Manx-Mex Chronicles: Chapter Eleven: The Queso Returns

Tortilla chips and salsa, chili con carne, and fajitas are now typical European bar food. Rare is the English pub that doesn’t serve “nachos.” The influence of Tex-Mex on world cuisine fascinates us here at Texas Eats. So when our correspondent, Julia Walsh, moved to Manchester, England in January 2017, we asked her to chronicle Tex-Mex influences on the local English fare. Here is her latest report:

Last week I was ecstatic to finally get a good plate of nachos from Las Iguanas. Imagine how happy I was to also get a quesadilla experience to make up for the previous pub blunders I’d dealt with!

As I mentioned last week, appetizers were 3 for £15 (pitchers of drinks were buy-one-get-one, too! You can imagine the glee and chaos.) We ordered the nachos, a mushroom quesadilla, and an order of empanadas.

The quesadillas were spot on and absolutely delectable. Big, rough cut chunks of garlicky mushrooms were ensconced in melty cheese and grilled tortilla. I wasn’t much of a fan of the bland, basic salsa served with them, but there was plenty of guacamole and sour cream on the nachos to satisfy my needs.

Unfortunately, the empanadas were…less delicious. Honestly, they were pretty gross. Neither of the menu choices were traditional fillings, but the mango and brie option gave me daydreams of soft, gooey brie melting over sweet mango fruit or preserves, so I had to order them and give them a shot. They were mostly folds of soft, puffy dough, and the filling was a disaster of raw onion and cheese with underripe mango barely detectable inside. The only saving grace was the delicious cranberry pepper jam served on the side, which ended up being spread over pretty much everything else we ate.

So far, it’s been 2 out of 3, which isn’t bad. Next week, I’ll be digging into some delicious enchiladas and some steak tacos. Until next time!