A menu from Mexico: Chennai gets its first taqueria
The Hindu
Chef Joacil Ramirez from Puebla serves up authentic empanadas with crisp edges and tacos juicy with freshly made, fiery sauces
When Chef Joacil Ramirez ran out of chillies, he called his mother. She promptly went to the market, with her son on video call to pick out guajillo chillies and a list of other ingredients he needed for dinner, including a fiery block of Achiote paste and bags of fragrant masa flour. Then came the tough part of the assignment: She had to figure out how to send it from her home in Puebla, Mexico, to Chennai.
At newly opened Tinga, the city’s first taqueria, Chef Joacil chuckles about his endless hunt for authentic Mexican ingredients. Determined to keep prices affordable, in the tradition of old school Mexican taquerias, he and his partners are balancing a tightrope between economics and ambition.