Lifestyle

Find your bliss with tacos and tequila fest

Thursday, November 19th, 2020 00:00 | By
Limitless tacos, eat as much as you can, one of my recent Herculean tasks at Mercado. Photo/PD/NJERI MAINA.

Njeri Maina @njerimainar

The baskets, uteo in Swahili, make excellent roof décor. It is clear that a lot of thought went into making Mercado as ambient as it is, with potted plants dotting the space. 

Music plays softly in the background so as not to be intrusive, but loud enough to be enjoyed.

It is a Thursday and am getting some work done as I look on to traffic from my lovely perch on Kenrail Towers. 

I chuckle recalling how my joke on pressing T for Tezzanine floor was not taken well by the guard on the ground floor.

He simply corrected me and told me that it is T for Terrace and proceeded to wish me a good afternoon. We will get him with another bad joke the next time. 

George, my helper extraordinaire for the day informs me that there are two different offers on Thursdays.

That I am very lucky and very hungry for offers is as much a truth as the sun rises from the East; irrefutable. 

Turns out that there is a limitless taco offer and a buy one get two free cocktails on all tequila based cocktails.

The last time I was here, I had some fried avocado tacos for starters, a burrito as my main, followed by a punch pitcher. 

Talking of pitchers, punch pitchers and Don Julio cocktails are also on offer. I am tempted to get the pitchers to see how many threes I can down.

Fried avocado taco, still my favourite vegetarian taco option. PD/NJERI MAINA

But am just one, a very good foodie and cocktail connoisseur, but still just one. I cannot wait to see how this eating fest goes.

Sunny coctails and taccos

I start off with nachos (a Mexican dish that consists of heated tortilla chips with melted cheese, often served as a snack or appetizer).

I love their nachos with guacamole. I then move to the steak tacos. The tortilla is fresh and warm from the oven with the steak soft with just the right tug. 

A dash of kachumbari and a quick squirt of lemon juice on the taco adds some tang, which beautifully contrasts the steak’s umami.

Each bite is an explosion of flavour and textures. Next I try the pulled pork tacos, the fire grilled chicken tacos, then pull back to the steak tacos.

George informs me that the non-veg all you can eat taco offer goes for Sh2,500, but excludes the shrimp.

The veg tacos offer, which has options ranging from zucchini to fried avocado tacos goes for Sh2,000.

I wonder how long I could do this for. I decide to order the cocktails as the much needed intermission before I continue with my tacos. 

I order the beachcomber, a tiki style mix of fresh pineapple, orange, rosemary, cinnamon syrup, almond syrup all shaken with spiced rum.

It reminds me of the tropics even as I am stuck here watching the traffic pile up on Ring Road.

I am besides myself with excitement and the thrill of the challenge of just how many cocktails I can comfortably wolf down. I people watch and slowly imbibe.

I think of Vincent Van Gogh and Elizabeth Taylor and decide to continue working even as I take my cocktails; they all produced stellar genius level work even while taking cocktails.

Now imagine if they had had tacos too! I decide that it might be worth it to try a different cocktail in my next round of three. The Aztec Sun it is. 

By the time I am on cocktail two of the sunny citrusy cocktail, I know for a fact that as much as I enjoy my own company that I am doing this next with a group of friends.

Convivial laughter, conversation, a few cocktails, more tacos, a bit more laughter and an unforgettable time.

This is what I will do next Thursday. So if you are looking for a Thursday plan, you know where I will be. Meat me there, why won’t you?

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