A Little Taste of Mexico in Paris!!

Plus, a secret Abricot marg recipe & shout-outs to Drinko de Mayo🍹🔥

Some of our Mexico-inspired field trips ! (R&D is a tough job...)

In spite of an only moderate appreciation for spicy food, a very learned ‘instinct’ in the kitchen and a complete lack of immunity to a good sunburn, I am, I am told, my grandmother’s granddaughter. 

My Mexican grandmother, in fact, was also pale-skinned with big blue eyes, not the vision of a typical abuela in the cocina… but I still remember the smell of her chorizo on the little gas stove, the perfect texture and sweetness of her atole de leche, and how quickly she and her friends could turn out a pile of fresh tortillas. On the Christmas after she died, we found tamales in the deep freeze, and I still can feel the reluctance we had to eat them, knowing we’d never taste one quite so good again.

Moving to Paris was probably as close to my grandmother’s radar as hopping on Elon Musk’s flight into orbit. But here I am a mere skip of a generation later, craving Grandma’s recipes in the City of Lights. 

Jen’s boys learning tamale-making from Grandma, courtesy of Zoom

Paris, from my admittedly opinionated viewpoint, often deserves its nearly undisputed reputation for being a culinary capital of the world… for French cuisine. I’m not going to lie, finding the ingredients for traditional Mexican food is… brutal. Maybe this is how it should be, a small reminder that in our age of increasing globalization, regions and cultures still have their own very distinct highlights and flavors. Mexico is a very long way away after all. But on Christmas eve morning, when we realized we had no more hojas for the tamales (thrown out in a fit of Feng Shui no doubt), and very little recourse for locating more… well, it felt further still. 

Given that our Cinco de Mayo celebration at Abricot is one of our most popular evenings, I’m not the only one that misses the pleasures of Mexican food — or craves a truly satisfying margarita (the salt, the perfect acidity, the spice….aaaaahhhhh).

In anticipation of this year’s Cinco de Mayo (or as a dear expat friend coined it after an unusually debaucherous rendition, ‘Drinko de Mayo’ ;)), we thought we’d give you authentic Mexican food lovers out there our incredibly subjective, opinionated - and 100% correct! - guide to the best places in Paris for Mexican food & ingredients (in no particular order) plus a playlist of Latin jams and the recipe for our best-selling marg ever. It’s everything you’ll need for your own Cinco de Mayo x Paris festivities : — Jen

How to eat a taco ;)