ECLECTIC EPICURE
How do you celebrate the arrival of a luxury British eyewear company into the Mexican marketplace?
How about a lunch of an eclectic Mexican-Thai fusion food restaurant accompanied by California wines?
That is exactly how Taylor Morris, the London-based fashion sunglass brand marked its entry into Mexico: with a lavish, three-wine luncheon at the Mar Del Zur restaurant in the Polanco neighborhood.
And the end product was nothing if not eclectic.
The meal opened with fried huauzontle (lambsquarters) patties in a ginger and coriander sauce that was accompanied by a 2014 Robert Mondavi Woodridge Chardonnay.
For those unfamiliar with huauzontle, it is a seasonal Mexican weed that has a chard-like flavor and a stem-like texture, and definitely falls into the category of foods that are an acquired taste.
Since about half of those present — including the hosts Hugo Taylor and Charlie Morris, along with the head honchos of Palacio de Hierro, where the sunglass line is being sold exclusively in Mexico — had apparently not yet acquired a taste for huauzontle, the first course went over like a lead balloon.
The battered huauzontle cakes were acerbic and hard to chew, with a definite wild taste, but surprisingly the brightly yellow Woodridge Chardonnay, with a sharp notes of unripened pears and apples and a hint of eucalyptus and other meadow herbs, complemented the dish nicely, echoing the coarse tangs of the lambsquarters weed with crisp tannins and earthy minerality.
The servings of the stringy, bitter lambsquarters patties were mercifully small, and the next course was much more palatable, a bass fillet wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed in tomato, coriander, chives and lemongrass sauce and topped with fresh soy sprouts.
The bass was paired with a 2012 Woodridge Cabernet Sauvignon with a jammy berry flavor intertwined with hints of tobacco and a long and lingering oak finish.
The wine was good, but could not stand up to the bombardment of flavors that enveloped the fish.
Given the pungent nature of the bass course, a more powerful Malbec or Shiraz would have been far better suited to accompany it.
The subtle, refined cabernet simply could not stand up to the patently brazen fish.
The final course was a pleasant Mexican take on a traditional strudel, a braided pastry of jellied apple and manchego cheese that was presented with an aromatic 2015 Woodridge White Zinfandel with a sweet rose and strawberry bouquet and a soft rosebud hue.
The fruity wine had a touch of sweetness that played well against the strudel, making for a superb culinary matching.
The Woodbridge wines, all produced under the Mondavi label in California’s Napa Valley, were in themselves not particularly exceptional, but quite drinkable and on the more-affordable end of the company’s offerings in Mexico.
As for the Taylor Morris eyewear, the chicly iconic glasses — favored by the likes of Pippa Middleton and supermodel Cara Delevingne — are all the rage now among Mexico’s fashionable and well-heeled elite.
Quirky? Yes, with their retro round frames and aviation-style earpieces, they are distinctively idiosyncratic. But no more quirky than a British company announcing its entry into the Mexican market with a luncheon at a Mexican-Thai fusion restaurant accompanied by California wines.
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