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In the previous episode, we talked to Logan, the passionate owner of a Mexican restaurant Tacolicious, and in today’s episode, we are gonna to explore some of the delicious Mexican treats.

Since your restaurant is in Shanghai，like you said，you try to play with the menu，add in local stuff. So your idea, what you said earlier, is to aim for the most delicious food，not the most authentic?

Yes. We do have Mexican customers that are from Mexico that come in at first and say, oh, this is authentic，then they try and oh this is delicious. That's what we're going for. Because the beauty of authentic food is it's great, you know what it is, your grandmother made the recipe. But the nice thing about us is we can adapt and live the society we’re in. We're not just regulated to certain rules.

Yeah, that sounds amazing. That's the beauty of fusion food I think.

Yeah，I mean it's like the human experience. We're not all just from one exact place. We're all from mix of places so you have to embrace that.

And I would say, I don't know if you will agree with me, you have been in China for all these years, for Chinese palate, Mexican food is not one of those things that will be very shocking to a Chinese palate，unlike some other exotic food like，for example，some very，very cheesy dishes, or off the top of my head, like very high and French cuisine，it's not really something that someone with Chinese palate would easily get into，but Mexican food is very easy to like.

I agree with you, it's a funny thing though because we have... Mexican food is spicy, there is spice on that, right？

And we will have clients, guests of ours that will come in and they'll be like I'm from Chengdu，nothing is too hot for me; I'm from Sichuan, don't worry I can handle this. I'm like OK, and Mexican spicy is different than a Chinese spicy. It's just a different type of spices.

So it's really funny because the history like chilis, they're from the central American region, and they made it out here and there's a history to it why there's chili is in Sichuan. But the fun part is it's a different burn, so we have these guys that come in... and we try our best not to make stuff too hot. If you want it hot，we have our own ways to make it hotter.

If they're up for the challenge, so why not？

Year. But they burned so bad, and it's so... we warn them，we say guys，we don't want to burn you，but here we make our own hot sauces, and guys you could try this. I don't want you to complain to me, I want you to take a little bit. No problem I'm from Sichuan I'm hard core it's okay. Here you go, and then immediately sweating and melting. So it’s a different thing, that's one of the things we've learned. To the spice level，it's just a different spice.

It is different. Yeah.

It's not 麻辣。

Yes, It's not 麻, there's no 麻，it's just like really really spicy.

Yeah.

Now back to the food, because we were talking assuming people at least have some ideas of what Mexican food is, but I bet you that some of our listeners perhaps have never had Mexican food in their life.

For first timers，if they go to your restaurant or go to any Mexican restaurant for that matter，what are some of the must try dishes...actually let's start with taco，shall we？How would you describe taco？

So we call it a taco bing, almost like a 煎饼. So it's gonna be a layer of... ours are special so double layers，so ours start with flour and cheese and corn, and then we put whatever topping you like in it, so it's a folded over almost like 煎饼 in the same kind of family, I would say that if you've never seen a taco before.

But it's smaller.

It is smaller than a jianbing. A jianbing is almost like a burrito hybrid. And a burrito is a rolled up taco，basically rolled up flour version of taco. And then there's a Quesadilla which is the folded over like a calzone. yeah. And then for us like for food wise，I would recommend trying the traditional ones and then trying some newer-fangled ones.

OK.

For a traditional one，we have Al Pastor which Al Pastor is a marinade，but ours there's two types we do. One is the pork Al Pastor which is almost like a Hawaii or pineapple infused...

It's one of the things that's roasted on a rotisserie, isn't it？

Exactly, basically it looks like a Shawarma or Kebab…

Like the Turkish...

Exactly. So basically it's on the stick, and the meat cooks slowly and it's got this pineapple and onions. You have these really nice，a little bit sweet and savory flavors at the same time. But that's a very very traditional one from Mexico.

We also do like a chicken Asado, Asado is a marinade. And so it's a little bit of a sour marinade and it's one of those things that actually we noticed in China people didn't really like sour chicken. They thought there's something wrong which normally would think something's wrong with the chicken if it's sour. But now that they know what it is.

It's just the marinade.

It's just the marinade，but the marinade of the meat are a little bit different，but the flavors are very nice. So I would recommend Al Pastor, chicken Assado, or more of a California thing, you definitely need a Fried Fish Taco. That is the most California thing you could have.

Yeah, usually I don't like fried fish，but I've tried a few Fried Fish Tacos, they're surprisingly delicious.

Yeah，everything works with them. It's just a very very good taste.

But those are super popular. Also we have like a grilled shrimp, so we try to have a little bit of everything especially being in Shanghai we are close to the sea, we technically should have some seafood.

Yeah, grilled shrimp. And what about the new-fangled ones that the more creative taco like you mentioned 麻婆豆腐 taco before, I would really like to try that.

Yeah，麻婆豆腐 is really nice.

So what we do for that is generally 麻婆豆腐 is that the softer bean curd, but we use the harder one. We do obviously all the pepper corns or everything you're in there but it's vegetarian which is not normal for 麻婆豆腐 at all.

It's more 麻辣豆腐then.

It's more 麻辣豆腐, yeah. But it's got a very nice heat to it, what it is it’s just so welcome in if you don't know anything about the food.

You have like oh, I recognize this，it's like if I went to a French restaurant and menus are in French，the waiter only speaks to me in French，but I read one word I understood, like I could feel like I get away with a little bit, so like 麻婆豆腐is there, the Sichuan pork is there.

The rather specials we do，we always try to have something fun.

That's a very interesting little angle that you go for because it makes people feel more at ease, it’s got something they know, it’s something they're familiar with. I never thought about it that way.

As I say，that's the thing that we do have a lot of returnees that are coming back. And then they had tacos and stuff all over the world, they are coming back and showing their parents or showing people haven’t traveled as much. And they're like，oh, you could try this, be comfortable. But then we'll hit some other stuffs as well.

So it's like transition, it’s sort of eases they in.

Exactly.

I see，sounds like you've got all your ideas worked out for you. What about the future plan？For your restaurant，you mentioned that your multi-establishments, in the future maybe making it into a popular chain?

We would love to do a popular chain. We're using a thing called CloudKitchens which is a very cool delivery platform. You couldn't go in as a customer，but you can only order, so opening those across the city, so it actually makes it easier for us to reach you. That's the beauty of I think China is our delivery platforms are just great here, 饿了吗，美团，so the idea is to expand like that and then expand into other cities, like we love to be in Suzhou Hangzhou all the way up to Beijing. You know it's just one of those things you want to be organic as we expand and not to over extend ourselves.

I would love to see you guys in Beijing as well. Okay， definitely wish you all the luck on that front. But as we're wrapping up，I'm going to just ask one more question about our party theme.

Since in the very beginning, I mentioned that is going to be Day of the Dead like墨西哥亡灵节是我们的派对主题.

Since you said you've got Mexican heritage，right, what would you say is the difference between the Day of the Dead and Halloween，both of them seem to be about when people think about them, they think about perhaps skeleton，they think about all these dead coming back to life that sort of thing.

So what is the difference？

I think with Halloween especially how commercial it is, it more is... it’s just a party now, like in the beginning was about spirits and the devils were coming down and it was very more religious but now it's just a good party.

For Day of the Dead，as you mentioned earlier the movie Coco, people are respecting and treating their ancestors. You're just remembering the parents or the grandparents，the cousins or whomever it is that passed away, almost like you will pay respect to Tomb Sweeping Day here.

就跟我们的清明有点像.

When you go, you’re honoring the dead.

I see it's warmer in that way. It's more family oriented, it’s warmer.

It's very family oriented, you just sit there, you want to say you converse but you are thinking and communing with the spirits of your ancestors which is a very good day to just take a moment think about other people like that.

It's not meant to be scary, is it?

No, exactly no，it's more meant to be like a very fun emotional but like you're very happy because you're like Oh, grandpa, this is my day, this is what I'm doing.

I mean that would be great.

You wouldn’t be afraid of your grandfather or his dad.

So you know what I mean that it's more of a communing with the family.

It's very comforting to think that the loved ones that we have lost come back and visit you on that day, isn't it?

Exactly, so it's a very，very nice spiritual and just a nice moment to have.

On that note，I think we're coming to the end of our talk. I mean Logan you are such a vibrant guest speaker. I enjoyed immensely talking with you and I can't wait to try a lot of the food that you have talked about，especially some of your new-fangled concoctions, and then your more fusion taco menu.

And also for all of our listeners，酒馆的粉丝，如果到Tacolicious去对一个暗号的话，酒馆的特别暗号,还会有特别的小惊喜噢。

And thank you，Logan for giving our listeners that special treat.

Thank you very much for having me it was a pleasure to be on the show, and I'm looking forward to see everybody at the Day of the Dead party.

All right，I can't wait to see all of our listeners there.

And then maybe one day we'll have a taco in Beijing done.

Definitely, definitely. Thank you，Logan for coming to the studio. Thank you.

Thank you, cheers

Cheers. Bye everyone. See you next time.