Today, we (me and two of my friends) went to this Mexican eating joint by the name of "El Paso Grill". Well, in the take away pamphlet, the name of the restaurant was "Pepe's", which did create a confusion in the first place while we ventured around hunting for its location. Despite the relatively shabby pamphlet they had (which was basically black and white and I don't suppose they spent enough time designing it with a spectrum of impressive colours), the restaurant, in all its levels, was brilliant - just some of the things that teach you that all that does not glitter may turn out to be gold! The ambience, food and service were beyond any comparison! It looks like a small take away place from the outside, and has a real tiny entrance. But once you get in, the ambience is Mexican-ly breathtaking! Tables, chairs, cutleries, tablemats seemed to have been borrowed from an antique Mexican warehouse - and that, by the way, is a compliment because of the amazing authentic aroma the place exuded. They even had those straw hats that the customers could wear to blend themselves in the pure Mexicano flavour.
In the background, two of the songs that dominated the music player were Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" and Beyonce's "Single Lady". Apart from that, the rest were all seemed to be remixes of Indian, Oriental, English riffs and rhythms running alongside a Mexican musical. Considering the short description, I suppose it's safe to say that I don't know much about Mexican music.
Mexican hats, like the ones we were wearing but way fancier and very well designed, were hanging from the walls. One of them was painted maroon (or probably made with maroon painted straw), with intricate designs laced on it. Streamers of the Mexican flags ran thorugh one of the walls, against the not so brightly lit yellow light. And when I say "not so bright", I mean it in relation to the flash mode we had to use in the camera, and reclick everything that we initially did without the flash mode.
Studying the menu was somewhat hard. Not because we had absolutely no idea what the dishes meant, but everything seemed extremely Mexican, and we wanted something that was the most Mexican! We ended up ordering a tortilla salad and buffalo wings. Buffalo wings were chicken wings calumniated with barbeque sauce, sizzled with onions and another real tangy sauce. Tortilla salad seemed to be a montage of everything that you see in a normal salad (including FEW pieces of chicken hidden within limes, onions, peppers, tomatoes, which take not more than two minutes to get dug into), sitting on a crisp and slightly sweet tortilla base, topped with creme and a tangy green chutney.
The main dish was the Tortilla Combinationes, which was basically three tortilla wraps, and hyptonisingly mouth watering cheese thickly layered on them. Inside the wraps, were chunks of diced chicken prepared in a more Spanish way of cooking rather than a Mexican way. There was an option of taking beef or vegetarian as well, but we stuck to chicken. The serving was huge, as compared to our starters, but being the main dish, let's just say it was meant to. Slicing our forks and knives through the tempting cheese and until it cut the chicken, squeezing the tangy sauce out of tortilla's perforations is, in a foodie's life, a sight! But then, with a dish that huge and amazingly delicious, eating it without making a mess on the plate is close to impossible. As you try to stick the stuffed oily tortilla on your fork and bring it closer to your mouth, you realise the chicken has slid through the fork and ends up dropping on your tee shirt. Not impressive, but considering the awe-inspiring taste you're experiencing at that moment, you cannot care about anything around.
Lastly, the desert - the perfect way to have ended our meal. After making the waitor understand that we wanted to share one desert amongst the three of us, and not one for each (which was followed by jokes of our almost bankrupt bank accounts), he brought the bowl in. Here's how it looked - sugared nachos put in together, creamed with chocolate syrup and well, creme. The nachos were not the nachos you normally have in a multiplex while watching a film, but they tasted something like regular sugary biscuits that you normally have during evening tea - as opposed to my friend's tastebuds' interpretation of the nachos being cinammon sticks. We looked for spoons, or anything with which we could lift the nachos up. Here, we got to know, that we didn't require any lifting tool. So we made a dive, and ate it with our hands. Creme and chocolate sauce, in the context of the way in which it was presented, had never tasted so heavenly. I may not have gone around the world tasting everything, but to me, that was the best one I've had. The temptation grew to such an extent, that I couldn't help taking one of the nacho chip that was smeared with chocolate all over (and I'm assuming I went for it first because probably the other two were saving it for the last). After which, out of generosity that I don't really possess, I tried pouring a few drops of chocolate on the remaining chips.
All in all, a perfect Mexican retreat! :D
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