Ranchero guacamole: with good torreznos.
It's been a long time since Mexico and its cuisine they ceased to be strangers Madrid . And yet, although we can already be proud of the tacos that we have around here, the snacks and the dishes, the cuisine of the Aztec country is so wide that still holds many secrets for us.
The goal of the chef born and trained in Mexico City, Andrea Eloisa Garcia is precisely to reveal some of those secrets in Holy, the new restaurant group all 4 food, of the brothers Joaquín and Francisco Capel (Ôven, Steakburger) .
"Santita brings several proposals within a concept", explains the Mexican cook. “First, it is based on the kitchen of smoke, coal, the tacos, the meats. Smoke is yet another ingredient, not just a way of cooking.”
Cheese casserole... do you drool?
Secondly, in Santita they have reserved a special place for “sea cuisine, which is not so well known in Spain”. "Mexico is a country between oceans and there is a lot of unknown sea cuisine," continues Andrea, who has brought traditional recipes, such as ti-kin-xic, "who comes from the Yucatan peninsula", and she has given it a current spin, she has taken it to her land.
“There are also the baby squid tacos, aguachile from Tulum or Rosarito tacos, of fried fish,” she adds.
Finally, the third of the proposals with which Santita wants to differentiate itself from other Mexican restaurants in Madrid is its "traditional Mexican cuisine", of all life, "from mom", García says, that, as she does with the ti-kin-xic, she gives it a spin with her personal inspiration.
How? Using Spanish ingredients. “The pissed off gizzard tacos either those of baby squid with Iberian veil They are foods that you would not normally find in Mexico, but we put them in tortillas and combine them with something very Mexican like peanut sauce.”
Another example of this Mexican-Spanish fusion is the melted cheese cazuelita using Galician cheese Arzúa Ulloa, "because it reminds a Mexican."
Gizzard tacos.
She also admits that she has gotten some asian influences, in preparations and some ingredients, fruit of the year she spent working in Hong Kong, the chef has more than 15 years of experience in restaurants such as San Ángel Inn or Azul y Oro, and the last two in Spain.
“In the menu there are traditional and recognizable recipes, such as the cochinita pibil or the chicken tinga”, she says. “They are recipes from always, from mother, but they are my recipes, they have something different from my own inspiration to take it to a more gourmet level and also thought for a chain restaurant”. Because like her older brothers Ôven and Steakburger, the idea is that this first Santita will multiply its premises by replicating the concept that the Mexican chef has created.
The Made in Love studio signs the interior design.
In addition to the obligatory tacos, where those whose meats go through the embers stand out, García points out other dishes, such as the Matarife's Machete, the star on his card. “It is a 700-gram beef rib, designed to share, which we do at low temperature for 10 hours with a dry chili marinade and when it is finished we pass it through the charcoal oven, ”she says. It is served to drink with tortillas and sauces.
The tortillas, by the way, are not made on the premises, but they have found a supplier that makes them with corn brought from Mexico and following the artisanal nixtamalization process with which the pulp is cooked and extracted. They have blue, purple corn and white.
Cochinita pibil crusts.
Also They bring the dried chiles from Mexico and in particular from Michoacán, the avocados with which she prepares three types of guacamoles: traditional, with pico de gallo; costeño, with mango pico de gallo and ranchero, with rinds. "We call them chicharrones, and that's how we eat guacamole at family meals."
Butcher's machete: the star.
WHY GO
Because it is “an experience to a more authentic Mexican cuisine”. To a modern Mexican cuisine, not just from swelling to nachos.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
"It's a trip to Mexico from the beach of Tulum", Andrea tells. And so she explains the decoration of the premises, designed by the Madrid in Love studio, with wicker chairs, natural materials, warm light.
Soup of the day: tequila!
Address: Calle de Fuencarral, 74 See map
Telephone: 91 496 53 70
Schedule: Sunday to Wednesday from 13 to 00:30. Thursday from 13 to 1. Friday and Saturday from 13 to 1:30.
Half price: €20