The one cuisine that was completely out for me as a teen shortly after I was first found to have intolerances was Mexican food. I used to love sitting round getting my hands messy whilst tucking into Fajitas that had been over stuffed, or nice cheesy Enchiladas with saucy beef mince and kidney beans. It was the perfect weekend treat whilst sat in front of the TV watching a film.
Although thanks to the kind people at Santa Maria and the likes of Warbutons and BFree Foods who do gluten and dairy free wraps, I can now eat Mexican food to my heart’s content. You can imagine my delight however when I found out that one of my favourite restaurants to go to for the odd cheeky mojito or sangria, had launched a brand new gluten free menu for the first time – in fact, I was so pleased that I decided to head there the next night for dinner to sample for myself this new haven of gluten free goodness.
As anyone with a gluten intolerance knows, we are extremely limited with what we can choose when eating out, to the point that steak or fish is usually what is incorporated onto a ‘gluten free’ menu just because the chefs couldn’t really be bothered to swap and amend the current menu to suit our needs. Not this time though, Chiquito had outdone them all with a long list of delicious looking Mexican feasts for me to get my knife and fork firmly stuck into, with an array of tacos, fajitas, sizzling dishes, salads and even puddings to choose from – what’s the catch I thought to myself.
I opted for the BBQ pork ribs from the sizzling list of mouth-watering platters, alongside a serving of sweet potato chips and fried onions and peppers which I have to say were truly scoffalicious. Although this time I chose to order something that I wouldn’t have to adjust in any way (ie. By having to ask for dairy ingredients to be taken out) I will definitely be going back to sample the traditional Mexican dishes in the coming months.
If I had to pick one aspect to improve on, it would have to be that my ribs were significantly smaller than my friends who had ordered off the regular menu, which I find a bit odd as meat is one of the few ingredients that gluten free people can eat perfectly fine. In my opinion, give us more of what we can eat and we’ll walk away not feeling a little bit different and truly full to the brim, but portion sizes apart, it was a delicious meal and I’m looking forward to testing out the other gluten free delights very soon.
Tummy Happy 