Ready to go Mexican?
The secret ingredient in the Chili Con Carne is chocolate.
MAY 9 — There was something about the Chili Con Carne at La Gourmet Cantina at The Curve which had me guessing… till Malcolm Hedges, the new owner, told me his little “secret”.
“It’s chocolate,” he said. It added to the natural sweetness of the red peppers and tomato, with kidney beans, a bit of chilli and cumin. Indeed the Mexicans add dark chocolate to their mole, a sauce for meat.
Malcolm, who used to have a Mexican restaurant in Kent, England, added English chocolate for that touch of richness. I liked it very much though it was cooked with minced lamb, not beef. It left me strangely with a craving for chocolate afterwards and I had some when I got home!
The Chili Con Carne is quite mild with chilli, but if you want it hot, hot, hot, try the 3AM Alarm. It’s enough to wake the sleeping dead!
Watch out for these Poppers... the jalapenos in them will make your eyes pop out.
But first the Poppers almost made my eyes pop out with the heat of the jalapenos. These green Mexican chillies were stuffed with a three-cheese mix — cheddar, mozzarella and Red Leicester — coated in a light batter and deepfried. It’s topped with sour cream, which helps to put out the “fire” apparently. I loved them! My friend Hannah, who loves chilli of any kind (the hotter the better), wants to make these at home, but where to get the jalapenos?
Quesadillas are the Mexican version of a cheese sandwich... very yummy but filling.
Then we had the Quesadillas, the Mexican version of the cheese sandwich. It’s the three-cheese mix again in between two crispy tortillas, with strips of red peppers and chives inside. On top is a dollop of salsa, guacamole and salsa — red, green and white, all the colours of the Mexican flag. This is totally vegetarian. Remember the tortilla sticks in between your ribs; it’s heavy stuff. So share this sandwich. One-quarter of it and I was full.
You roll up these enchiladas until they resemble fat cigars and then enjoy.
Enchiladas are different from Burritos. Here the tortilla is wrapped with chicken inside, and the sauce, cheese and salsa poured on top and baked. It’s tart and hot. There’s a mound of Mexican rice beside it — it’s unpolished rice cooked with stock, capsicum, chilli and seasoning, left out in the cold, then fried again. It’s got lots of bite, being crusty on the outside. I liked it.
My first encounter with fajitas was at the Hard Rock Café in Kuala Lumpur years ago, where portions are gigantic. I never forgot them. At La Gourmet Cantina, if you have never eaten fajitas, you can read Pedro’s Guide to the Perfect Fajita before you fill up the tortilla with salsa, guacamole, cheese and sour cream, add a generous serving of sliced beef and onions from the sizzling platter and roll it up like a big cigar.
The beef for the fajitas is so good you can even eat it on its own.
No oil has been used to cook the beef (or chicken, or vegetables, your choice). Apple cider has been used to poach the beef which has delicious hints of it, then it’s finished with lime juice, and more apple cider (I love it!). In fact I can eat the very tender beef just like that, and the sweet onions. By this time I’m quite done with the tortillas.
I should really come back to eat the grilled steaks, the ribeye or the T-bone. It’s Australian chilled beef and it’s 300g for the ribeye (just RM54.95) and 450g for the T-bone (RM59.95). You can have a mushroom, peppercorn or Mexican sauce with the beef. (The usual weight for a steak here is 150g to 200g.)
Malcolm and his wife Gail in front of the restaurant.
Loaded Skins are two halves of a hollowed-out potato deepfried till crispy, then stuffed with the three-cheese mix and spring onions and served with sour cream. Wings of Fire are three chicken wings covered in a ranch fire sauce. You can have both these, and Poppers, garlic mushrooms and garlic bread, in The Big UN starter platter for four.
It’s child friendly. At weekends if the parents order a main meal, the children can eat a Texas Pup for free. It’s a chicken or beef sausage wrapped in tortilla, deepfried and served with corn on the cob, and curly fries. Malcolm encountered a mother who tried to feed her barely one-year-old with chili con carne!
On Mother’s Day there will be a special lamb casserole with garlic bread, and Mum gets a free dessert of Chocolate Heaven, put together with chocolate brownies and chocolate sauce.
The restaurant also does corporate events, including putting out a cold buffet for 200 people.
La Gourmet Cantina is located at Lot G52, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara, 46100 Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 03-7725-4279, 016-690-5713).
Tags: mexican
