Une fête mexicaine!
First day in Geneva and thanks to my friend’ C’s excellent ‘food-planning’ and ‘table-booking’ skills, we were able to rock up at ‘El Catrín’ for a Mexican lunch and some very mild day drinking. I was very excited.
This place sends pretty vibrant feels, with Mexican music on an endless loop, all at a pleasant volume not interfearing with your conversation too much. Decor and interior are right in your face with bright colors and something new to discover wherever your eyes turn. Unfortunately I totally missed to take a proper shot of all this, but if you see the table cloth you do get the drift.
We had a bunch of starters to kick things off, going together with absolutely tongue smacking passionfruit margaritas. Not too heavy on the mezcal, just nice. ‘Guacamole’ was on spot so everybody kept shoveling it into their pie holes, with what seemed like an endless flow of homemade nachos. The ‘Taquitos Dorados’ were equally crisp, covered with a guac salsa, iceberg lettuce and some pickled onions. A real fun-eat.
On to the mains. I skipped the taco ‘Al Pastor’ as there was a more intriguing quesadilla variation (the ‘Gringe’) including the distinct spiced pork tucked in between two cheese-layered flour tortillas, together with pineapple, onions and cilantro. A beautiful hearty combination with the acids from the pineapple nicely cutting right through the richness and the spices of the meat.
The selection of tacos we ordered included the ‘Baja Fish’ with its crunchily breaded, beautifully moist fish, equally crunchy red cabbage, pico de gallo and that wonderful creamy signature chipotle mayo. A great classic. Most interesting for me must have been the ‘Pibli El Catrin’. The spice mix of the mayan marinade and the red onion and habanero sauce had something unique and special about them. There were some hints of cinnamon too, at least in my head they were. The safe bet, however absolutely delightful, was the ‘Suadero CDMX’, a corn tortilla, stuffed with slow cooked, melt-in-my-mouth beef confit.
Okay, so food was amazing, atmosphere and interior were something else, slightly intense but in a good way and on top of that service and the level of friendliness at this place were right up there. Solely the price tag was a bit overwhelming in the end but with such an allround enjoyable experience, I have no regrets.
Before I forget, if you’re there, take full of advantage of the extra bottles of spicy habanero and smoked pepper sauce, liquid gold, trust me.
Get Your Grub On!
El Catrín
Rue du Richemont 7
1202 Genève
Switzerland
tacos.
After many missed opportunities to try their food before, I finally managed to be in Freiburg at the right time for their weekly appearance at the Rieselfeld Market on Saturday. We went fairly early, as apparently their food sometimes sells out rather quickly and I wanted to have free choice. So here I was, ordering my first round of Classic Tacos – a set of three – with all the meats from the menu, chicken chipotle, beef brisket and my secret passion, the carnitas, medium spicy with some extra mango salsa on the side. They use their homemade corn tortillas, made from maíz azul (a black purple-ish type of corn) that have a bit more to them than the regular corn tortillas. It might be just the colour but I thought they were pretty great. Now on to the inner values and I must say that all of the meats were exceptionally delicious. The beef was super nice and tender like it was slow cooked for ages (which it probably was) and the chicken, which I expected to be either a bit on the dry side or drowning in sauce, I liked even more, just so juicy and fantastic. My other expectation though proved to be right; the carnitas are still my absolute favourite. They were wonderful moist with a good char on the edges that had touched the hot plate, an insanely good combination of meat and fats. The homemade medium salsa was just right, not too spicy but still gave me a kick on my tongue and the mango version for an extra €1 was the perfect companion and totally worth it. Fruity, slightly sour and refreshing in between the flavour party going on around here.
Get Your Grub On! 