. If your palate is anything like me – no good with chilli – stay away. I can’t comment much on this dish because I barely touched it as the little bit I ate had already set my tongue on fire.
The Tamales larranzair was the first of the mains to arrive on the table. This is a southern Mexican delicacy containing steamed corn dough filled with chicken, raisins and mole which is a chocolate-tinged sauce. I liked this dish and thought there was a good balance of flavours. I am personally not a big fan of raisins in general so I put the raisins aside. I’m not sure how it would taste eaten with raisins, but I certainly liked it enough without them! I liked the hints of sweetness rendered by the mole.
A soup called Chilli poblano soup was to follow. This is usually served at Mexican weddings and other special occasions. Even though it was made from chilli, the soup was very mild in spiciness. There were only traces of the chilli and I didn’t have any trouble downing all of it. In addition to the cream there was also sweet corn in the soup. I really liked the soup and would recommend it.
Tacos Doradosde was then served. We had the vegetarian version which is filled with potatoes and served with lettuce, tomato, cream and cheese. It can also come filled with beef. This dish is very filling and is definitely enough as a main for one. The taste wasn’t mind-blowing, but it wasn’t bad either.
Following the tacos was the Shrimps Diable. Apparently, ‘Diabla’ means ‘devil’ and this is supposed to be a spicy dish of shrimps with tomato, chipotle chilli and guajillo chilli, served with rice. I say ‘supposed’ because the sauce wasn’t that spicy at all and this suited me fine ‘cos I’m hopeless with chilli. Sometimes my friends suspect if I’m really Singaporean what with my aversion to chilli. Anyway, what I really liked was the rice which had a smoky flavour to it.
The last of the mains was the Beef Fillet with Cuitlacoche Mushrooms. This was very flavourful and it’s really delightful to slice through the beef fillet and see it filled with mushrooms. The pink of the inside also indicated that the beef wasn’t overcooked.
Dessert came in the form of the Pumpkin en tacha. This is a home recipe from Executive Chef Mario Galan’s grandmother and it’s a fresh pumpkin slice with piloncillo (a Mexican sweet concentrate that reminds me of gula melaka), cinnamon, cloves, pepper and guava. For those who don’t have that sweet a tooth, this dessert is likely to come across as overly sweet for their palate. But as I have an extremely sweet tooth and I adore pumpkin, I liked it.
For drinks, I chose the Tamarind Margarita which tasted good, so don’t be put off by the sound of Tamarind. There are other flavours such as mango, lime, strawberry, amongst others to choose from. I took a sip of the Skinny Epicurean’s mango margarita and really liked it as well. If you’re a tequila fan, take your pick from 19 different ones! I didn’t try any that night as I didn’t want to drink too much alcohol, so I can’t recommend any.
In any case, I enjoyed discovering new flavours and dishes, and many thanks again to Viva Mexico and Sixth Sense Communications for hosting us!
Viva Mexico
23 Cuppage Road, Cuppage Terrace
Tel: (65) 6235 0440
vivamexico@palatevine.com.sg
