Mexican food, by and large in the UK, is rubbish. I can't for the life on me understand why people keep getting it so wrong. It's why Wahaca does well, who clearly looked at the UK market and said 'what if Mexican food wasn't awful?'. Great Mexican should be an explosion of flavour in your mouth; incredibly fresh and spicy salsa mixing together along with tender meat that has been cooked slowly. You wander from stall to stall in Mexico sampling vendors' take on this simple idea. The UK is pretty decent at getting most world foods right, can we do better with Mexican please???
But there's good news: El Boss Taco is here to save you from bad Mexican. They get so much of their offering spot on.
El Boss is run by a Mexican couple who have worked at some great restaurants in the past, before starting the home delivery kit. They were also one of our very first Instagram followers, so, respect!
You order online (via any social media or their page) in advance of limited slots - the boxes serve two or four, and also includes a vegan option. We went for the beef barbacoa, which was £25. Included in that set is 6 tacos, the beef, tortilla chips, refried beans, plus three salsas - one from each category, mild, medium and hot, plus garnishes. Delivery is also included. We also went for some guacamole for £3.50 and we tried all the salsas.
Firstly, it's great value. For £25 you get a lot of food. Also you MUST get the guac. It's super fresh, you get ton of it, and it makes everything (in life generally) better. El Boss really should just include it in the meal and charge more- I wouldn't berate them for that.
Oh, and drink this with beer. Mexican food is designed to be accompanied with a beer. I don't know the science behind it, but it just works. Or maybe a tequila!
The meat and beans come in sous vide bags - which only need 8 mins in boiling water to bring to heat. The instructions are simple and the kit also comes with tiny moustaches, yay!
The downside is it comes in SO much plastic - the sous vide bags are fair enough, I can't see how else you'd transport reheatable meat or beans, but the salsas and garnishes come in tiny plastic pots - we counted 12. That's a lot of single use plastic. In 2021 I think we can do better than that. I'm not saying it's easy, but we've tried several places that have come up with innovate alternatives, even paper espresso cups would work?
Putting the plastic issue aside, they have come up with a great way of getting pipping-hot, fresh Mexican food to you.
But let's get onto the food. The dirty beans are fantastic. They are very runny and are topped with the coriander & onion and crumbled cheese. The beans carried so much flavour - and the garnishes for them completed the tasting profile - you have to make sure you all eat all three together. I could have eaten another portion easily.
There's a generous serving of tortilla chips, with a great lime and chilli powder to sprinkle on them. Again it seems a waste having them without the guac (did I mention it was good?).
Then we come to the tacos themselves. They are small (which is how they are served in Mexico), but because the meat portion is generous, C and I had run out of tacos for our beef with a third of the beef left. Perhaps 4 per person would be better.
But the two things that really make a taco are the meat and the salsa.
The salsas are amazing. They are so important in authentic Mexican, every family has their own secret recipe there! Be warned spice wusses (of which C is one) - they are pretty fiery. For those of you with a medium to high spice tolerance (which is what I class myself) - everything is manageable, even if the hot salsas had me draining my beer pretty quick!
In the mild category was a fruity La Cantiera and a creamy guac based El Santo (which actually had a bit of a kick!). Our favourites were the mediums - La Verde: a sweet red pepper based salsa that was fresh and chunky. I really liked the Smokey One - which as the name suggests was salty and chipotle smokey with a good amount of kick. In the hot category there's the Holy Peanut, which is very nutty and has a long fuse, and El Zapa is another smokey, haaaawwwt salsa. There's something in there for everyone, but I imagine most people, like us, will be most drawn to the two mediums. They are generous sizes too.
The beef was flavoursome and malty from being marinated in the cerveza. It also shredded nicely after being cooked for 12 hours. But the thing you really want in the beef is tenderness and juicy meat, however, sadly the beef was pretty dry. Having tried to slow cook things myself, it is a common pitfall. We suspect it's either been overcooked a bit, or because of the lean quality of the meat (which is really good but does mean that there's less fat to render down and keep things moist.) It's a real shame. The meat is tasty - but we really missed the succulence.
El Boss gets so much of this right. Honestly the best Mexican street food we've had in the UK. The freshness, flavour and salsas are amazing. But the critical part of the offering is the meat, and it didn't quite live up to the high standard of the rest of the meal. We will however definitely be back to try their pork and vegan options!
Service:
Really good - although the delivery slots do go quickly. It's a little fiddly, but everything went smoothly.
Value and Price:
£25 for a box for two is excellent value, it's plenty of food. Pay extra for the guac, it's worth it!
Quality:
Standout salsas, super fresh ingredients, and great refried beans. Also, well thought through reheating instructions to create the perfect taco meal. However the main component -the meat- let it down slightly.
Overall:
GOOD- the most valiant Mexican street food effort we have had; and it's right on our doorstep. #yaaas (the half point was lost for a huge amount of plastic.)
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