Cinco de Mayo weekend, the fifth of May, is here, so let’s indulge on tacos, burritos and margaritas! That’s the proper way to celebrate, right? Or do we have another case of St. Patrick’s day here? This holiday was originally meant to celebrate the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France during the historical Franco-Mexican War. While this is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico, it was the Americans who evolved it into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations. Many people outside Mexico even mistakenly believe that Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican independence, which was declared more than 50 years before the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Indeed for many native Mexicans, May 5 is a day like any other. It is not a federal holiday, but there are military parades and other festive events. Native Mexicans don’t overdose on tacos, guacamole, tostadas, enchiladas and tamales on this day. That doesn’t mean we can’t though! Add to that Paloma with tequila, mariachi music and sombreros and we have a jubilant Sunday.
In the past years, we’ve seen a drastic increase in local eateries that propose taco-based menus, more than often including sky-high piles of nachos drowned in cheese and colossal fishbowl margaritas. These couldn’t be more different than true Mexican cuisine. From food trucks turned restaurants with the obligatory hefty price tag, to holes in the wall combining canned ingredients, and the likes of Lovely Malta advertising them as freshly made! And there are even those Texan & Mexican mish mash menus that have little in common with traditional Mexican recipes. We’ve seen and tasted them all. At the end of the day, we always end up at La Vida in Sliema for our Latin American fix. The fact that they have a peppery Mexican burger on the menu, might have something to do with that too!
We’ve already visited La Vida last January where we witnessed a sensational Spanish Fiesta brimming with food and wine. Cinco de Mayo is a very good justification to clear our schedule and commute to the busiest part of Sliema, to experience typical Mexican cooking, packed with flavour, colour and spice… La Vida is the brainchild of David and Elaine, a sweet couple from Australia and Ireland. They visited Malta on many occasions until three years ago they bought the corner place in Sliema and realised their project of passion. They named it La Vida, which literally translated from Spanish means life. This corner restaurant is just off the seafront at Ghar id-Dud and looks akin a humble yet homely affair. It’s unostentatious and promises modestly-priced food and friendly vibes. The place has proved to be such a popular haunt, that they are shortly opening another one at Carob Tree in Spinola. And above all, every visit to La Vida is not just a burger affair, it’s a 360° food experience. This time we will be indulging our taste buds with delicacies from Mexico & Latin America.
Mexican flavours run the gamut, from the highly complicated to the purely simple. Mexican cooking truly covers two ends of the spectrum. Something as a tuna tostadita, which is not complex at all is the perfect way to start our culinary journey. We tried two types of tostaditas, one with a hot chipotle sauce, and one sprinkled with sesame seeds and marinated in lime, which turned out to be our favourite. Both are made from fresh cuts of sashimi-style local tuna, which is exquisitely salted. These have a crunchy and toasted flat base made from bite-sized, blue corn tortillas, and are smouldered in tasty guacamole. The taste of blue corn tortillas tends to be superior to wheat ones and they have no gluten to worry about! They also provide a colour base that is different, verging on the eye-catching. In Mexico and other parts of Latin America, toasted flat tortillas are customarily served as a companion to seafood, so this tuna version is more than fitting and appealing.
Many affirm that it’s the traditionaliest of all traditional Mexican food, the tacos, that have opened countless minds and palates to experience real Mexican cuisine. A taco is a corn or wheat tortilla folded around a filling. There are no basic rules when it comes to the variety of fillings that can be used, and this allows great versatility and variety. Maybe this, combined with the fact that tacos must be eaten without utensils, are what makes this food so customary Mexican. La Vida have quite a few tacos to choose from but our favourites are the pulled pork one, made from local pork that has been marinated and slow cooked for 24 hours, served on blue corn taco shells, with guacamole, pickled onions and garnished with pea shoots; and the Western Mexico inspired fish one with guacamole, onions, coriander and dressed with smoked mayonnaise, and wrapped in a soft white corn tortilla. These fish tacos are made from local white fish marinated in achiote oil and garlic and cooked on the plancha. Both taco shells are gluten free.
Some think that Mexican food is heavy and is all about yellow cheese. Others associate it with fast food. But it’s definitely not. Mexican cuisine offers something for just about every palate. So if you’re feeling more exotic you will definitely like the tempura prawn taco, with chipotle mayo and bean paste. This one is precisely spicy, fragrantly fresh, colourful and full of bright flavours. Vegetarians will find a plethora of options in authentic Mexican cooking. It doesn’t have to be all rice and beans. Imagine a taco filled with either cauliflower nuggets with seaweed, or with roasted carrots, peppers and onions in a tomato base. These are strikingly crunchy despite being vegan. La Vida has a whole vegetarian and vegan menu which we’re sure we will have the possibility to elaborate on in the near future.
Moving a bit further away from Mexico, but still cruising around the Latin American region, we spot Patacons on the menu. The patacon is one of the most popular Colombian dishes made from fried plantain, which is a fruit from the banana family with a very unique flavour profile. Ripe plantains have a firm texture and they are fashioned into a basket and frozen to form a very hard pastry shell with a particular starchy flavour. These authentic Latin Caribbean fried plantains are topped with a juicy prawn cocktail, drenched in a lush sauce made from Courvoisier, a brand of cognac from France. They are crispy, full of sea flavour and beautifully seasoned. The sauce, in particular, elevates the prawn’s fresh flavour by a tenfold. These patacons heaped high with prawn delights are a hearty meal in itself. No utensils please, just use your hands, as they are meant to be consumed!
Often dubbed as one of the best breakfasts in the world, the Arepas are deep fried pockets made from a cornmeal and salt dough. These are Venezuelan style arepas which are a bit thick and are handmade one by one in the La Vida kitchen. We loved the chicken with avocado and the squid with prawn arepas, which are filled to the brim with these tasty ingredients. The fleshy octopus filling tastes charred and salty and is done to just the right level of tenderness. These crispy flavour bombs are definitely one of the highlights of the whole menu. No visit to La Vida should go by without consuming an Arepa or three!
Good food is never too much food and after this whole conglomeration of Latin American delicacies have been consumed and dealt with, we’re big game for the atracción principal, which is the Mexican inspired burger we originally came for. The 150gr patty is made from ground beef, flavoured with Mexican seasonings including chilli, garlic and paprika. Nothing gets us excited like a hearty, spicy and brawny burger patty that has a touch of heat and stays tender as you bite through. The patty is seared on the grid and finished in the oven.
Unsurprisingly enough the first Mexican element comes in the form of jalapeno peppers, which are carefully layered on top of the patty. The pepper is ubiquitous in Mexican cuisine. Jalapenos, serranos, habaneros and chipotles, to name just a few, all get their moment to shine in different dishes, with heat levels ranging from mild to mouth-on-fire. The green jalapeno used here is picked early in the ripening process, before turning red, and it has a fresh, crispier taste. Capsaicin, the chemical that gives chillies their heat, is concentrated around the seeds, and that’s why some like to “cheat” and remove these! The overall chilliness of this burger ensemble is rated at a very mild level so it can be consumed by all, even those with the most sensible of taste buds.
The bun is layered with Pico de gallo made from chopped tomato, onion, cilantro and lime juice and is the perfect alternative for the more classic tomato slice we see in many burgers. Everything is covered with a load of creamy guacamole and salsa which produce an extra saucy kick to the overall burger flavour. Quite surprisingly there’s no cheese inside this burger, but the combination of flavours is tasty enough that we didn’t miss it that much. The burger is encased in a bun, which is perfectly toasted so it holds all the condiments comfortably inside the bread. The Mexican burger is accompanied by a side of vegetarian nachos, covered with melted cheese, salsa and more guacamole.
La Vida have created a straight forward yet creative burger full of hot personality, that’s a joy to experience, even on a hot sunny day. Even though it does not sport a sombrero, it looks the Mexican part all the way, tastes mucho spicy and smells divine. It definitely ticks all the boxes we were looking for in a jalapeno-themed burger. David and Elaine have convinced us once again of their eatery, thanks to the authenticity of their food and jubilant vibes. Even though burgers are not part of the traditional food experience in Mexico, we believe that every country should have its own national gourmet burger in 2019, and we think that La Vida has succeeded brilliantly in laying the first steps in creating one.
