La Mexicana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We are still here in Kuala Lumpur. Obviously we've been researching and this place kept coming up as "the best" Mexican Restaurant in all of Malaysia.  The claims are that the joint is authentic and that people just love it.

When you walk up, there is the patio on the left, the "inside" seating on the right and the kitchen is straight ahead.  The set-up is pretty cool and inviting.  We were seated inside, not really given an option.  Not a big deal, there were people smoking outside, so we would have chosen inside anyways.  

The specials are in front just before you walk in.  Yes, that large, strange shadow is me.  Specials looked pretty awesome, I might have gone that route, but was really craving some tacos.  Pricing is pretty solid here.  It isn't "cheap," but it is very affordable and I thought the pricing was pretty fair.  Portions are fairly tiny, but we sure didn't leave hungry and I don't think that we over ordered.  

Just before you get to the kitchen there is a little garden.  Seems that they are growing some of their food, particularly the cactus.  They had quite a bit of cactus growing in the garden and offered some cactus dishes.  I think this is so cool.  Really loved seeing the garden.  It was pretty big, I just didn't want to stand in the way and take a bunch of photos since the servers were trying to run food from the kitchen to the tables.  

Here is the detached kitchen.  Clean space.  They really do a great job of keeping the kitchen clean.  Looks good back there.  Really enjoy seeing people keep their working areas as clean as these folks.  Uniforms were very crisp, even in their kitchen and I did see some good hand-washing.  Sadly I cannot say that for very many places that we've been to or seen in Malaysia.   

Next to the kitchen and right outside of our table was this fountain.  It was pretty awesome.  It really looked good.  It was just a nice fountain for such a small center.  I'm a big fan of fountains.  They are full of water and they spray the water.  It's neat.  They even put blue colors to  make it look blue.  

So this is only two pages of the menu.  Obviously the taco pages, aka the important pages.  Corn tortillas are not easy to find here in Malaysia.  We have been looking.  We've tried restaurants, stores, everything.  Anyways, these guys make their own corn tortillas.  They taste fresh and they were pretty darn delicious.  There is a talent here, a solid recipe.  Tortillas like this are no accident.  The variety and choice of tacos was pretty interesting to me.  They really try to stay true to Mexican tacos, but make sure that they are taking local desires into account.  Very well done job on planning this menu.  One thing that also blew me away, is that they had Cholula.  We haven't seen any hot sauce except for Tabasco in Malaysia.  It was cool to see that they are really trying to stay true and branch out from what everyone else is doing.  

We ordered the guacamole appetizer.  It was pretty solid.  No one really got very much because Diane was in extra diva mode and not only made sure she sat at the head of the table to try to gain all the attention, but used almost all of the guacamole on her tacos.  Yeah, it was rude, but we are use to her now.  FYI, the chips are not very good.  They kind of suck, but I really think that is probably the biggest and only food complaint that I have about this place.  They do a pretty nice job.

RATINGS:

COCHINITA PIBIL: 4, the pickled onions on this were so good.  For sure a must eat if you are in the area.  The meat was so good.  It was soft in texture, but was not overcooked or dissolving.  Really love this stuff!

BISTEC CON CHORIZO: 4, this was interesting and caught us off guard.  I normally, as you probably know am not a chorizo fan.  The chorizo with the bistec was a nice touch and they were a good compliment that were pushed to greatness with the salsa!  This was JJ's favorite, I'm really glad that we got it.

PASTOR: 3, I'll argue this is probably the best pastor in Southeast Asia.  It was good.  The pineapple was fresh and grilled, the meat was well marinated and tender.  Sadly it does not get a higher score, because it is compared to pastor all over the world, and it does not hit that high level.  Still, not bad, worth a try.  You should try to eat pastor in as many countries as you can, that's a fact.  

CAMPECHANOS: 4, this was probably my favorite of the tacos.  it was just downright delicious.

GUACAMOLE: 4, this was really good.  The veggies in Malaysia are great.  They are truly organic and you can taste the difference.  These guys don't overdress their guac, they make sure it is tasty, balanced and goes great on Diane's tacos.

SALSAS: 4, they hit every single one of the salsas that hit our table.  The verde was so crazy on point.  They also take the time to match proteins to salsa and that is just great to see.  They pair them perfectly and I appreciate that!  

Yes, pastor gets it's own photo, why, because it's pastor!  All descriptions are on the menu of each item that was rated.  Scores were good, because these guys do a pretty bang up job.  Josh pointed out, it smells like Central America when you walk out of the restaurant's indoor seating.  It was a nice touch to a great restaurant.  Like I said, they match all of the tacos to a salsa and that just scores big points with me.  Flatware is heavy and nice, it is what you'd expect in a fine dining restaurant.  Service was a bit slow, but they were some of the nicest people that we've met.  They really were sweet and really cool.  I had the fresh mango juice and it was so tasty!  They know their juices.  Portions look small, are kind of small, but they were pretty filling.  That was everyone's food except for "Diane the Guac" and we all left full.

Let's go around the table, JJ is looking tough and has become a great friend here on this opening.  Cassie is growing up, ordered tacos and even knows what pastor is after all the Tacoteering she has done.  Diane is being all diva back there and is doing some sweater drop thing off her shoulder.  Josh has that winning smile, beautiful face and looks great.  I look like total crap.  Yeah, I know, I should not let anyone see a photo this bad of me, but it does grab the horrible way that I look.  At least my beard is still with me.  

Thank you to everyone and all for reading.  Last KL blog was a huge hit, hoping we can get some great traffic off of this one.  Re-posts, re-tweets and telling people are always appreciated.  I don't think we will find another KL Tacoteering place, there are very few.  I'm really glad we found this place, it is great and some of the best tacos I've had.  Really, tell your friends to go to this place, check it out and enjoy it!

Today's goodbye/gratuitous photo was just downright fun.  We struggled flagging down a cab to get us back to the hotel.  It was not easy.  Most cabs, even the larger ones would not drive us to the hotel, which was only a 20 minute cab ride away!  A cab driver who would take us finally pulled over and I sat up front with him, everyone else piled in the back.  Here they all are packed into the back of the cab.  It really was great to do some good Tacoteering with these great Tacoteers.  Let's break down this photo: Josh is being smooth and all excited.  Cassie is doing the "am I cute?" smile.  JJ is "keeping it real."  Diane is doing the "wait, my make-up ain't right for this cab ride."

Stay Excellent!

Loco, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I know what you are thinking, yes, this is my first Asian, blog.  Loco is a joint that we stumbled upon in Kuala Lumpur.  Yes, we were out searching for tacos.  I mean, we'd been here for two days, we have to do some Tacoteering.  There is a place that we've heard we have to go to, I've been reading all about it, but that would have required transportation other than our feet.

This is the inside of the restaurant.  They were proudly advertising a pool table upstairs.  They had a number of infused tequilas advertised on a chalkboard.  I stuck with the watermelon water, that was a for sure mistake as it was not very tasty.  Under our table they had some incense going, it was not the most pleasant smell and did not make me want to eat more food.  The place carries only Tabasco for hot sauce.  I don't blame them for the lack of sauces, it is a KL thing.  They are lacking in the hot sauce department.  They are missing out on some great stuff.  They have a chipotle salsa at this restaurant, might have been the best thing that I had here.  It was pretty tasty, spicy, balanced, good.

STOP

We needed to interrupt for a moment and let you enjoy a picture of Josh and me Tacoteering.  I know what you are thinking, "damn these two guys are hot."  Thank you, we are modest and appreciate the staring and glaring, we don't mind the gawking.  It's all good take a moment, soak us in.  Josh's birthday is this week, does he look older?  I don't think so, he still has his youthful glow.

The menu is pretty cool.  There is a good variety, they do try to hit the Mexican dishes.  They do stray off the path a bit and hit some other Latin dishes, but we will absolve them from sin on this one.  We stuck with the street tacos.  We had to try to go with what the Order of the Taco and participants are getting everywhere.  Looking at the menu, don't be alarmed by pricing.  Remember that the prices are in MYR, not dollars.

Table set-ups are pretty neat.  They have the napkins set to look pretty, heavy silverware and the table tops themselves are pretty rad.  I think the decor did a nice job of matching Kuala Lumpur and their overall "Mexican Theme."
RATINGS:
BEEF: 2, not a fan.  No flavor depth, pretty boring and the pieces were so unevenly cut, but they tried to make it look uniform.
CHILI CON CARNE: 3, I don't really know what this was.  I know what chili con carne is, but I don't know what this thing really is.  It was not bad, it almost tastes like mutton, but wasn't.  It gets a 3 because it is unique and something that you should try if you are Tacoteering in Malaysia.
DUCK: 2, a bit sad while eating this one.  I love duck.  I love duck out here in Malaysia, but this duck was not too tasty.  It was tough, but still shredded, the flavor was lacking.
LAMB: 3, oh the lamb out here.  It is a real treat.  It tastes so good.  They don't get higher because it was so far off the reservation from how it would be cooked South of California.
PRAWN: 3,  there was no way I was shying away from the prawn taco.  I was expecting a larger prawn, instead there were a few small prawns in the taco.  It was cooked excellent and the tastes were just on point.  Smooth and good.
CHIPOTLE SALSA: 4, this was some pretty good stuff.  It had a light smoky flavor with a soft smell.  It kicked you a little in the front but finished smooth with a little tingle at the very end in your throat.

Kudos to these guys for hitting local fare.  They made sure that the offerings line up well with the food that the locals would eat, but still try to go true to what the tourist would want.  Flour tortillas, yeah, I'm still not a fan.  I mean, they have their place, but not on a street taco.  These were really thin flour tortillas, and I did kind of like them, but NOT FOR STREET TACOS.  Man, this is burning me up still.  I don't get all the "stuff" they put on the tacos.  If you want to call it street tacos and put words like Tijuana on the menu, then make a true street taco.  Call it something else if you want to make it with all this kind of stuff like corn, tomato, sauce, lettuce and whatever else was on this thing.  Side note, there is corn in darn near every dish out here, but NO corn tortillas, not even in the grocery store, these poor souls are missing out on a gift.

The background had a VHS quality recording of music videos from the 90's.  It was not much of my speed.  The place was clean, the staff was a bit aloof, but very polite and nice while we were there.

Thank you to everyone reading, we are going to try to hit another place here in Malaysia soon before I get back to the US.  Please tell your friends, show them the blog, re-post, re-tweet.  If you hate this thing, tell the people you don't like.  All publicity is appreciated.

Today's goodbye/gratuitous photo is of the Petronas Towers.  This is the view that I have from my hotel room at night at the Istana Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.  It is not the worse thing to see before you go to bed at night, but sure isn't as majestic as the picture of Josh and I above!

Stay Excellent!