SANTO

She said oh no
Guadalajara won't do

I’ve developed a bit of a penchant for Burritos. For a lunchtime snack they seem to hit the spot very precisely with good tastes and a healthy carb/protein ratio.

Currently my favourites are from Freebird which can be found in Exmouth Market and on Goodge Street. Their carnitas are great, their fillings are very generous and they’re easy to eat as you stroll along because they wrap them well. I like their salsa picante as well.

Mucho Mas on Upper Street have got meaner and meaner with their fillings especially their guac. Nearby Tortilla is pretty blah. I did try Daddy Donkey on Leather Lane but they were a bit stingy with their carnitas and they allowed too much liquid into the burritos so the whole thing had fallen apart before I got to Chancery Lane. Not good.

This lunchtime I thought I’d have a little trip out West to try new joint Santo on the Portobello Road, just under the flyover.

Things didn’t look good when I arrived. Although all the other neighbouring restaurants were packed, Santo had just one customer, a woman sipping a coffee and smoking a fag at an outside table. Inside the place was deserted except for a waiter slowly wiping some the cutlery. Somewhere a dog barked and tumbleweed drifted lazily across the road.

There’s been quite a few Mexican joints opening in town over the past couple of years so there was nothing out of the ordinary on the menu except that you get a bigger choice of starters and mains in the evening.

Unfortunately, my Steak burrito wasn’t good. The first problem was actually tasting the steak, there was so much claggy-textured refried beans I couldn't taste anything else. Black beans would have been so much better. Supposedly, there was some guacamole in the mix but I couldn’t detect any. There was also some unadvertised broad beans which really should have been skinned or left out all together.

Together with a fruit juice the bill was about £15 including service which is waaay too much. The manager did knock 10% off because I wasn'thappy but that didn’t account for all of the 12.5% I paid for unsmiling service.

Things may be better in the evening, but really, if Feeebird can produce something so much better and cheaper out of a van the size of my shower cubicle then it doesn’t augur well for the rest of their menu.

I have, in previous posts, had a bit of a dig at the good people of West London, insinuating that they were nothing but a bunch of coke-sniffing, inbred poshos and trustafarian layabouts who occupy their evenings annoying the good people of areas like London’s trendy Hoxton and who happily spend their dosh on any old crud. It seems I was wrong – they’re remarkably astute with their money. Way to go W10 !

MUCHO MAS

Mucho Mas

Oleanders growing outside her door
Soon they're gonna be in bloom

Friday and a bit of a hangover after a selection of Pinchitos finest arguardientes and anisettes. But hey, what’s this, a new fast food joint opening today opposite where I work. Mucho Mas is a Burrito joint which means you get a burrito and there’s an assembly line affair where someone will load it up with various fillings. Not wanting to make too many difficult decisions I went for chicken with hot sauce. You also get black beans, rice, cheese, sour cream and guacamole are extra. They also do beers or soft drinks. I took a seat and made use of the perky Mexican hot sauce on the table.

So how did it taste ? Well to be honest with so many ingredients stuffed in it was difficult to make out any distinct flavours. However, it did it’s job and filled a gap and made me feel a bit more human for about a fiver.

I tried another one this week. This time I had the pork and left out the rice and the tastes were better but still a bit bland. Ideally, I’d like more meat and a more assertive salsa with the other ingredients taking a back seat but maybe that’s not what burritos are meant to be about (the last time I ate them was in SF about seven years ago).

One thing I found odd though. Most restaurants and cafes these days are very keen to trumpet the provenance of their raw materials. MM didn’t, so I emailed them and was told their meat comes from Smithfield Market which doesn’t really tell you anything apart from the fact it’s not organic and not free range (because if it was they’d probably say so).

Despite this, and rather spookily, I find there’s something ever so slightly addictive about them and caught myself more than once thinking about them at work.